Mary Elizabeth "Mimi" Smith (née Stanley; 24 April 1906 – 6 December 1991) was a maternal aunt and the parental guardian of the English musician John Lennon.

On 15 September 1939 she married George Toogood Smith who ran his family's dairy farm and a shop in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool.

He lived with the Smiths for most of his childhood and remained close to his aunt, even though she was highly dismissive of his musical ambitions, his girlfriends and wives.

[9][10] George Ernest Stanley and Annie Millward were married at St Peter's Church, Liverpool (since demolished) on 19 November 1906.

[15][16][17] After the birth of his daughters, Stanley stopped going to sea and got a job with the Liverpool and Glasgow Tug Salvage Company as an insurance investigator.

According to Beatles biographer Bob Spitz, Mimi assumed a matriarchal role in the Stanley house to help her mother, and dressed "as if she was on her way to a weekly garden club meeting".

[17][19] When other girls were thinking of marriage, Smith talked of challenges and adventures that arose from her attitude of "stubborn independence", and often said that she never wanted to get married because she hated the idea of being "tied to the kitchen sink".

[20] She became a resident trainee nurse at the Woolton Convalescent Hospital, and later worked as a private secretary for Ernest Vickers, who was an industrial magnate with businesses in Manchester and Liverpool.

They bought a semi-detached house called Mendips – named after the range of hills – at 251 Menlove Avenue, in a middle-class area of Liverpool.

[22] Menlove Avenue suffered extensive damage during World War II, and Mimi said that she often had to throw a wet blanket on incendiary bombs that fell in the garden.

[16] Smith later left the milk trade and started a small bookmaker's business, which led Mimi to complain later that he was a compulsive gambler and had lost most of their money.

[25] Smith phoned the Oxford Street Maternity Hospital that evening and was told that Julia had given birth to a boy.

[26] According to Smith, she went straight to the hospital "as fast as [her] legs could carry me",[23] during the middle of an air raid, and was forced to hide in doorways to avoid the shrapnel.

[27] After Julia separated from her husband, she and the infant Lennon moved in with her new partner, John Albert "Bobby" Dykins.

[17] However, Smith twice contacted Liverpool's Social Services and complained about John sleeping in the same bed as Julia and Dykins.

[33] Every summer between 1949 and 1955, Smith sent John alone on a ten-hour bus journey to visit his Aunt Mater and her family at their home near Loch Meadie in Durness, on the north coast of Scotland.

[39][21][40] Three years later, Julia was killed on Menlove Avenue when she was knocked down by a car driven by an off-duty police officer, PC Eric Clague.

Clague was acquitted of all charges, given a reprimand and a short suspension from duty;[41] when Smith heard the verdict, she shouted "Murderer!"

They want me to speak more Liverpool.” [43] Despite the talk of Lennon being working class – as were Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – he later rejected the idea, saying, "I was a nice clean-cut suburban boy.

[46] Julia, who knew that her son would be performing, heard music coming from the field behind the church (now the site of the Bishop Martin School), and pulled Smith along with her to listen.

Smith related two versions of what she thought that day after seeing him on stage: "I was horrified to behold John in front of a microphone", and "as pleased as Punch to see him up there".

[48] With help from Smith and John's headmaster, Lennon was accepted into the Liverpool College of Art because his aunt insisted that he should have some sort of academic qualifications, even though he was beginning to show an interest in music.

[50] John and Paul often met at Mendips to write songs, and rehearsed in the glass-panelled porch at the front of the house, which was the only place where they were allowed to play.

"[52] The band's first residency in Hamburg exasperated her because she wanted Lennon to continue his studies, but he placated her by greatly exaggerating the sum of money he would earn.

[57] In summer 1962, Cynthia discovered that she was pregnant with Lennon's child and he proposed marriage;[58] Smith attempted to stop him going through with it by threatening never to speak to him again.

[61] After the Lennons had been living at Brian Epstein's flat for a few months (and after hearing about Cynthia's near-miscarriage), Mimi offered to rent her downstairs back room to them.

Smith sternly criticised Cynthia for both divorcing Lennon and letting him start a relationship with Yoko Ono, saying she should have stopped him from making "an idiot of himself".