Maureen Starr-Mary Cox was born August 4, 1946 in Liverpool, England.She wanted to be a hairdresser and manicurist and dreamed of one day running her own salon. She managed to secure herself a job as a junior apprentice at a well respected salon called Ashley Dupre Continental Hair and Beauty Salon in Liverpool and attended frequent training classes after work. .One day on the way to a hairdressing class Maureen spotted her favourite musician "Ringo Starr" in his car and ran to catch up with him to get an autograph on her excercise book. Ringo, whose real name was Richard Starkey, was the new drummer in her favourite band. Three weeks later Ringo noticed Maureen stood outside the Cavern queuing to get in and went over to chat her up. He danced with her later on in the club and then offered to take her home, but ended up having to take her friend home as well. Whenever he saw her he would have to entertain both her and her friend. In an attempt to finally get to spend some time alone with her, Richard contacted her at work and asked her if she would go out on a date with him, just the two of them. Knowing of her early curfew and the fact that most of his evening time was filled up with drumming engagements he suggested they spend the whole of the day together instead of grabbing just a few moments in the evening. Maureen and Richard's times together were becomming more rare and far between as he moved down to London to work and spent a lot of time touring. He phoned her often and on his occasional days off would rush up to Liverpool to spend as much time with her as he could. In their early days together they both indulged their mutual love of dancing til the early hours of the morning in clubs, but when their time together became so precious and rare they realised they enjoyed spending a quiet night in just sat infront of the television, curled up together in the same armchair. At times when such visits to Liverpool weren't possible, Maureen would plead with her parents to let her travel down to London and see him as often as she could. She took a holiday to Greece with him in September of 1963 along with Paul McCartney and his girlfriend Jane Asher. This was a time before Beatlemania was a worldwide obsession and the couples were able to spend some quality time together. In 1964,the couple spent the Christmas holiday together down in London, and in January while out at the Ad Lib club in the early hours of the morning, Richard proposed marriage.The 18-year-old Cox married Ringo Starr on February 11, 1965. Their first child, Zak, was born on September 13, 1965 (followed by Jason on August 19, 1967 and Lee on November 17, 1970 ).
