Suze Rotolo, Bob Dylan’s Early Muse, Dies at 67

Suze Rotolo, Bob Dylan’s girlfriend from the early ’60s who appears on the album cover for The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, died on February 24 at the age of 67. The cause was lung cancer.

Rotolo, an artist and social activist, dated Dylan for four years. Dylan wrote some of his most enduring songs, including “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” “Boots of Spanish Leather,” “Ballad In Plain D” and “Tomorrow Is a Long Time” about their relationship. “Meeting her was like stepping into the tales of 1,001 Arabian Nights,” Dylan wrote in his book Chronicles. “She had a smile that could light up a street full of people and was extremely lively, had a particular type of voluptuousness — A Rodin sculpture come to life. She reminded me of a Libertine hero. She was just my type.”

Rotolo published her memoir, A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the 60’s in 2008. For more details, read the Rolling Stone and New York Times obituaries.