Ruth Morrison
Ruth Morrison was a widely attractive and bright young Liverpool girl who in 1958 managed to catch the attentions of a young boy named George Harrison in a big way. He had always been flirty with the local schoolgirls and talked of girls with his mates, but he'd never been totally hooked on a girl until he met Ruth. As his friend Ken brown recalled "George had never really been too keen on girls. He was only sixteen and at the Liverpool Institute with Paul McCartney. Later, he seemed to go head over heels for Ruth."
Luckily for George, Ruth returned his affections and they started a very chaste romance which consisted entirely of hand holding and kissing but never went any further than that.
It was partially thanks to Ruth that George finally got to play a proper full gig with his mate John Lennon's band (John thought him far too young to join the band properly but he was so impressed with his playing that he occasionally let him guest on a few numbers), and that The Beatles got their gigs at the newly opening Casbah Club which Ruth and her gang of friends were helping the Best family to decorate. Back at that time George was gigging with his friend Ken Brown who remembers: "It was the summer of 1958 and Harrison and i were playing in the Les Stewart Quartet with a chap called Skinner. We spent hours practicing in the Lowlands Club, Heyman's Green. We would have probably gone on playing at clubs, but for George's girlfriend, Ruth... One evening the three of us were sitting in the Lowlands, drinking coffee, moaning about the fact that we had nowhere regular to play when Ruth suggested we see Mrs. Best at the Casbah. She promised that the Les Stewart Quartet would play at the club when it opened." As it turned out their fellow band mate refused to play the gig after an argument with Ken, so he and George had to find a quick replacement in order to make up the band and keep their engagement. "As we were walking down the road, I turned to George and said : 'we can't let Mrs. Best down now. Let's try and get a group together ourselves. Do you know anyone?' 'There's two mates I sometimes play with out at Speke,' ventured George. 'Okay, let's ask them,' I said, and George went off on the bus, joining me two hours later at the Casbah with his two mates - John Lennon and Paul McCartney... I told them we would each be paid fifteen bob a night. They seemed glad about that; in those days most groups played just for experience."
Ken was a close friend of Ruth's and remembers how Ruth was mad about George, but both he and Paul McCartney were so into their music that they didn't have much time for girls. "In those days, Paul was not very interested in girls - he took one or two to the pictures, but that was all. He was in love with music. George was the same. Ruth was crazy over him, but he did not bother very much with her. George and Paul both thought it a great laugh that John was so keen on Cynthia."
After her romance with George ended she decided on the career path of a nurse and moved to Birmingham to pursue it.
SOURCES: various Beatles and George Harrison biographies and an interview with Ken Brown in 1965
**** **** **** **** **** **** ****
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.