Family, friends and fans gather at funeral for rock 'n' roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis on Saturday - Daily Mail

Family, friends and fans gathered Saturday to bid farewell to stone 'n' rotation pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis astatine memorial services held successful his northbound Louisiana hometown.

Lewis, known for hits specified arsenic 'Great Balls of Fire' and 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On,' died Oct. 28 astatine his Mississippi home, southbound of Memphis, Tenn. He was 87.

TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, Lewis' cousin, told the much than 100 radical wrong Young's Funeral Home successful Ferriday, the municipality wherever Lewis was born, that erstwhile Lewis died helium 'lost the member I ne'er had.'

'We learned to play soft together,' Swaggart recalled. 'I had to marque myself recognize that helium was nary longer here.'

Swaggart and Lewis released 'The Boys From Ferriday,' a gospel album, earlier this twelvemonth and Swaggart said helium wasn't definite if Lewis was going to beryllium capable to get done the signaling session.

'He was precise weak,' Swaggart said. 'I retrieve saying, "Lord, I don't cognize if helium tin bash it oregon not." But erstwhile Jerry Lee sat astatine that piano, you cognize helium was constricted to what helium could play due to the fact that of the stroke, but erstwhile the technologist said the reddish airy is connected and erstwhile helium opened his mouth, helium said, 'Jesus, clasp my hand, I request thee each hour. Hear my feeble plea, ohio Lord, look down connected me.'

The league resulted successful the album, and 2 of its songs played during the service: 'In the Garden' and 'The Old Rugged Cross.' Audience members were seen wiping tears from their eyes and singing on with Lewis arsenic the recordings played.

'He was 1 of the top entertainers who ever lived,' Swaggart said.

Lewis, who called himself 'The Killer,' was the past subsister of a procreation of artists that rewrote euphony history, a radical that included Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard.

Lewis' assemblage was astatine the beforehand of the ceremonial home's main parlor, wrong a closed, reddish casket with a spray of reddish roses connected top. Several ceremonial wreaths, including 1 successful the signifier of a philharmonic note, dotted the walls down and astir the casket arsenic did photos of the singer, 1 of which showed him successful a reddish suit hunched implicit and singing into a microphone.

Swaggart's son, Donnie Swaggart, recalled a gathering successful Memphis betwixt Lewis and members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, a state stone band, that highlighted Lewis' humorous side.

He said his begetter and Lewis were walking toward an arena's exit arsenic the set members were coming in. 

'As they neared Lewis, 1 asked, "Is that who I deliberation it is? Is that Jerry Lee Lewis?" As Jerry Lee passed, 1 of the men asked, "Are you Jerry Lee Lewis?" Jerry Lee stopped and looked each of them up and down and said, "Boys, Killer's my sanction and music's my thing." And past helium walked out.'

Donnie Swaggart said the guys stood there, with their jaws dropped successful amazement. 'What a consciousness of wit helium had,' helium said arsenic the assemblage laughed.

After his idiosyncratic beingness blew up successful the precocious 1950s pursuing quality of his matrimony to his cousin, 13-year-old — perchance adjacent 12-year-old — Myra Gale Brown, portion inactive joined to his erstwhile wife, the soft subordinate and stone rebel was blacklisted from vigor and his net dropped to virtually nothing. Over the pursuing decades, Lewis struggled with cause and intoxicant abuse, ineligible disputes and carnal illness.

'He ever had a bosom for God, adjacent astatine his lowest times,' Jimmy Swaggart said. 'I volition miss him precise overmuch but we cognize wherever helium is present and convey God for that.'

Xavier Ellis, 28, a Ferriday autochthonal present teaching successful Opelousas, La., said Lewis' beingness is an inspiration.

'He was a mediocre kid from Ferriday who made it to the heights helium made it to. I'm precise impressed with his beingness story. I'm saddened by him leaving, but his bequest volition unrecorded on,' Ellis said.

In the 1960s, Lewis reinvented himself arsenic a state performer and the euphony manufacture yet forgave him. He had a tally of apical 10 state hits from 1967 to 1970, including 'She Still Comes Around' and 'What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me).'

In 1986, on with Elvis, Berry and others, Lewis was successful the inaugural people of inductees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and joined the Country Hall of Fame this year. His beingness and euphony were reintroduced to younger fans successful the 1989 biopic 'Great Balls of Fire,' starring Dennis Quaid, and Ethan Coen's 2022 documentary 'Trouble successful Mind.'

A 2010 Broadway musical, 'Million Dollar Quartet,' was inspired by a signaling league that featured Lewis, Elvis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash.

Lewis won a Grammy successful 1987 arsenic portion of an interrogation medium that was cited for champion spoken connection recording, and helium received a beingness accomplishment Grammy successful 2005.

The pursuing year, 'Whole Lotta Shakin' was selected for the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry, whose committee praised the 'propulsive boogie soft that was perfectly complemented by the thrust of J.M. Van Eaton's energetic drumming. The listeners to the recording, similar Lewis himself, had a hard clip remaining seated during the performance.'

Tom Tomschin and his wife, Sandra, of Cicero, Ill., traveled to Ferriday to springiness homage to Lewis for each he's done for the euphony industry.

'We felt the request to wage our respect to the pioneer of stone 'n' rotation who had a large portion successful the instauration of and shaping of the genre,' Tomschin said. 'I've been a instrumentality my full life.'

Tomschin, 45, a authorities administrator, said 'Crazy Arms' and 'You Win Again' are 2 of his favourite songs by Lewis, who helium described arsenic 1 of a kind.

'He ne'er lived a beingness down a curtain,' Tomschin said of Lewis. 'In his ups and downs, the bully and bad, helium did what helium was going to do. Jerry Lee Lewis laid it each retired connected the table. There's ne'er going to beryllium different idiosyncratic similar Jerry Lee Lewis.'

Sandra Tomschin, 44, a room director, said she grew up connected Lewis' euphony and it's near an indelible people connected her life.

'We emotion it,' she said of his music. 'We've been to respective of his concerts and adjacent though he's gone, helium volition inactive unrecorded connected successful our hearts.'