Jerry Lee Lewis: 13-Year-Old Wife, Kids, Elvis Quotes

Jerry Lee Lewis was a rock and roll pioneer whose 1957 marriage to his 13-year-old cousin Myra Gale Brown destroyed his career overnight. The scandal exposed a pattern of predatory behavior that overshadowed his musical genius with “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.”

Born: September 29, 1935, Ferriday, Louisiana | Died: October 28, 2022, Nesbit, Mississippi | Spouse: Myra Gale Brown (m. 1957–1970), among others | Signature Song: “Great Balls of Fire”

The Scandal

Lewis married his 13-year-old first cousin Myra Gale Brown in December 1957, while still married to his previous wife. The revelation during his 1958 British tour caused public outrage, canceled performances, and ended his career in the U.S.

The Children

Myra gave birth to two children with Lewis: son Steve Allen Lewis (1959–1962), who drowned at age 3, and daughter Phoebe Allen Lewis (born 1963). Myra also had a son from a previous relationship whom Lewis adopted, Ronnie Guy (born 1958).

The Aftermath

After the scandal, Lewis’s record sales plummeted and radio boycotted his music. He spent decades as a country music outcast and struggled with addiction, though he continued performing and scoring occasional hits into the 1970s.

The Legacy

Despite the scandal, Lewis was among the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. He died in 2022 at age 87, and his musical influence remains immense, though his personal life left an indelible stain on his legacy.

The Wedding That Changed Everything

Jerry Lee Lewis married Myra Gale Brown on December 12, 1957, in Hernando, Mississippi. She was just 13 years old, and he was 22. To make matters worse, Myra was Lewis’s first cousin once removed — his father’s sister’s granddaughter. Lewis had met her when she was 12 and he was 21, at his father’s home in Ferriday.

The marriage was kept secret for six months. Lewis told his record label that Myra was 15, then 16. He married her just one month after divorcing his second wife, Jane Mitchum, and Lewis was technically still married to his first wife, Dorothy Barton, when he wed Myra.

The British Tour Disaster

Lewis embarked on a triumphant 37-date tour of the United Kingdom in May 1958, riding high on “Great Balls of Fire.” At London’s Heathrow Airport, a journalist asked the Australian-born reporter accompanying the tour, “How old is your wife?” Lewis replied, “Fifteen.”

That answer unraveled everything. British reporters investigated and discovered Myra’s true age, her family relationship, and that Lewis had been married three times by age 22. The British press turned hostile. Lewis’s first London show at the Gaumont State Theatre was met with catcalls. The tour was canceled after just three dates, and Lewis returned to the United States in disgrace.

Myra’s Story: A Childhood Stolen

Myra Gale Brown was born on July 11, 1944, in Memphis, Tennessee. She met Lewis when she was just 12, accompanying her mother to visit Lewis’s father. Lewis later claimed in his autobiography that Myra “came on to him,” but Myra’s own accounts paint a different picture.

In her 1982 memoir Great Balls of Fire, Myra described a marriage that began with her being infatuated and quickly turned into a nightmare of neglect, substance abuse, and physical abuse. She wrote that Lewis was “obsessed” with her youth and kept her isolated from her family. They divorced in 1970, after Myra caught him with another woman. She later remarried and became a nurse, rarely speaking publicly about her experience until late in life.

The Children of Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis had six children, though three preceded him in death. With his first wife, Dorothy Barton, he had no children. With his second wife, Jane Mitchum, he had a daughter, Ronnie Guy (born 1958), whom Lewis adopted but who was actually Jane’s son from a previous relationship. Myra Gale Brown gave birth to two children: Steve Allen Lewis (1959–1962) and Phoebe Allen Lewis (born 1963).

Steve Allen Lewis drowned in a swimming pool accident at age 3, while Lewis was on tour. The death devastated Lewis and contributed to his deepening drug and alcohol problems. Lewis later had two more children: Jerry Lee Lewis III (born 1966) with his fourth wife, Jaren Elizabeth Gunn Pate, and a daughter, Collette, born in 1970.

The implication: Lewis’s children experienced the chaos of a father who prioritized his career and addictions over family, with the tragic death of his son becoming a defining wound in the family’s narrative.

The Career That Could Have Been

Before the scandal, Jerry Lee Lewis was one of the biggest stars in rock and roll. His 1957 hit “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” reached number three on the Billboard pop chart and number one on the country and R&B charts. “Great Balls of Fire” followed, selling over a million copies. Lewis was seen as a rival to Elvis Presley, with a wilder, more dangerous stage presence.

The scandal effectively ended his mainstream rock career. Radio stations refused to play his music. Television appearances dried up. Lewis was sued by his record label, Sun Records, for breach of contract. He turned to country music, scoring several top-10 country hits in the 1960s and 1970s, but he never recaptured his rock and roll momentum.

The pattern: Lewis’s scandal destroyed not just his own career but also damaged the reputation of the emerging rock and roll industry, leading to a crackdown on “decadent” performers and tightening of moral standards in music.

Frequently Asked Questions

How old was Jerry Lee Lewis when he married Myra?

Jerry Lee Lewis was 22 years old when he married Myra Gale Brown on December 12, 1957. She was 13.

Was Myra Gale Brown really his cousin?

Yes. Myra was Lewis’s first cousin once removed. Her mother was the sister of Lewis’s father, making Myra his father’s sister’s granddaughter.

Did Jerry Lee Lewis go to jail for marrying a minor?

No. The marriage was legal in Mississippi at the time, which had no age of consent law until 1950. However, after the scandal, public opinion forced a change, and many states raised their marriage age requirements.

What happened to Myra Gale Brown after the divorce?

Myra remarried and became a nurse. She wrote a memoir and lived a private life, rarely speaking about her marriage to Lewis. She died in 2019 at age 75.

Did Jerry Lee Lewis have more children after Myra?

Yes. He had three more children after Myra: Jerry Lee Lewis III (born 1966) with his fourth wife, and two other children from subsequent marriages.

The Final Years: A Reluctant Legend

Jerry Lee Lewis spent his final decades as a living legend, though one whose personal life remained a subject of controversy. He continued to perform sporadically into the 2000s, despite health problems including a broken pelvis, a stroke, and severe back pain. In 2019, he was the subject of a documentary, Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind, directed by Ethan Coen, which addressed the scandal directly.

Lewis died on October 28, 2022, at his home in Nesbit, Mississippi, from natural causes. He was 87. His obituaries noted both his musical achievements and the scandal that defined his legacy. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him in 1986, though arguments continue about whether his personal life should have excluded him from such honors.

The implication: Jerry Lee Lewis’s legacy remains permanently split — between the raw, revolutionary talent that helped create rock and roll and the predatory behavior that left a 13-year-old girl’s life in ruins. The music endures, but it never fully escapes the shadow of what Lewis did.

The consequence for Myra Gale Brown: She surrendered her childhood to a man who saw her as a possession, spent decades rebuilding her life after divorce, and died in 2019 without ever receiving a public apology from Lewis or his defenders.