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1 year ago
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When Myra Williams looks backmost connected her beingness — her matrimony to her 2nd cousin, vocalist Jerry Lee Lewis, successful 1957 erstwhile she was conscionable 13 years old, their bully and atrocious times together, the 2 children they had, the imperishable harm that their narration inflicted connected Lewis’ vocation and bequest — she sometimes wonders whether it was each a dream.
“But it happened,” the 78-year-old writer and erstwhile existent property cause told The Times by telephone from her location successful Atlanta, 1 time aft Lewis’ death. “It did. It each happened to me.”
Everything “gigantic,” she said, occurred successful her teenage years, cataloguing the milestones: joined astatine 13; a parent astatine 14; losing her firstborn kid erstwhile she was 17; giving commencement to her 2nd kid astatine 19.
“Yes, it was turbulent arsenic a teen to beryllium a woman and mother,” Williams said. “But successful going done it, I’ve recovered my strength. And there’s astir thing that tin sound maine disconnected my artifact astatine this point.”
In the hours aft Lewis died astatine property 87, obituaries of the stone fable flooded the internet, each featuring a transitional paragraph noting that Lewis’ prima fell arsenic rapidly arsenic it roseate erstwhile his matrimony to Williams became nationalist during a circuit of Britain a twelvemonth aft his debut medium featuring the smash deed “Great Balls of Fire” rocketed to No. 2 connected the popular charts.
“I was the atrocious happening successful his life,” said Williams, describing however radical saw her. “It was due to the fact that of our matrimony that his vocation deed the pavement. You know, you were judged for everything you did backmost then.”
Jerry Lee Lewis and Myra Lewis with their firstborn, Steve Allen Lewis.
(Associated Press)
And that judgement was swift and fierce. Radio stations stopped playing Lewis’ music. His label, Sun Records, stopped promoting him, and offers to execute evaporated. It was a batch for a young miss to shoulder, Williams said, adding that the misconception that plagued her past holds existent to this day.
“I was called the kid bride, but I was the big and Jerry was the child,” Williams said. “When I look backmost connected it, however tin you support yourself erstwhile you’re 13 years old? I mean there’s nary excuse bully capable for that to beryllium OK.”
Williams said that she nevertheless took connected each the responsibilities that came with her caller role. “And I didn’t miss a beat. I took attraction of everything.”
She bought the couple’s location erstwhile Lewis was connected the road, and besides the car Lewis wanted. He told her to find a reddish Cadillac convertible, Williams remembered, and she did.
“I mean, I didn’t adjacent person a driver’s license,” she said. “I did each the enactment and made each the decisions and did each the moving and taking attraction of concern and that benignant of stuff.”
Williams adjacent managed the finances, she said.
“One clip I went to the slope with a large sack of wealth to deposit it ... and the teller said to me, ‘Myra, there’s a policeman sitting determination extracurricular successful his car and helium followed you here. So erstwhile you get acceptable to leave, I’ll thrust you home,’” she said.
The Cadillac stayed successful the slope parking batch that day.
Williams said drugs caused irreparable harm to her marriage. Before Lewis began utilizing drugs, she said, helium was silly, playful and kind. The mates would person pillow fights, ace jokes and propulsion goofy pranks, similar holding connected to the doorknob from the different broadside of the doorway to halt each different from getting in. When the drugs became a imperishable fixture, she said, Lewis changed.
“His property conscionable became mean. And nasty. It was similar a full antithetic man. Just bad, you know?” she said.
Williams and Lewis divorced successful 1970, with Williams filing connected the grounds of adultery and abuse. But they stayed successful interaction implicit the years due to the fact that of the enslaved they shared done their daughter, Phoebe Allen Lewis. The couple’s son, Steve Allen Lewis, drowned astatine the property of 3.
Williams joined concisely aft that — an 18-month romance that she described arsenic “an implicit fiasco and stupid.” She has been joined to her existent husband, Richard Williams, for going connected 39 years. The mates ain a existent property institution successful Atlanta but person some retired from day-to-day business.
“We conscionable putter around, you know. We don’t person to bash anything,” she said, adding that their bureau manager takes attraction of astir everything and they conscionable halt by the bureau each erstwhile successful a portion to chat. “We conscionable unrecorded a existent elemental beingness of sleeping precocious and watching ‘I Love Lucy.’”
Myra Williams.
(Courtesy photo)
Williams did her champion to clasp backmost tears erstwhile talking astir Lewis’ death, which occurred a fewer weeks aft the decease of her father, J.W. Brown, a instrumentalist successful his ain close and Lewis’ archetypal cousin. It was Brown who went to Natchez, Miss., wherever Lewis was surviving arsenic an chartless instrumentalist and brought him to Memphis, Tenn., to grounds with Sam Phillips astatine Sun Records, Williams said. He besides invited Lewis to unrecorded successful his location with his family, which is however Lewis and Williams fell successful love.
When Brown heard the young mates had eloped, “he got his gun,” Williams said. “That was not a blessed moment. Daddy felt precise betrayed by that. I was his 13-year-old small girl.”
Brown went aft Lewis, but Lewis was gone.
“The infinitesimal Daddy near the house, my parent called Sam Phillips and said, ‘Oh my God, you’re not gonna judge what’s happened, Sam,’” Williams said. “Mom said, ‘Jerry and Myra person gotten married. And Jay [J.W.] has his pistol. He’s connected his mode to Sun Records. You amended get Jerry retired of there.’”
Phillips “ran Jerry off” and told him to get connected a plane. He said, “I don’t attraction wherever you go, conscionable go,” Williams said.
Lewis was gone for 3 oregon 4 days, during which clip Phillips sat Brown down and did his champion to calm him, Williams said.
“Sam Phillips was a existent talker, let’s enactment it that way. He could person you that immoderate you were seeing wasn’t there,” Williams said.
Brown came to judge the matrimony aft that, Williams said.
“There was conscionable nary choice. I mean, sidesplitting Jerry was not an option. It was his archetypal thought, but it wasn’t an option,” she said.
When Lewis came back, Brown shook his manus and said, “You amended beryllium bully to my girl.”
Williams stopped speaking with Lewis aft helium joined her erstwhile sister-in-law, Judith Brown, successful 2012. It was a wounded that chopped deep, Williams said. Judith had been a person and portion of the family. (Brown was the erstwhile woman of Williams’ younger brother.)
Williams isn’t definite erstwhile the past clip she spoke with Lewis, but said that she tried to interaction him astir 2 years ago. She had asked Phoebe whether it would beryllium OK if she called Lewis, and erstwhile she did, “I didn’t cognize what I was gonna accidental to him oregon archer him, and I made the telephone and helium came to the phone, and I couldn’t talk. I hung up the phone.”
If Williams could springiness proposal to her 13-year-old self, she said she had nary thought what it mightiness be.
“I wouldn’t spell backmost and alteration it if I could,” she said. Then she stopped and thought for a 2nd and began to laugh. “I mightiness tweak it a little. I would tweak it a lot. I would tweak the hellhole retired of it. I would beryllium smarter.”
“But however astute tin you beryllium erstwhile you’re 14 years old?” she asked. “You’re a anserine kid astatine that age. You’re conscionable not acceptable for it. You’re not acceptable for premier time.”
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