THE woman who inspired The Beatles' legendary song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds has died aged 46 from an auto-immune disease. Lucy O'Donnell was at school with John Lennon's son, Julian, when she was three and it was his picture of her in 1966 that inspired the classic song.

According to various biographies, the young Julian took the picture home to his father and explained: ''It's Lucy in the sky with diamonds.''

Inspiration for Lennon's classic ... Lucy O'Donnell.

The song, which is on the 1967 album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, was controversial at the time because of its supposed reference to the drug LSD through its initials, a claim Lennon denied.

Julian Lennon and his childhood friend - who became Lucy Vodden after her marriage - resumed their friendship in recent months after she became ill with lupus, the disease of the immune system that led to her death last week.

''She was a great supporter of ours and a real fighter. It's so sad that she has finally lost the battle she fought so bravely for so long,'' said Angie Davidson of the St Thomas Lupus Trust, which aided Ms Vodden in her illness.

The trust added that Lennon and his mother, Cynthia, were ''shocked and saddened'' by Ms Vodden's death.

AFP