I missed this while I was in Spain, but it looks like one of my famous neighbors, Yoko Ono, has finally said goodbye to New York City. After lspending 50 years in the exclusive Dakota building on West 72nd Street and Central Park West -- where John Lennon was assassinated outside on Dec. 8, 1980 -- the 90-year-old widow has decided to live out the rest of her life on a farm upstate that she and the former Beatle purchased in 1978.
It was recently learned that during the pandemic, Ono opted to move to her expansive 600-acre farm near Franklin, N.Y., in the Catskills, full-time -- with no plans of returning to her Upper West Side abode. John and Yoko purchased the farm initially as a retreat -- and to raise Holstein dairy cows.
Ono now lives a “peaceful life,” out of the public spotlight, sources say, adding that the small town has a population of just 340 people.The main house on the sprawling estate has four bedrooms and two bathrooms — and outside, Ono grows her own vegetables. Nearby are a farmers’ market and a pizza restaurant. Philip Norman, in his book, “John Lennon: The Life,” writes that the English singer bought a herd of 122 cows and 10 bulls for the farm at one point.Back in 2013, the farm became a subject of contention, when Ono and her son, Sean, protested fracking in the state of New York. There was a rising threat to the farm that sits atop the Marcellus Shale -- a rock formation geologists estimate holds trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. “I have always felt lucky,” Lennon wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times, “to live on land [my father] loved dearly.”Despite being wheelchair-bound with her health declining in recent years, Ono recently revealed that she goes for 4-mile walks to beat depression.Ono was born in Tokyo in 1933 into a banking family who suffered from starvation during World War II. They were often forced to barter household items for food while they sought refuge from Allied bombing raids.
“She is a particularly special being,” Elliot Mintz, a close family friend and publicist, told The Post back in 2020. “In these 87 years, she’s lived 400.”
My friend Tim Teeman has a hilarious story about the time he interviewed Ono in her famed Dakota apartment, which she still owns. It's not mine to share here, but if you see me in person I will probably tell it to you!
3 comments:
While watching the American Masters piece on Roberta Flack loved learning that she was next door neighbors with the Lennon-Onos and Sean called her Auntie Roberta!
When (if) she puts that apartment on the market it will be the real estate story of the year!
My god!! The Dakota home would be a great return on investment after buying it 50 years ago. You know there will be a bidding war. I hear that John and Yoko have/had a vast real estate portfolio. I read that the couple owns/owned a total of five apartments in the building
Good for her enjoying her final years. I bet she is over the hustle and bustle of New York. Out in the country, she can breathe and enjoy her 4-mile walks.
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