Lucy O’Donnell was the little girl whose nursery school friendship with John Lennon’s son Julian inspired The Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Today she passed away at age 46 after battling lupus.

Lucy Vodden (nee O’Donnell) was recently revealed as the girl behind the 40-year-old Beatles song. Julian Lennon has said that the track was inspired by a picture he drew of classmate Lucy O’Donnell with star-like shapes when they were at nursery school in the mid-1960s. The young Julian showed his father the picture and told him it was ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds’. Lennon went on to use the phrase as a title for a song he wrote for the album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in 1967.

Last night Julian and his mother Cynthia said they were ‘shocked and saddened’ by 46-year-old Vodden’s death. The musician, who lives in France, got back in touch with her six months ago after discovering through his personal assistant, who knows Lucy’s sister, that she was chronically ill.

“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” initially caused controversy and was banned by the BBC because of its supposed reference to the drug LSD. The whereabouts of Julian Lennon’s childhood painting is uncertain, although at one stage it was in his mother’s possession.