Jerry Lee Lewis, who was 87 when he died, saw his career come to a halt following the marriage of his cousin. Myra Williams, now 78, is speaking to Inside Edition.
Williams was 13 years old when she wed Lewis in 1957. Lewis was then 22. The press was furious and denounced Lewis as a traitor. “baby snatcher.”
“It became romantic when Jerry was at our house, and he would ask me if I wanted to go somewhere, like to the Dairy Queen and get an ice cream or something like that. And he would just be silly with me, and then he started kissing me,” Williams tells Inside Edition.
The uproar over their marriage was the center of the 1989 film “Great Balls of Fire”Starring Dennis Quaid, Winona Ryder.
“They made Jerry look like a moron, and made me look just like a bubblegum-chewing kid with no brain,” Williams said.
After 13 years of marriage and two children, Lewis’s substance abuse took its toll and the couple divorced.
Williams claims that Lewis’s death was discovered by Williams through their daughter. She said that she wanted to remember Lewis. “alive and playing ‘Great Balls of Fire.’”