Jerry Lee Lewis is one of the greatest Rock and Roll musicians and piano players of all time.  Jerry Lee is known for his mixing of country and blues to create his own music.  

Jerry Lee Lewis was born September 29, 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana.  His parents were amazed.  Mamie and Elmo Lewis  noticed Jerry Lee's love and talent for the piano when he was five year old, mortgaged their home, and bought him a piano.  He was performing as a professional piano player at the age of fifteen.

At the age of sixteen, Jerry Lee married Dorothy Barion. Dorothy was fifteen and a minister’s daughter. Dorothy divorced him one year later because he was always staying at nightclubs instead of being home with her. Mamie Lewis wanted her son to go to college, so she enrolled him at Waxahachie Bible College in Texas. He was thrown out of college after playing his boogie-woogie version of “God is Real.” 

Jerry and his father gathered thirty dozen eggs to pay for a trip to meet and audition for Sam Phillips of Sun Records. Jerry Lee signed his first record deal with Sun Records when he was twenty-two years old. His first major hit was “Whole Lotta Shaking Going On.” It went to number one on the Country and R&B music charts. “Great Balls of Fire” and “Breathless” were his next hits to go to number one. His hard work was finally paying off.

Jerry Lee met his next leading lady, Mitcham. They married in 1953, before his divorce was final with Dorothy. Lee was now being called a bigamist. This marriage also failed and Jerry Lee met his thirteen-year-old second cousin, Myra Gale. These two fell in love and married in 1953, also before he was divorced from Jane. This made him a two-time bigamist. Their marriage was kept a secret.  Myra was only thirteen and his cousin until Jerry Lee insisted on her going to England with him. Myra told reporters that she was Jerry Lee’s wife. This would almost end his career after the world rejected him on moral grounds.

He and Myra took off to spend time together and had two children. They had a girl Phoebe and a boy,  Steve Allen. Steve Allen drowned in a swimming pool at three years old. This caused friction and a divorce between Myra and Jerry Lee. 

Jerry Lee married a fourth time in 1971 to Jaren Gunn. Jaren also drowned in a swimming pool soon after they were married. He married a fifth time to Shawn Stephens. Shawn was found dead in their home from an overdose. Thus Jerry Lee became “Killer.” 

In spite of his marriage difficulties, in 1986, Jerry Lee was the first person to be inducted into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame while a movie about his life and career was being made. The movie was called “Great Balls of Fire.” In 1993 he wrote and published a book about his life called “Killer.” His career found new life after the movie and book. April 28, 1996 was declared “Jerry Lee Lewis Day” in Memphis, Tennessee. He was also named a Professor of Rock ‘N’ Roll at the University of Memphis.

Jerry Lee is divorced from his sixth wife Kerrie.  They have a sixteen-year-old son named Jerry Lee Lewis, III. Jerry Lee lives at his ranch in Nesbit, Mississippi. He still tours around the world and can play the piano like he did at the age of fifteen.