by Kyle K. Mann
Gonzo Today Publisher and Contributing Editor
Gonzo Today has been informed by a reliable source that Mary F. Werbelow, Doors vocalist Jim Morrison’s first girlfriend, died in Los Angeles County on June 25, 2024. She was 79 and had been in poor health for many years.
Werbelow was the inspiration for the lyrics of number of songs by now-legendary singer Morrison, member of the popular groundbreaking rock group the Doors. She had been living in apartments, motels and finally assisted living facilities in the San Fernando Valley for several decades.
In 1962 she met Morrison on a beach in Clearwater, Florida where she attended high school while Morrison was a college student. Though her parents disapproved of their relationship, she later followed him to Los Angeles while he finished getting a degree in cinematography at UCLA, with her becoming a dancer at Sunset Strip venue Gazzari’s and portrait painter.
Their breakup in 1965 led to Morrison’s lyrics, according to Doors band members, in the beginning and final sections of the Doors’ epic song “The End,” as well as the ballad “The Crystal Ship.” (The Doors’ massive hit song “Light My Fire” was written by Doors’ guitarist Robbie Krieger.) She declined participation as an advisor in Oliver Stone’s 1991 movie The Doors and was consequently, and misleadingly, completely written out of the Stone’s script.
She was married and divorced twice in later years, telling St. Petersburg Times interviewer Robert Farley in 2005 she never got over Morrison. It was the only interview she ever gave, as she otherwise shunned all publicity, having dropped out of public view after Morrison’s death in 1971, and after the Farley interview she had effectively vanished.
Werbelow had no children, and was one month away from her 80th birthday at the time of her death.
Posted July 2, 2024
