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| Photo by Yvonne Corrao found on the Beatlefan facebookpage |
Today we remember our dear Beatle roadie and friend, Mal Evans. It always makes me so so whenever I think about his death, so let us celebrate Mal for the joyful, gentle giant and friend to the Beatles and their fans.
The death of Mal hit Beatle fan pretty hard in 1976. I think after Brian, Mal was the 2nd Beatle person to have died and being such a friend to Beatle fans around the world, the fans did not know what to do to express their love for Mal. The wonderful fanzine, With a little Help from my Friends, took over from there and I will reproduce for you what was written in the April 1976 (issue 14) magazine.
Remember last issue we asked everyone to pitch in and help us get flower to be sent to Mal's parents to have them put on his grave? We're sure everyone would like to hear the outcome of that. First of all, many thanks to all those people who chipped in -- it's wonderful so many of you out there thought as much of Mal as we did. We started out with a slight problem. We didn't have his parent's address! All we knew was the name of the street and that they lived in Liverpool. We knew this from an article in the Liverpool Echo. Pat's friend in Surrey, Margaret, came up with the brainstorm of writing them a letter, sending it to c/o her, she'd forward it on to Freda Kelly, and if anyone would know their address, it would probably be here Anyway, it worked! Here is the letter Pat got in reply. They've graciously given us permission to print it, and we're sure it'll touch you as much as it did us.
April 12, 1976
My Dear Miss Simmons,
Thank you so much for your very welcome letter. May I call you Pat? Well Pat, I was in bed when Joan (my wife) came upstairs, and I knew she was pleased, she said that she had a letter from Malcolm's friends in America. It had been posted in Liverpool so Freda Kelly had forwarded it on to us, you know my dear you have no idea what that letter has done for us.
We have been so down since Malcolm's death, we loved our son so much, and when we heard how he had died we were completely shattered and stunned, he was such a good boy, always kind and considerate to everybody, he never deserved to die the way he did. Somehow we just can't believe he is dead, and we seems as if we have lost part of our life too, all we do have of him are so many pleasant memories. We have received so many n ice letters of sympathy from friends and really we cannot thank you enough for your very welcome letters. Please give our deepest regards to all your friends and thank them so much for remembering Malcolm.
Mackie (as we call him) loved children and I do know he was very unhappy being away from his own children, but we do know he would never harm any child or that matter, anybody, no he was a gentle giant.
My wife Joan collects for charity in aid of the Liverpool Alderhey Children's Hospital Kidney Fund and when people and friends wanted to send flowers and wreaths, we asked them if they would send money instead because we thought it would do more good for the children and we do know that Malcolm would be pleased if this was done.
Yes Malcolm was a great Beatles fan. He would never hear a word wrong about the boys. He was very loyal like yourselves, he thought them the greatest.
Malcolm's ashes were scattered in Garden of Remembrance in London near his home, then we had a beautiful service here in Liverpool. People were so kind and we do know that our dear son was well liked and respected. Well Pat the wife and I do appreciate your very kind letter and if you ever feel like writing to me and the wife do so and you can assured of a reply by return post.
Malcolm was a GPO Engineer before he met the Beatles and we were rather dismayed at first when he packed everything up for them. Still he travelled the world with them and was with them at their peak. I'm sure it's what he wanted and let me just say he lived for them.
I really could go on for ever about him. I idolized him and so did we all at home. Well, Pat, thanks again and once again thank all your friends. God Bless you all.
Yours sincerely,
Fred Evans (Mal's Dad)
It's only appropriate that such a wonderful person as Mal would have equally wonderful parents. Anyway, rather than send flowers as we'd originally planned, we're going to do what Mr. Evans suggested -- pool the money we collected from everyone and send it to them for the Kidney Fund, which we're sure everyone will agree is a beautiful cause. The money will be used to buy a small TV set for the children to watch. Mr. and Mrs. Evans are even having a rose bush planted in the Garden of Remembrance for us. The reason that we printed their addresses by the way is that Mr. Evans has said if anyone wants to write him and tell him about your own personal talks with Mal, he'd love to hear about them -- or if you've taken any photos of Mal, he'd love to have copies. Here's a little idea of our own -- it would be a thoughtful idea if you are going to write him to enclose a couple fo reply coupons as it would help them out on the postage. Mal had so many friends over here that we've forewarned them that they may get barraged with mail! So we think it would be a nice idea to at least help them out with the postage a little. Please do write--they really would love to hear form all of you. Thanks people! By the way, they are graced with the knowledge that our club and these wonderful newsletters exist --- well, we had to explain somehow of how we managed to have friends in so many different states! Two more understanding people there could never be! Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Evans!