Rock N’ Roll Pioneer Shocked the World by Marrying His 13-Year-Old Cousin 68 Years Ago This Week

It was 1958, and some of the hottest musical acts of the time were defining the era. Rock and roll artists like Chuck Berry, Connie Francis, and Elvis Presley were infiltrating both airwaves and hearts. Among them, one of the biggest rising stars was Jerry Lee Lewis. Just a year earlier, his career skyrocketed thanks to a deal with Sun Records. His hits “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire” earned him international fame. But in 1958, all of that changed with one revelation that made him fodder for public ridicule forever.

That September, the public learned that the crooner had married his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale Brown. The pair had secretly wed on December 12, 1957.

Lewis, then 22, traveled to England for a show. With Elvis in the army, it was considered a prime time for him to claim the rock ’n’ roll crown. But when he arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport, a British journalist spotted Brown and asked her a simple question. Being wholly unprepared for media attention, she answered honestly that she was Lewis’ wife.

“I was the one who let the big ol’ cat out of the bag. It was a perfect storm—it couldn’t have happened at a worse time, at a worse place,” she told Medium in a 2014 interview. “Everything just came together and a major explosion happened.”

By the time they returned to the U.S., their “dirty laundry” was fully public. Not only did people learn of Myra’s age and family connection, but also that she was the daughter of Lewis’ cousin and bass player J.W. Brown—and that Lewis was technically still married to his second wife, Jane Mitcham, according to Ultimate Classic Rock.

Lewis’ managers had warned him not to bring Myra to England. The couple nonetheless remained married until 1970, sharing two children: a daughter, Phoebe, and a son, Steven, who tragically died at age three. Looking back, Lewis admitted responsibility for their marriage ending: “It was all my fault—she caught me cheating.”

Related: Controversial Rock Icon Accidentally Shot His Bass Player in the Chest 49 Years Ago Today

Myra Defends Her Marriage to Jerry Lee Lewis

Brown has long rationalized their age-gap marriage, explaining that she wasn’t a run-of-the-mill teen.

“My generation was taught to hide under our desk when the bomb came, so you always had in the back of your mind that any minute, any day, life could come to an end,” she said. “What I wanted was a baby in my arms, a home, a husband, a kitchen to cook in, a yard to raise roses. My little brother was born because I begged my parents for a baby at ten years old. They called me his deputy mom; I just took him over. That was what I was like, and Jerry was busy having fun, he was the true entertainer.”

Even so, she admits now that the idea of a 13-year-old marrying anyone would make her bristle.

Shockingly, child marriage is still legal in 34 U.S. states. Four states do not require any minimum age for marriage, as long as a parental or judicial waiver is signed. Between 2000 and 2018, nearly 300,000 children were married, the vast majority being young girls wed to adult men.

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This story was originally reported by Parade on Sep 30, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.