MAUREEN

Ringo relies on her a great deal - and she's prepared, in her quiet, competent, shy way, to be just the wife of a Beatle . . . with no special fanfares or publicity for the girl who was Maureen Cox.

Now that she has been headlined in all the papers and known what it is to be famous, she is quite content to be just a shadow behind a star.

Since her marriage, and the news which followed about the baby, she has been inundated with requests to open garden fetes, church bazaars and jumble sales. Even to model maternity wear.

Someone went so far as to try to start a campaign to make her Mother of the Year.

But all the invitations and offers have been politely turned down.

The world knows little of Maureen Cox. Even at the wedding reception and that much publicised honeymoon press conference, nearly all the talking was done by Ringo. When she did say anything it was brief and to the point.

What is this attractive, dark-haired, ex-hairdressing apprentice from Ashley Duprez Continental Hair Styling Salon in Liverpool's Beck Road, really like?

Why did Richie (her name for him) choose the eighteen year old home-town girl and daughter of a ship's steward to be his wife?

It was while playing his drums at the original Cavern in 1962 that Ringo first spotted her among five hundred girls. She was then fifteen.

It wasn't love at first sight. Like any other girl, Midge had plenty of ates. One of them, who is now a good friend of them both, was Peter Hepworth at present a co-director of Cavern Sounds Lit., the club's record-making section.

The toughest years for Midge were when The Beatles were climbing the ladder of success and any linking of their names with girls was enough to send Brian Epstein climbing up the wall.

In those days, when the couple were falling truly in love, Midge and Richie had to be content with surreptitious meetings in Liverpool's dimly-lit Blue Angel club.

But when her existance started to become known, she gave up her job and often used to visit Ringo in London. She always had to get permission from home for these trips. Her dad would say, "No," so she'd wrangle a "Yes" from her mum.

How is married life suiting her? "I'm finding it wonderful," she has told friends.

Ringo relies on Maureen possibly more than the other Beatles on their partners. She shares his stamina for staying out all night - though they're not the night birds they were, now that the baby is on the way.

Maureen is very brisk, efficient and competent. At present she is learning to cook properly.

"I'm in my new, lavish kitchen as much as possible, fiddling about an experimenting."

When Ringo is at home, Midge is first up in the morning. She makes him a "cuppa" and then gets the breakfast.

A Problem Midge has beaten is loneliness because Richie has to be away so much.

Her biggest ally is the telephone. She spends hours ringing and taking calls from friends like Cyn Lennon and others in the new set she has joined in London.

And hardly a month passes without Midge sneaking away North on a visit to her parents in their corporation flat in Boundary Street, by the docks.

On these visits she meets up with her old girl friends and has coffee and cakes in the corner Kardomah cafe' in Whitechapel.

She also cuts and sets hair for her intimate friends and occasionally takes her comb and scissors to the home of Ringo's parents to "do" for her mother-in-law.

Ringo has said that one day he'd like to start a chain of hairdressing salons, so Maureen's experience will be valuable then.

Maureen likes simple clothes and prefers to wear black. Her favourite is "the little black dress". Although she looks like the average London mod, underneath she's very much the girl from Liverpool who finds herself in London.

She washes her hair every day and is very keen on eye make-up and doing her nails - but she's content to be a housewife, too.

Naturally, music provides the background for Midge's life now.

The popularity of Ringo's marriage has been an eye-opener for the Beatle management. Well wishing cards and presents are still arriving for the couple - from all round the world.

Midge, who has won the heart of a Beatle and the whole pop world as well, is dedicated to being a wife and mother.

"I don't care if I have a boy or a girl. Being a mother and being happily married is just about as much as any girl can wish for," she says.