Three years his junior, fair, blonde, petite and schooled at St
Anthony of Padua secondary school in Mossley Hill, Patricia Davies
began dating Ringo Starr in his teddy-boy days. She was his first
"official girlfriend" and known to him and her best friend Pricilla
White (who later found fame as Cilla Black) simply as "Pat". She
shared young Pricilla's glamorous ambition to become a hairdresser
and :
"...that meant finding someone to practice on, but
neither of our mum's would let us near their hair. The only woman we
ever met who didn't mind us doing the practical work on her was
Ringo's mother, Elsie Starkey. On Wednesday nights we went 'round to
her house and she was the soul of patience. She let us bleach her
hair and do terrible things to it, but she never once complained. She
also gave us our tea - either boiled ham or spam and home made chips.
Mrs Starkey was a fantastic lady..."
Not much is known about her and Ringo as a couple, but when the 17
year old Richard suddenly found himself busy with his new band and
decided it would be best if they parted company, the two liked each
other well enough to stay amicable. Pat had suited Ringo down to the
ground because they both shared a great love of music, and she
frequented all the popular music clubs in the early Merseybeat days.
During the "Pete Best riots" of 1962 when Ringo joined The Beatles,
Pat could be found stood next to Cilla suporting her ex-boyfriend by
loudly yelling "Pete never, Ringo FOREVER!". Shortly after that Ringo
was dating a qualified hairdresser called
Maureen Cox, but he still saw a lot of
Patricia because she was a regular at the Zodiac Cellar where the
couple frequented.
As all the old crowd became famous and moved down to London, so
did Pat. She got a job in the music business, and spent her free time
shopping and meeting for lunch with Cilla. The two always stayed best
of friends and Pat was present at both the private and official
weddings of Cilla and Bobby Willis. During the seventies Pat was such
a regular visitor at the Wiliis' home in Denham that she had her own
set of keys and became the unofficial house sitter, nanny and
substitute mother to the couple's increasing family. Christmas was
always spent there as the still single Miss Davies had no immediate
family. During the pilot show for Surprise Surprise (a British
TV show hosted by Cilla Black), the two giggling friends had their
fortunes told by a Jamaican lady who collected their auras and
predicted that Pat would go to America and stay there. Robert Ben and
Jack Willis eventually lost their second, bossy mother - who had once
made them ill by forcing them to eat a meal that their dad had "half
cooked" for them.
Davies left England with an American TV executive, whom she
married in the early eighties, and they now live in New York. In the
early nineties she appeared on a TV special celebrating Cilla's
career and was seen walking through a recreation of the Cavern,
recalling the days when she had stood there defending Ringo to a mob
of angry Pete Best fans. Cilla Black recalled,
"Pat has been a wonderful friend to us all, and she has a heart of
gold."
As written by
sentstarr@hotmail.com, edited by
the webmaster.