Ex-Beatle's sister recalls his Southern Illinois visit

ST. LOUIS -- Not long after settling in Southern Illinois in 1963, an ocean from her native England, Louise Harrison Caldwell trudged from one radio station to the next lobbying for air time for her brother's quartet. Revered in Britain, the group was virtually unknown in America -- and her promotion fizzled.

So it was that her "kid brother" George Harrison was able to anonymously walk Benton's streets and jam with a local band when he visited his older sister for two weeks that fall. Just five months later, folks in Benton, population 7,000, likely were kicking themselves for not snagging the vacationing Brit's autograph or photo as proof they saw him standing there.

A half-century ago today, George Harrison and the Beatles conquered America, playing live to 73 million television viewers of "The Ed Sullivan Show" in a gig that launched the British invasion. Decades later, it's Louise Harrison's former rural Illinois town that's so eager to trumpet its history-making link to the late Liverpool musician whom locals once viewed with curiosity, if only for his accent.

"I find it even more amusing 50 years later," Louise Harrison, 82, said recently by telephone, waxing nostalgic about brother George's Illinois visit that made him the first Beatle in America.

Few around Benton -- long known as the site of Illinois' last public hanging -- could have known they were rubbing elbows with greatness when George Harrison came to the heart of Illinois coal country. That's where his older sister settled with her Scottish husband, an engineer with a local coal mine.

The Beatles, from left, George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, during their first U.S. tour in 1964. Today marks the 50th anniverary of the band’s famous appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” (Associated Press)

The Beatles, lighting up the pop charts in England, were on holiday -- John Lennon in Paris, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in Greece. Starr was to have accompanied Harrison to Benton but backed out, as Louise Harrison puts it, after concluding her arranging for them to be interviewed on an area television show constituted work.

By that time, Louise had pressed regional radio stations to give the Beatles' records sent to her by her mother a whirl. As a teen staffing the WFRX station her dad managed in nearby West Frankfort, Ill., Marcia Raubach gave Louise Harrison a break and spun "From Me to You" -- believed to be the Beatles' first U.S. air time.

Then along came George.

Traveling with other brother Peter, he blended in with Benton, aside from the British accent Louise says made them appear "exotic" in the blue-collar town. Decked out in a dark suit, white shirt and no tie, he jammed with a local group at a veterans' hall and later at a bocce ball club, getting introduced as the "Elvis of England" at a time when Hank Williams, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole ruled the region.

Harrison stopped by a record shop. He bought a Rickenbacker electric guitar -- something hard to find back home -- and had the store owner change the instrument's color from red to black so it matched Lennon's. Much of the rest of the time, Harrison stayed at his sister's digs at 113 McCann St., a four-bedroom bungalow.

With her kid brother in tow, Louise Harrison went back to WFRX with a copy of the Beatles' newly released "She Loves You." Raubach again aired the single and interviewed George, chronicling it later in the high school newspaper.

"He was unusual looking," Raubach, now a 67-year-old grandmother, recalls of the skinny foreigner who wore jeans, a white shirt and sandals. "He dressed differently than the guys here. He was very soft-spoken and polite," and particularly impressed with her dad's black Oldsmobile Delta 88 with the tailfins and drive-in restaurants with waitresses on roller skates.

She never imagined she was in the presence of eventual rock royalty.

"None of us grasped the significance" of Harrison's visit, she said. "If we had only known."

Before leaving the station, Harrison handed her a promotional photo of the Beatles, scrawling "Love from George Harrison" on its back. She still has that copy of "She Loves You" and, in hindsight, a thought about the question she should have asked him: Will the Beatles still be together in a decade?

"But who was looking ahead at that time?" she said. "I don't think anyone knew how big they were going to be or what influence they'd have."

George Harrison never returned to Benton after their "Ed Sullivan" appearance, but the town never forgot him. In September, on what Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn declared a statewide "George Harrison Day," the town unveiled a historical marker honoring the late Beatle's visit 50 years earlier.

On hand was Louise Harrison, who after her famous brother's death from cancer in 2001 launched the Beatles-minded Liverpool Legends. The traveling tribute band worked the theater circuit in southwest Missouri's entertainment mecca of Branson, where Louise Harrison lived until moving to Florida.

Not that she thinks her brother's legacy has faded, even if his role in the Beatles was overshadowed by McCartney and Lennon.

"I think that when you consider some of the influences around in society, they're not all very, very positive," she said. "But the Beatles wrote good, quality and truthful music -- music about love, peace, compassion and caring for each other and the health of the planet. It's nice to know that 50 years later, people still appreciate that."