Myra Gale Brown
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Myra Gale Brown (born July 11, 1944) is the former wife and second cousin twice removed of singer Jerry Lee Lewis. She married Lewis on December 12, 1957 at the age of 13. Jerry didn't consider it odd because marrying cousins was acceptable according to Lewis's upbringing and Jerry's sister had been married at fourteen. Brown's age and blood relationship to Lewis caused an uproar on his first tour of England and was later hyped by anti-Rock & Roll Christian preachers. Myra is on record (April 17, 1998 on WDBX 91.1 FM Carbondale, Illinois) as calling the campaign a "witch-hunt", and saying of the years that followed:
- "Every day we thought that it was going to be the last day of the scandal. Every day for ten years it was going to change. It was like 'OK tomorrow we are going to get up and it's gonna be better… it's gonna be better.' And those were the times… ya know if you want two people to cling together and unite, have an outside force attack the two of them, and that is when people cling together and hold on to each other and say 'We are gonna make it through this.' Those were the happiest years of our lives."
They were divorced on December 9, 1970, after 13 years of marriage. Myra later wrote, together with Murray Silver, a biography of Lewis, Great Balls of Fire: The Uncensored Story of Jerry Lee Lewis (ISBN 0-688-01384-8). This book was originally released in October 1982 by William Morrow & Company. The book inspired a 1989 movie called Great Balls of Fire!, where Myra was portrayed by Winona Ryder.
