It doesn't take a crystal ball to see that Bruce Springsteen fans are in mourning.
Boardwalk fixture and Springsteen song legend Madam Marie, the seaside clairvoyant immortalized in "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," died last Friday at age 93, great-granddaughter Sally Castello told the Asbury Park Press.
The medium, whose real name was Marie Castello, was an iconic presence along the Asbury Park boardwalk, performing her palm reading next door to Springsteen's old Jersey Shore haunt, the Stone Pony.
"Did you hear the cops finally busted Madam Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do?" Springsteen sang in the track off his 1973 sophomore release, The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle.
He was so fond of Castello that he always dropped by her small stand to say hello whenever he was in town.
"I'd sit across from her on the metal guard rail bordering the beach, and watched as she led the day-trippers into the small back room where she would unlock a few of the mysteries of their future," Springsteen writes in tribute on his website. "She always told me mine looked pretty good—she was right.
"Over here on E Street, we will miss her."
(Originally published July 2, 2008 at 8:59 a.m. PT.)