When Jerry Lee Lewis landed at Heathrow Airport in 1958, he thought he was the new King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Elvis was in the Army. The path was clear. But the man they called "The Killer" brought something with him that the British press couldn't ignore: his third wife, Myra Gale Brown.
She was 13.
The fallout was instant. Within days, the tour was cancelled, and Lewis was essentially blacklisted. Honestly, it's the kind of scandal that would end a career today in five minutes, but for Jerry Lee, it was just the start of a long, complicated, and often tragic history with seven different women.
The Seven Wives of The Killer
You can't talk about Jerry Lee Lewis and wife history without acknowledging the sheer chaos of it. He didn't just have seven wives; he often had two at the same time. His track record with bigamy was almost as consistent as his piano playing.
His first marriage to Dorothy Barton happened when he was only 16. It lasted about 20 months. Before the divorce was even finalized, he moved on to Jane Mitcham. This pattern—marrying the next woman before the last one was legally gone—became his trademark move.
Myra Gale Brown: The Scandal That Changed Everything
Most people know about Myra. She was his first cousin once removed, and her father, J.W. Brown, actually played bass in Jerry Lee’s band. When they married in December 1957, Jerry Lee was 22.
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The press in London smelled blood. When a reporter asked Myra how old she was, she told the truth. Jerry Lee had tried to claim she was 15, but the cat was out of the bag. The public was horrified, not just by her age, but by the fact that he was technically still married to Jane Mitcham at the time.
Myra eventually divorced him in 1970, citing "every type of physical and mental abuse imaginable." She later became a successful real estate agent and author, proving there was life after the spotlight of a child bride.
A Trail of Tragedy and Suspicion
The middle years of Jerry Lee's life were dark. Like, really dark.
His fourth wife, Jaren Elizabeth Gunn Pate, drowned in a swimming pool in 1982, just weeks before their divorce was final. People whispered. They pointed to the fact that his son, Steve Allen Lewis, had also drowned years earlier. While no charges were ever filed, the cloud of suspicion never really left him.
It got worse.
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Wife number five, Shawn Stephens, died only 77 days after their wedding. The cause? A methadone overdose. There were allegations of abuse and even a Rolling Stone exposé that questioned the circumstances of her death. Again, Lewis was never charged, but the "Killer" nickname started to feel a lot more literal to the public.
The Later Years and Judith Brown
After a 21-year marriage to Kerrie McCarver—the longest of his life until that point—Jerry Lee married for the seventh and final time in 2012.
The bride was Judith Brown.
If that name sounds familiar, it should. Judith was the ex-wife of Rusty Brown. Rusty is Myra Gale Brown’s brother. Essentially, Jerry Lee married the former sister-in-law of his most famous wife.
Kinda weird? Yeah. But by all accounts, Judith was the one who stabilized him in his final decade. She was his caregiver as his health declined, staying with him until his death in October 2022 at the age of 87.
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What We Get Wrong About the Scandal
Looking back, we often view the Myra Gale Brown incident through a modern lens. While it was a massive scandal even in 1958, Jerry Lee genuinely seemed surprised by the backlash. In his mind, in the rural South, people married young.
But it wasn't just the age.
It was the bigamy. It was the cousin connection. It was the arrogance of bringing her on an international tour while his career was peaking. He gave the critics a reason to bury Rock 'n' Roll, and they took it.
If you’re looking to understand the man, you have to look at the wives. They weren't just footnotes; they were the fuel for his blues and the cause of his many downfalls.
What You Should Do Next
If you're fascinated by the messy intersection of music history and personal scandal, here are three ways to dig deeper into the Jerry Lee Lewis saga:
- Read "The Spark That Survived": This is Myra Gale Brown’s (now Myra Williams) memoir. It offers a much-needed perspective from the person who actually lived through the 1958 firestorm.
- Watch the 1989 film "Great Balls of Fire!": While it's a bit "Hollywood," Dennis Quaid captures the manic energy of Lewis perfectly, and it shows how the Myra scandal unfolded in real-time.
- Listen to his Country Era: After the scandal killed his rock career, Jerry Lee reinvented himself as a country star. Listen to "Another Place, Another Time" to hear the regret and lived-in pain that his many marriages clearly inspired.
The story of Jerry Lee Lewis and his wives is a reminder that talent doesn't excuse a person from the consequences of their choices, even if they can play the piano like a man possessed.