How did Jerry Lee Lewis marry a 13 year old?

[JVS]

Were there no laws against it? It seems odd.

[DemBones DemBones]

1. Was she 13 or 14? I've forgotten. . . In any

case, in the fifties and sixties there were still a couple of states in which girls could marry at 12, with parental consent.

[JVS]

5. 13, and according to the movie I saw her parents knew nothing of it.

I was watching Great Balls of Fire which is based on a book by the wife.

[KG]

7. he had an ex-wife that lived?

i thought they were all found floating in his pool.

[JVS]

8. Wikipedia mentions no death

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myra_Gale_Brown

His second wife didn't die either because there was some problem with her and Lewis not being technically divorced that led to accusations of bigamy on Lewis' part.

[hickman1937]

11. Wife #4 drowned in a swimming pool,

Wife #5 overdosed on methadone.
http://honeymoons.about.com/cs/asseenontv/tp/CelebHoneymoons.htm

[DemBones DemBones]

19. Myra and Jerry Lee had a child who drowned in their pool

in Memphis. I was living there at the time, probably 1961 or '62, and remember the newspaper stories. I believe the child was a boy about 18 months -- 2 years old. It was ruled an accidental death after an investigation, as I recall.

[DemBones DemBones]

16. Movies sometimes dramatize the facts and

no doubt it's more dramatic to go behind the parents' back.

But it could be that she lied about her age and went to a state where girls could marry at 14 without parental consent. Or that someone posed as her parents. Who knows if the marriage was strictly legal?

[JVS]

17. You're right it might be inaccurate

That's kind of why I came here to ask. Sadly, I am not getting any information but rather a bunch of jokes about Southern Cousins getting married.

[tjdee]

2. Wasn't she also his cousin?

Don't remember.

[JVS]

6. 2nd cousin

[AntiCoup2K4]

3. Not to mention she was his cousin!

Too bad the Jerry Springer show wasn't around back then.

[arwalden]

4. Because They Were Cousins?

[kenny blankenship]

9. It was OK because she was his cousin

even though she was a (very) minor child, Ol' Jerry Lee was able to give her good counsel as a member of the family.

[mcscajun]

10. There may have been laws against it...but then again, maybe not

Marriageable Ages In today's Mississippi: 17 for males, 15 for females, unlimited with parental consent.

Who knows what it was in 1957?

There was no parental consent, I don't know if she was pregnant at the time or not (many states allow marriage for females under 'marriageable age' if they are pregnant).

It's been said that while many thought the 13 year old Myra was too young for the 23 year old Jerry Lee, his parents had the opposite thought.

As far as the cousin relationship, she was his second cousin, and most states would allow such a marriage; it's usually just the first cousin marriages that are prohibited.

[chaumont58]

12. His cousin, Jimmy Swaggart, officiated

Its good to have friends in high places.

[Parrcrow]

13. It probably involved...

candy and a promise of a trip to an amusement park.

[edbermac]

14. Don't forget Loretta Lynn married at 13...

Man, they like em' young in the Bible Belt, don't they?

[JVS]

15. As one of my friends says "Smart shoppers get the green bananas"

[hfojvt]

18. from my mom's hometown paper, Carthage, NY

"Events in 1937

The discovery Feb. 2 that Leona Elizabeth Roshia, 12, and Stanley S. Backus had been married in Carthage Jan. 15 was news worthy of selection in third place. The child marriage was publicized in newspaper and magazines all over the country, following as it did the sensational Tennessee case in which a nine-year-old girl was married to a 21-year-old farmer.

The experiences of the bridegroom, his bride, and members of her family in the courts was followed with avid interest by Times’ readers."

[hedda_foil]

20. It was legal at the time.

I remember when it happened though I can't remember if they had to go out of their state to get to one that still let 13 year olds get married. There was such an uproar that child marriage was finally outlawed in all states.

[48pan]

21. Not only legal, but quite common in the hills.

[Scout1071]

22. Same way R Kelly married a 14 year old girl.

Very quietly.

[undeterred]

23. shotguns

"On February 21st, 1952 he got married for the first time to Dorothy Barton. The story says that Dorothy´s brothers showed up at his door and threatened him into marrying their sister."

http://www.classicbands.com/jerrylee.html

[caty]

24. Jerry Lee Lewis

should have been charged with the murder of his 5th wife, Shawn. But, since he owned the town he lived in, he got away with it. Every now and then her family brings all of this up again in an effort to get justice for Shawn.

Jerry Lee married his fifth wife, 25-year-old Shawn Michelle Stephens. Less than three months after their wedding she was found dead in their home. After a superficial investigation, the death was ruled a suicide by overdose of methadone pills and Lewis was not charged with foul play, though Shawn Michelle was found lying in their bed in a bruised condition with blood on her body and under her fingernails. There were also “the permeation of fresh, small bloodstains around Lewis’ Mississippi home.”

http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/rockmusicand.htm

[kodi]

25. obviously, he lied about his age.

.