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Jerry pictured at a party in Memphis at the end of filming Great Balls of Fire Movie
The following article was printed in the Nashville Banner on June 29th 1989 Triumphs, Tragedies in the life of Jerry Lee Lewis Born Sept.25, 1935, Ferriday, La., the second son of Elmo and Mamie Ethel Lewis In 1944, begins playing piano. First song; Silent Night In 1949, performs for first time in the parking lot of Ferriday Ford dealership. Songs include Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee. He earns 13 dollars in tips. Decided that night to become a professional musician. In 1950, performs at the Blue Cat Nightclub in Natchez, Miss., and gains a 20 minutes programme every Saturday on Natchez station WNAT. That year he receives 29 F's in school. In 1951, at age 16 marries Dorothy Barton, 17, a preacher's daughter. In 1952, becomes drummer for house band at the Wagon Wheel in Natchez. In 1953, marries Jane Mitcham, 17, of Natchez a week before his divorce from Barton is final.Later that year he fails an audition for the Louisiana Hayride, a live radio programme on Shreveport's KWKH, similar to the Grand Ole Opry. In November 1953, son Jerry Lee Lewis Jr is born. In 1956, moves to Memphis and gets hired as a session pianist at Sun studios. Plays on records by Billy Lee Riley and Carl Perkins. Sam Phillips, owner of Sun, grants Lewis's frist recording session in late '56. First record: a cover of Ray Price's Crazy Arms and the self-composed End OF The Road. In 1957, his second recording session includes Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, which had been recorded by Big Maybelle and many others. Lewis adds ad-libbed lines to the song and it becomes the second song to reach No 1 on both Country and R&B charts - the first was Elvis's Heartbreak Hotel. When Lewis appears on Dick Clark's American Bandstand he becomes the first guest to refuse to lip-sync. In early 1958, Lewis records Great Balls of Fire. He performs it in the movie Jamboree. Later that year at age 22, he marries his 13-year-old cousin Myra. A 2-month tour of England, expected to be a grand success, is cut short as the press makes his marriage froint page news. At the time Lewis's bass player is JW Brown - Myra's 31 year old father. He is released from his contract to tour England as news of the marriage spreads. In 1959, son Steve Allen Lewis is born. He drowns in the family pool in 1962. In 1964 he signs with Smash records. Lewis's band are arrested in Grand Prairie - possession of amphetamines. In 1966, releases first all country album on Smash. In 1968 scores his first No 1 country hitin 10 years with Another Place another Time. In April 1971, Myra Gail Brown divorces him. In October 1971, Lewis, 36, weds Jaren Pate, 25. Their only child, Lori leigh Lewis, is born in April 1972. In 1973, Lewis makes first and only appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. he interupts his performance and calls Del Wood, whom he cited as a primary influence. They perform Wood's 1951 hit Down Yonder. In November 1973 his son Jerry Lee Jr is killed in an auto accident. In 1974 Jaren files for separation. in 1975, Jerry Lee Lewis Enterprises is evicted from a Memphis office building on Airways Boulevard after Lewis has blasted 25 holes through the office door with a .45 calibre automatic. In 1975, federal agents confiscate a substantial amount of drugs from Lewis's Convair 640 jet at Denver airport. Lewis is released without charge. In Sept '76, on his 41st birthday, Lewis shoots his bass player, Butch Owens, in the chest with a .357-calibre Magnun. Owens survived. Lewis said he thought the gun was empty. On November 22, Lewis was arrested at a street corner near his home in Collierville, East of Memphis. He had overturned his $46,000 Rolls Royce. He was charged with driving recklessly and having no licence. Although he appeared intoxicated, a breath test registered no alcohol. On November 23rd, Lewis pulls his Lincoln continental to the gate of Graceland. He gets out waving a pistol around saying he has come to see Elvis. He curses the security guarads and refuses to leave. When the plocie arrive, they find Lewis sitting in his car, the pistol cocked and resting on his knee. he is charged with public drunken-ness and carry a handgun. The next morning he is released on a $250 bond. That night he enters hospital for treatment of peptic ulcers. Charges are dropped. In 1979, at the Palamino Club in Los Angeles, an emcee praises a newcomer as "one of the greatest performers of the day". Lewis then stands up and shouts "I am the greatest" before jumping onstage and starting to perform. In June 1982, his wife Jaren Pate, drowns. The couple had been separated eight years but never divorced. In June 1983 at age 47, he marries Shawn Michelle Stevens, a 25 year-old cocktail waitress from Michigan. In August she is found dead, brusied and bloodied, in the bedroom of their Nesbit home. The Coroner's report cited death by an overdose of amphetamines. In April, 1984, marries Kerrie McCarver, 21, his sixth wife. On June 30th 1989, the Movie Great Balls Of Fire, with Dennis Quaid as Jerry Lee Lewis gets released. |
