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.