J.W. Myra Gale Brown (born July 11, 1944) is the cousin and former wife of singer Jerry Lee Lewis. Options, mindsetsthis world has gone so fast the last fifty years that you cant keep up with it. In his 2002 review for Rolling Stone, Milo Miles wrote: Live at the Star Club, Hamburg is not an album, its a crime scene: Jerry Lee Lewis slaughters his rivals in a 13-song set that feels like one long convulsion.. Despite Elvis success, Brown felt that the world just wasnt ready for rock and roll. Why do you think they call me the Killer? Two months later, Shawn was dead., Though it was eventually concluded that Shawn had died of an overdose of methadone, and that there was no indication at all of foul play, Cramer uncovered much overlooked (and withheld) evidence, including clear indications that there had been some sort of fight at the Lewis house the night of the young womans death. (She filed for divorce in 1970, citing allegations of abuse and adultery.). The 1989 biopic Great Balls of Fire, which starred Dennis Quaid as Lewis and a 17-year-old Winona Ryder as Myra, was based on Williams first book of the same name. Myra and Jerry's daughter, Phoebe Lewis, 59, was born in 1963, about four years after Steven was born. The mystery of Iago is the greatest of all Shakespeares mysteries: Why did he scheme to turn Othellos heart so terribly against the woman he loved that he strangles her to death? The press also learned that Myra was Jerry Lees cousin. Because of her marriage to Jerry Lewis, she was controversial. He thought the age was mature enough to put to rest any concerns the reporter might have, but it did not. Discover Myra Lewis's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. They called it the devils music. And they just werent ready for that. If anybody had told me anything, I could have prevented this thing. My little brother was born because I begged my parents for a baby at ten years old.". He continued to record music and perform in theater during that time and mounted a comeback about a decade later. Remember, gossip is not gospel, Williams wrote on Instagram in 2015. Jerry Lee would never accept her child as his, and no one would ever launch any legal proceeding to prove his parentage. He went to Los Angeles, where the musical Catch My Soul would be staged at the Ahmanson Theatre. 8 Myra Gale Brown Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images CREATIVE Collections Project #ShowUs Creative Insights Custom Content EDITORIAL VIDEO BBC Motion Gallery NBC News Archives MUSIC BLOG BROWSE PRICING VisualGPS INSIGHTS BOARDS CART SIGN IN Images Images Creative Editorial Video Creative Editorial FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO Jerry Lee Lewis knew how to inhabit that role. Steve tragically drowned at age 3, and Phoebe grew up to become her father's manager. To perform that music, he forsook many hopes, and a few beliefs, living and speaking as a man who had lost his soul. Brown and his family. I was seeing someone punished because of my age, my existence, and I always wanted to just stand up and defend him. "So when a reporter asked me, 'Who are you?' Lewis had been struggling with his health, and Judith had agreed to care for him at the request of Rusty. He was a coward, Jerry Lee told Bragg He hurt me. He roared, he snarled, he pounded; he and the band were a cacophony, as he tore through such songs as Money, Great Balls of Fire, Long Tall Sally, Whole Lotta Shakin Going On and Good Golly, Miss Molly., That last song he sang like a madman. However, its thought that his rock 'n'roll career was forever marred by his marriage to Brown. He respected his malice. But they didnt, and I didnt, and the rest is history, I guess.. Everything just came together and a major explosion happened.". In 1949, the family . Hed wait to see what came of it. Myra Gale Brown is known as Myra Lewis William today and she is an American author by profession. After a long buildup, when he gets to his final declarations of You know what I want/You know what I got to have, his voice turns into a taunting laugh that is prurient and menacing. Myra Lewis Williams At Lees McRae WJHL 58K views 5 years ago Hank Williams. That's exactly what it was," Williams told Light. Myra Gale and Jerry Lee Lewis, first cousins once removed, married when she was thirteen years old and he was twenty-two. He found her floating in a pool, dead. Some have thought Iago felt slighted. Longtime Gwinnett resident Myra Lewis Williams has penned a new memoir sharing her life story, including her teenage marriage with her second cousin rock n' roll star . Myra Lewis Williams on Social Media Relationship Grid Table Divorce Married Jerry Lee Lewis Started On : 1958 Ended On : 1970 Married Richard Williams Started On : 1984 Ended On : N/A Total Networth over the years Total Networth 0 250,000 500,000 750,000 1,000,000 2020 $1000000 Total Networth Year Networth Female Body Stat N/A ft N/A kg Habit Rehab Follow Cuepoint: Twitter | Facebook, Mediums Premier Music Publication: An ear for the new, a heart for the classics. This time there are no holds barred. Now a news-agency reporter, Ray Berry, raised questions about Jerry's third wife, Myra Gale Brown. But they didnt, and I didnt, and the rest is history, I guess.". {RP18+MovieBasedGreat Balls Of Fire} Joined February 2012. Inside The Short And Tumultuous Life Of Gia Carangi, "The World's First Supermodel", 44 Grim Photos That Show The Brutal Reality Of Mid-Century America's Polio Epidemics, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Today the world remembers Jerry Lee Lewis as one of the greatest rock 'n' roll artists of all time. Youre fine. But I never felt fine. You see, Myra did not survive that marriage. First, Myra Gale Brown had been just 13 years old when they got married on Dec. 12, 1957. I didnt question God., He was supposed to travel to England in a few days his first trip there since the country had shamed him. With cheerful impenitence, Jerry Lee is shown correcting an interviewer: Myra was one day shy of her 13th birthday on their wedding day so she was actually twelve. She has been in news due to the death of her husband, on October 28, 2022. Despite this, the pair remained married for four years, and had two sons together. Myra Lewis Williams has no hard feelings over the relationship and still blames the press for turning it into something wicked. On December 12, 1957, Lewis wed a woman named Myra Gale Brown (pictured above), who was also his cousin. Phoebe worked for him and when I visited her I would still see him, too. . Though Lewis and his team had come up with a story about Brown being 15, Brown reportedly wasn't told about this plan. Myra had him by her side one moment, then he wasnt there. She also said she felt their marriage was their own business and not for the world to judge. She co-wrote many books, such as Great Book Of Fire and The Spark That Survived, and earned people's love and popularity through her book. Elvis didnt marry a little 16-year-old girl, did he? She is a writer, known for Great Balls of Fire! Browns daughter,' she said, looking back on the day it was revealed she was 13 and Jerry Lee Lewis spouse. To some degree, Lewis and those who venerated him were able to spin his worst qualities into a kind of dark legend. His version of Ernest Tubbs Walking the Floor Over You didnt match Tubbs definitional drawl and pace; instead it was almost as reckless as his rock & roll. It bumped De Gaulle off the front page of the newspaper. Feb 11, 2016. He married a 13-year-old, Myra Gale Brown, who later said she was subject to every type of physical and mental abuse imaginable. He shot his bass player, was a serial adulterer, abused drugs and alcohol and several other of his seven wives and thats just a partial list of transgressions. Lewis lived out rock & rolls sexual and impulsive audacity in extreme fashion. Jack Good had plans to take it Broadway, but Lewis wouldnt go with it. Thats exactly what it was. But friends of Jerry Lee would say that the marriage had existed mostly on paper.. He followed her in his car and forced her off the road. In 2014, Brown, then 70 and known as Myra Williams, gave an interview to music journalist Alan Light published in Cuepoint, in which she reflected on her shocking relationship with Lewis.. He had gone into the army and I was hitting big, but there were a lot of narrow-minded people who thought I was corrupting the youth. You should be. After just a few shows in England, the tour was canceled. Moreover, by the time Lewis tried to reestablish his rock & roll credentials in America, the Beatles were expanding all the possibilities of the music Jerry Lee and Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley and Little Richard had pioneered, creating new styles and unprecedented dimensions in which rock artists and their audiences might shake up the world. I 1957 blev den 23-rige Jerry Lee Lewis gift med Myra Gale Brown. As would soon become known, Myra Gale Lewis was in fact 13 years old. Its got a hair trigger. Bragg related what happened next: It appears to be that way, Butch, Jerry Lee said, too drunk to be overly concerned. But when they landed in New York, the reception was just as bad. Lewis havde vret gift to gange fr. It led to a drop in ticket sales for Lewis, damaging his income. Lewis had been married twice before. I just went on with my life as usual.. During that time, Brown gave birth to two children - Steven Allen Lewis, who drowned at age three, and Phoebe Lewis, who would go on to become her father's manager for a time. After thirteen years of marriage, they were divorced in 1970, when Myra charged that she has been subject to every type of physical and mental abuse imaginable; Jerry Lee later said that it was all my faultshe caught me cheating. When we met, she described their relationship as a successful divorce, though more recently it seems theyve been clashing over his current, seventh wife. ), Lewis, though, wasnt planning on leaving rock & roll. She refused and soon grabbed her housecoat and got in her car, but Jerry was right after her, throwing rocks as she drove away. He also did terrible things, over and over, Lewis with his 13-year-old wife, Myra Gale Brown, The Million Dollar Quartet: Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash at Sun Studios on December 4, 1956, Backstage at the Palladium in London, April 1972, Jerry Lee Lewis Was a Rock & Roll Titan. Things had been turning bad in the marriage. 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Lewis didnt quite fit in that new world, but he could still be a startlingly authoritative rock & roll performer; and he proved it on a live album recorded at the Star-Club, the venue in Hamburg, Germany, where the Beatles had played legendary shows in 1962. [14] Although Brown found the actors to be talented and friendly, she was not satisfied with the book or the film. Brown. She also described Lewis drug addiction, being the victim of abuse, divorcing and jumping into a rebound marriage, the Gwinnett Daily Post said. Rock & roll is mean and corrupting music, said Jerry Lee, who was raised deeply religious in Louisiana (his cousin was the televangelist Jimmy Swaggart). [15][19][11], She is shown being interviewed in the Ethan Coen directed 2022 documentary film Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind.[21]. Williams said she considered herself an adult at the time of her marriage to the rock star, and people around the couple said she was "more mature than Jerry." 1954). They would say, Youre fine. Rusty Brown is the brother of Jerry's third wife Myra - making the union even more. And vastly more trouble-prone than all of them. He said that Elvis called him the next day and invited him to Graceland. Williams described to Light the moment when the world learned of their scandalous marriage. When I visited her, Myra told the L.A. Times this year, I would still see him, too. Phoebe quit working for him and I havent seen him since. However, upon landing in the country with his child-bride, it became clear that the Brits were not on board with Jerry Lee Lewis. He could be unmerciful and abusive. At one time, it seemed like I was burying somebody every week.. Apparently it wasn't uncommon at the time. The couple tried to repair Lewis' image by remarrying in a ceremony shortly after his divorce was finalised, and even moving in with Brown's parents once more. @rush it does seem incredible, but half of the states in the US still have no minimum age for marriage in 2022. I find living is nice and calm this way.. 1 of 5. Lewis accepted the offer. He came into country music with respect for its verities, but he didnt worry about respecting anybody elses likening. Myra Lewis harbors little bitterness today, even though Lewis has attacked her character in recent interviews. [1] In 1949, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, when J.W. "And it really seemed unfair to me, because he had no idea he was doing anything wrong. Every day, you wondered what was going to happen next. In my little mind, I couldnt believe that they could not see that I was a grown woman. After all, Presley's rock and roll rival, Jerry Lee Lewis, was nearly blacklisted from the music industry after he notoriously married his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale Brown. And Jerry gave it to themwell, I did, I opened my mouth. Everything came together at one time, and heres Elvis and heres rock & roll and heres Dick Clark and Ed Sullivana new generation born, a new music born. Because that was the truth! Learn How rich is She in this year and how She spends money? Light later recounted in a story published in Medium's Cuepoint in 2014 that Lewis and Williams "were playful and affectionate" during the photo shoot for the Rolling Stone story. Two of those unions ended in untimely deaths for the brides, and his fourth and final marriage came in 2012. Youre the only one I know as evil as he is, Good said. It was detailed in a March 1984 Rolling Stone article, The Strange and Mysterious Death of Mrs. Jerry Lee Lewis. Written by Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ben Cramer, it was a painstaking account of Lewis two-and-a-half-month marriage to his fourth wife, Shawn Michelle Stephens, who died at 25 on Aug. 24, 1983, and the mystifying events surrounding her death: the bruises and blood on her body, the scratch-like wounds on Lewis forearm, the permeation of fresh, small bloodstains around Lewis Mississippi home, and the superficial police investigations and coroners reports that followed. After my divorce, she told the L.A. Times in 1989, I had to go to a psychiatrist because I thought Ive got to have lost it. But it didnt delve deep enough into exploring Lewis indomitable character. ", A post shared by Myra Lewis Williams (@mlwauthor). She just dispersed into whatever. For years, their daughter worked for Jerry Lee. Leave me, an Ill kill ya., Another time, according to Great Balls of Fire, he showed up unexpectedly at 3 a.m., at a time when he was supposed to be out of town, and he complained there was no food waiting for him on the stove. Jerry Lee seemed to not comprehend the gravity of his actions. Lewis married once more to Jaren Elizabeth Gunn Pate the following year. In her 1982 book about her marriage to Lewis, Great Balls of Fire, she wrote about her husband tormenting her, saying to her, God punished you. (1989). In 1984, doctors diagnosed him with perforated ulcers, and cut away a third of his stomach. The two were married in 2012. It's worth it if you are a serious fan of Jerry and very interested in his marriage to Myra - I learned a lot - I just think it could have been done so much better - so go into it with realistic . His England tour was canceled and by the time he returned to the United States, the press had learned Williams was the daughter of Lewis' cousin and bass player, J.W. Myra is currently in news after Jerry Lewis, her husband, died on 28 Oct 2022 at the age of 87. Jerry Lee & Myra Lewis Interview ( 1958 ) robin haugsnes 5.68K subscribers Subscribe 793 Share 365K views 14 years ago Jerry telling about his tour in London, where everything went pretty bad,. It wasnt easy persuading country writers to write for somebody they considered a hopped-up rock & roll piano man, but eventually Jerry had a song in front of him, Another Place Another Time, and he thought it spoke to him. Today, Myra Williams, 78, reflects on the scandal and her late ex-husband. The book includes lots of details about Jerry's early career that a music historian might appreciate. He and Myra flew back to the United States, where he expected more sympathetic treatment. Hes no longer part of my life. 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