Lennon’s Fans Recall His Message on 10th Anniversary of Death

They sat cross-legged on a street corner in Hollywood, hands locked in peace signs, eyes sad and dreamy, faces painted with flowers. The air smelled of patchouli oil. Above them was a Christ-like portrait of John Lennon in granny glasses and a halo.

“Oh my God. I looked like that 20 years ago,” Linda Iodence, 36, said, gazing at the circle of young people who sang softly and swayed to a recording of “Give Peace a Chance” coming from a nearby boom box.

It was 10 years ago Saturday that Lennon, the “thinking man’s Beatle” whose poetry and music helped launch a cultural revolution, was shot twice in the back by a deranged fan who had asked for an autograph only hours before.

More than 100 people gathered on Vine Street for a flower vigil at the site of Lennon’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where they come to remember the message as much as the man.

“I love John Lennon and I love peace, and this is where I should be,” said Iodence, who drove 1 1/2 hours from Corona del Mar. “I have Christmas shopping and I have responsibilities, but my heart is here.”

The tributes were global for the artist who inspired a generation with a simple message of peace and love, even if he caused outrage in some quarters with the suggestion that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.

In New York, hundreds of Lennon fans left flowers at a makeshift memorial in Strawberry Fields, the section of Central Park opposite the Manhattan apartment building where Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman on Dec. 8, 1980.

In Lennon’s hometown of Liverpool, England, a plaque was dedicated in his memory at the Beatles Museum. In the Soviet Union, a TV news program broadcast its weather forecast to the tune of the Beatles’ hit “Yesterday.”

In Los Angeles, it was a scene reminiscent of the 1960s, slightly dogged by the ‘90s. As one man hummed along to “Imagine” and stared at a candle, his companion promised to deck the next person who tried to cut into her space on the crowded sidewalk. A group of Beatle impersonators talked in fake Cockney accents and handed out tickets to their upcoming performance, which cost $8 at the door.

If the mission was to keep Lennon’s legacy of goodwill alive in a world perched once again on the brink of war, it appeared to have succeeded, if only for a few hours. What else would have moved a 47-year-old computer programmer from Encino, a psychotherapist in high-top sneakers and a homeless man with a handful of incense to spend half an hour discussing peace, love and destiny on a Hollywood street corner?

“I went drunk for two weeks after I heard he was dead,” the homeless man said sadly, a purple Iris in his hand. “I knew my best friend was gone. The best friend I had never met.”

“This is what John Lennon was about,” psychotherapist Sharon Sumpter said. “He brought people together and touched them. Like a chain of souls.”

By early afternoon, Lennon’s star was covered with flowers donated by several radio stations, a group working to ban handguns and Alliance for Survival, which organized the tribute. The bouquets were to be donated to several local hospitals and an AIDS hospice center.

Chapman is serving 20 years to life at Attica State Prison in New York for Lennon’s death. He recently apologized for the killing.

“It was an end of innocence for that time and I regret being the one who ended it,” he said.