LOUISE HARRISON, 82 LIVES BROKE AND ALONE IN RURAL MISSOURI

(Daily Mail) - Sister of late Beatle George Harrison, 82, lives broke and alone in rural Missouri after his family 'cut her out of his $300million will and stopped the allowance he paid to support her'

• Louise Harrison - the sister of late-Beatle George Harrison is living in a very modest home in rural Missouri
• The 82-year-old lives alone and has been cut-off from the music legends will
• She still has to work - managing a Beatles tribute band out of her home in Branson
• Claims to not be bitter that she was cut off from a $2,000 monthly pension after the Beatle died from cancer in November 2001
• No longer has any contact with her sister-in-law Olivia or nephew Dhani

George Harrison was worth more than $300 million when he died, but the music legend's 82-year-old sister now struggles to get by - living in a pre-fabricated home in small-town near Branson, Missouri - practically a million miles away from the glamor of Beatlemania.

While her brother lived in a lavish 120-room Victorian mansion outside London, which he left to wife Olivia and son Dhani when he died in November 2001, sister Louise Harrison has been cut-off from the family, leaving her unable to support herself without working - managing a touring Beatles tribute band.

However, displaying the quiet stoicism which her brother was world-famous for, Louise claims in the best traditions of the 1960s supergroup that all she needs is love, because she 'doesn't mind not living in a castle because she would rather be broke than live rich and heartless.'

Circled is the Branson, Missouri property that Louise Harrison calls home - the proud Liverpudlian - who has lived in American for over 50-years says she wants nothing from the family of her famous brother

Gifted a $2,000 a month pension by her brother for tax reasons in 1980 to help her get by, Louise who lives alone near to gritty Branson, found herself unceremoniously cut off by her brother's estate almost a year to the day he died of complications from lung cancer in 2001.

Louise found this sum of money to be adequate for her lifestyle.

She was given not given a reason why by her brother's widow Olivia or son, Dhani, who is now 35, but Louise said she knows that if her brother was still alive she would be receiving the money.

'But I don't care about the money, it's been over ten years and I haven't made any ripples,' said Louise, who has lived in the United States for more than 50-years - moving here with her first husband before the Beatles rocketed to world fame in 1964.

 

'It was my pension from him - it was his intention to make it last my lifetime.'

'He said, 'Given my financial situation, there is no reason on earth why my sister should ever be in need.

'But I was never concerned about the termination of the pension, I have found a way to make a living.

'I don't have any blame for anyone and I was brought up as a Harrison and to be self-reliant.'

Louise relives and revels in the glory days of the Fab-Four's rise to fame with the Liverpool Legends, the tribute band she manages.

Touring with them regularly, she does make appearances with the band and entertains the crowds after shows with her fond recollections of her brother and of course, John, Paul and Ringo.

However, with the end of the touring schedule, business has been slow and money has become tough - with Louise this month alone having to gift a down-payment on a new car to her grandson after his fiancé crashed and wrote-off his other vehicle.

'I am struggling for money, like everyone, but I am not on the breadline, I am not 'skint' as they would say in Britain,' said Louise.

'But, I feel very fortunate to own outright the land that my two homes sit on - which is better than most.'

While, Missouri has a checkered reputation as a den of meth-production and drug addiction, thankfully Louise claims that she has seen none of that in her neighborhood of Merriam Woods.

'I own the land which my house stands and my neck-of-the-woods is carefully managed by the local-assembly-men and a vigilant police force,' said Louise.

Despite this, Merriam Woods is a world away from George Harrison's huge mansion Friar Park in Henley-on-Thames, which conservative estimates value at $40 million.

Louise has fondly spoken often in the past of growing up with her little brother in a small terraced Liverpool home.

George was the youngest of four children and was doted on by his elder siblings.

'George was a smashing kid, always smiling. He was a great brother,' she said in an interview to this publication in 2009.

'I was very protective of him, he was just my little kid baby brother.'

Louise moved to Illinois with her Scottish mining engineer husband, Gordon Caldwell and had two children in the late 1950s.

Meanwhile, back in Britain, George met a young man named Paul McCartney and together they joined a band named The Quarrymen, which was one of the first names The Beatles tried out.

In October 1962, Love Me Do was released in the UK and the nation became gripped by the four mop-tops and their sensational style.

However, at that moment, the band was unknown in America - which was a situation that their equally storied manager Brian Epstein hoped to change.

Louise, stepped up to the task and she took it upon herself to visit every small-town DJ she could, asking them to play her 'kid brother's band's' songs.

Incredibly, she got their hit From Me To You played on a local Illinois radio station in June 1963 - the first known example of The Beatles getting airplay in the United States.

• When George Harrison died in 2001 he left the vast majority of his $300 million fortune to his wife Olivia and son Dhani.
• He gave 10 percent to the Hare Krishna faith he famously embraced in the 1960s
• His assets included a series of properties around the world including one on Hamilton Island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef - and a secluded ocean-front home on the Hawaiian island of Maui
• He also owned Friar Park - a 120-room mansion in Henley-on-Thames where he was stabbed by a crazed intruder in 1999
• His estate also included the rights to his hit songs, including 'My Sweet Lord' - which was part of his mega-hit triple album, 'All Things Must Pass'.

She still has letters from Brian Epstein, expressing gratitude for how she helped them break America.

'I did all I could to help my kid brother,' she says. In 1963, George spent two weeks at Louise's home.

He was able to walk the streets unrecognized, he went camping and played with a local band in front of a small crowd of 150.

Five months later he returned to the U.S. with The Beatles to appear on The Ed Sullivan show - and the history of popular music changed forever.

Louise traveled to New York to see her now world-famous brother and met John, Ringo and Paul and eventually George's then girlfriend, Patti Boyd - who he would end up writing Something for.

Louise recalls that the moniker of the Quiet Beatle was bestowed on her brother - for the wrong reasons.

George was in fact suffering a strep throat at the time and as a result couldn't speak to the press or address the hordes of screaming girls who had flocked to see him.

The brother and sister spent the 1960s and the 1970s very close, but George reportedly distanced himself from her in the mid-Nineties, however - because he disapproved of the conversion of her old Illinois home into a 'Beatles bed-and-breakfast' inn, called A Hard Day's Night.

Louise does not own the establishment, but did use her name to help promote it because the town had fallen on hard times.

She was says that she was trying to help them economically.

George with His Parents Harold And Louise Harrison at home in Liverpool

When George lay dying in hospital in Staten Island more than 10 years ago they reunited.

Louise was led into a room where she found a familiar, though diminished figure propped up in a reclining chair, clinging to life.

The only other people present were Olivia and her sister Linda, Dhani.

They left Louise and George to hold hands and reconcile for 90 minutes.

'George was pretty frail, yet he was also still vibrant,' she recalled in a 2002 interview.

'His eyes were still bright. He was still George. He must have been in pain, but he didn't show it. We reminisced about our childhood, and his sense of humor was the same as ever.

'People always teased him about his sticky-out ears; now his oxygen tubes were hanging over them. He laughed and said: 'My ears finally came in useful for something.'

As their time together drew to a close, George humbly apologized to his sister. 'You know, I could have been a lot more help to you; I'm sorry,' he told her.

They parted with what she calls a 'Harrison hug'. George smiled weakly. 'Remember to pass it on, sis,' he bade her; she promised she would.