John Lennon fans gather at Strawberry Fields to remember fallen idol, who was murdered ...
Dedicated fans of the legendary Beatles musician John Lennon converged on Strawberry Fields in Central Park Sunday to dance, sing and remember the icon’s tragic death 44 years ago.
The grassroots gathering — which drew Beatlemaniacs from around the globe — sprung forth as it does every year on the 2.5-acre tract of impeccably manicured lawn named for one of the Beatles’ most famous songs.
“For the last 44 years, we’ve celebrated his life,” said Quent Kelleher, a 60-year-old native New Yorker who comes to the same spot every year on the anniversary of Lennon’s Dec. 8, 1980 murder outside his home a short distance from the park.
“My best friend called me up that night — he lives around the corner — and told me [Lennon] was shot,” Kelleher told The Post. “And we came out here that night, and we’ve been coming out here [since].”
“We’ve even had binoculars and seen Yoko Ono looking out the window up there watching,” Kelleher said, gesturing to The Dakota Apartments on 72nd Street, where she and Lennon lived before his death.
The music icon was fatally shot just before 11 p.m. that night under an archway in front of his building by Mark David Chapman, who later said he killed the 40-year-old Lennon because he wanted fame and had “evil in my heart.”
Source: Valentina Jaramillo/nypost.com
