6. The Star’s Child Bride
All jokes about Dixie and the Deep South aside, to marry one’s cousin, or tie the knot with a thirteen-year-old girl, were not exactly commonplace in Louisiana back in those days. On the other hand, they were not considered extreme, either. So in light of that background, Jerry Lee Lewis did not think Myra Gale Brown’s age, or the fact that she was related to him, were big deals. To the extent he was worried about a potential scandal, his concerns revolved more around the timing of the wedding than the age of the bride. Lewis’ third marriage had been performed before he had finalized the divorce from his second wife.
In the meantime, Lewis’ career and popularity continued to soar, not just in the US, but around the world. So an international tour was arranged. He was warned not to take his child bride with him on his first tour to Europe, but he was blinded by love and unwilling to be separated from his child bride, and ignored the warnings. He should have listened. When he arrived in Britain in May of 1958, Lewis introduced Myra to reporters as his wife. However, he claimed that she was fifteen – which was still shockingly young.
