The Autographs of the Real Eleanor RigbyEleanor Rigby is one of the best loved songs on the Beatles album Revolver, considered by many fans and critics to be the best album the Beatles or anyone else ever recorded. Most sources credit Paul McCartney as primary writer, but John Lennon complicated the issue just before he died in 1980 when he said "the first verse was his and the rest are basically mine." Paul gives credit to John for "half a line."  Regardless, the song is one of the most beautiful sad songs ever recorded.Paul McCartney continues to firmly deny that Eleanor Rigby was a real person. He has always said that he began writing the song around a character by the name of Miss Daisy Hawkins, but abandoned that name for Eleanor Rigby because "I just liked the name. I was looking for a name that sounded natural. Eleanor Rigby sounded natural." As Paul explains, the inspiration for "Eleanor" came from the actress Eleanor Bron, who appeared in the Beatles film, "Help!" He took the name "Rigby" from a store in Bristol, England called "Rigby & Evens Ltd, Wine & Spirit Shippers." It would be an amazing coincidence if Paul pieced together a name that just happened to be the name of a real person who's grave was very close to the spot where he first met John Lennon. (During their teenage years, Paul and John also spent a lot of time hanging around the area, "sunbathing" as Paul has calls it.) Just a few yards from the grave near St Peter's Church is the tombstone of a man named McKenzie: Father McKenzie, writing the words to a sermon that no-one will hear According to Paul, he found the name "McKenzie" in his phone book after using the name "Father McCartney" in the first stage of composition. He changed the name because he didn't want us to believe that his father was sad and lonely. If Paul's recollections are factual one should wonder why he owned a document signed by an "E. Rigby," the same E. Rigby who is buried in that cemetery near where Paul first met John. The document signed is a 1911 payroll sheet acknowledging receipt of wages. She worked as a maid at Liverpool City Hospital, washing pots and pans. The image mostly fits the character, but she was only 16 years old at the time, hardly an age where she should have thought that her life was was destined to be empty and alone.  Why did Paul own the document? Why did he donate it to a charity in 1990 when he knew what the perception would be? The document was auctioned off on November 27, 2008 for $177,000. The auction house, Fame Bureau, believes that the signature belongs to the lady who was buried in 1939 in the cemetery near where Paul first met John. Paul's response, ""If someone wants to spend money buying a document to prove that a fictitious character exists, that's fine with me." However, Paul has said in the past that the blurring of reality with imagination could have been a product of his subconscious. A textbook with the signature of "Eleanor Rigby" has been discovered in Liverpool. Research has shown that the signature is that of Eleanor Rigby Woods. She was born only a mile from Paul McCartney's childhood home.  Eleanor married Thomas Woods, a railroad foreman, in 1930. She was thirty-five years old when she married, an age that would have been considered late in life. She was seventeen years younger than her husband. There are no records of any children born during the marriage. Elanor died on October 10, 1939. She was buried in the family plot near St. Peter's Church that was purchased by her grandfather, John Rigby. Her portion of the crowded tombstone reads "Also Eleanor Rigby The Beloved wife of Thomas Woods and Granddaughter of the above died 10 Oct 1939 Age 44 Years Asleep." Considering that she married late in life to a considerable older man and never had children, it is plausible that she was lonely for much of her life. All the lonely people
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