With 4th of July just a few days away, sad news from Asbury Park. Madam Marie, the fortune teller truly immortalized by Bruce Springsteen in his 1973 song "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" passed away on Friday. Springsteen, of course, sang of Marie Castello: "Did you hear the cops finally busted Madam Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do?" and the legend was sealed, though Asbury Park officials were saying today that she was never actually arrested. Costello, who told fortunes since the 1930s but closed her Boardwalk shop in 1995, told Asbury Park Press columnist Bill Handleman in May that Springsteen still came back to say hello. "He knows where he came from," she said. Madam Marie was 93. The American flag flying over the Convention Hall-Paramount Theatre complex in Asbury Park was lowered to half staff in her honor. Here's a link to the lyrics, as fine a boardwalk elegy as I know, and a link to the Asbury Park Press interview from May. And here's video of Bruce singing "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) from 1978 at the Capitol Theater in Passaic. Note E Street Band keyboardist Danny Federici, who died in April, on the accordian.