But it was then-22-year-old Lewis’ third marriage to Myra Gale Brown — his first cousin once removed — when she was just 13 that truly rocked his career. The ensuing scandal led to boycotts of his music, blacklisting at venues and appearance fees that plummeted from $10,000 a night to $250. (NYP)
Myra Lewis Williams, also known as Myra Gale Brown, was the third wife of late rock ’n’ roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis and — more infamously — his 13-year-old cousin at the time they got married.
So whatever happened to her? Williams, 78, said in 2016 that she’s been “right here” the whole time — but she apparently no longer had a relationship with her notorious ex-husband after 2015.
Lewis, who died Friday at age 87, weathered professional exile in 1958 after a reporter covering his arrival in London inquired about the young girl in his entourage who ultimately introduced herself as “Jerry’s wife.”
The “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire” hitmaker had eloped with Myra Gale Brown in December 1957, the result of a romance that developed when he moved into the Memphis home of Myra’s father, JW Brown, who was Lewis’ cousin and bass player, according to Lewis’ obituary in The Times.
Lewis was 22 and Williams was 13, and the press came down hard on him when it was revealed that she was also his second cousin and that Lewis was still married to his second wife, Jane Mitchum, when they wed. (Los ANgeles Times)
The revelation resulted in the abrupt cancellation of Lewis’ tour; he was blacklisted by radio and his earnings dropped overnight. (Couples married young in his Louisiana hometown of Ferriday, and he wed for the first time when he was 16 and had seven wives over the course of his life.)
Lewis and Brown went on to have two children, Steve and Phoebe, but after all of the controversy, theirs would not end up being a blissful union. In 1970, she filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery and abuse, claiming that she had been “subject to every type of physical and mental abuse imaginable.”
The rock legend went on to get married four more times, tying the knot in 2012 with his seventh and final wife, Judith Lewis — who also happened to be the ex-wife of Brown’s brother.
