George Harrison visited his sister in Benton, Illinois, during 1963.
Harrison made the visit in September 1963, before the Beatles became a full-scale American phenomenon. His sister Louise and her family lived in Benton, a small southern Illinois town about 100 miles southeast of St. Louis. Harrison stayed at the family home on McCann Street with his brother Peter.
The trip offered Harrison a brief period of anonymity. He camped in Shawnee National Forest, visited local shops, sat in with musicians, and bought a Rickenbacker 425 guitar. He also appeared on a local radio program, where he gave the host a copy of “She Loves You.”
Benton is sometimes overlooked because Harrison’s American visit happened months before the Beatles’ celebrated 1964 arrival. He was the only Beatle to visit the United States before the group’s first major American appearance, making the Illinois trip an unusual pre-Beatlemania chapter in the band’s history.