Myra releases new book, “The Spark That Survied

[PeterC]

Great stuff Tony. Hope you've sent this to Myra too.

[Tony Papard]

Great stuff Tony. Hope you've sent this to Myra too.

I assumed she see it on the Ferriday Fireball site, but I've now sent her the link as a private message on Facebook.

[Piet]

I thought this picture was from a recenter date but close to the 2006 Tony is mentioning

[Richard Harvey]

Did you enjoy the book Tony?

[Tony Papard]

Did you enjoy the book Tony?

Yes, it was good to have Myra's story from her perspective and not influenced by people who said she had to write mainly about Jerry Lee, although naturally he does feature a lot in the book.

[chris morris]

According to Stuart Coleman in his Transatlantic Notes column in Now dig This :

"Myra originally wanted to title her memoir "Don't Shoot the Piano Player, Let Me!"...and she was only half joking."

Chris

[PeterC]

According to Stuart Coleman in his Transatlantic Notes column in Now dig This :

"Myra originally wanted to title her memoir "Don't Shoot the Piano Player, Let Me!"...and she was only half joking."

Chris

Certainly a better title than the one she used!

[Akiller]

At least Myraś sparkling eyes are left.

[tchr]

Ex-wife of Jerry Lee Lewis to sign copies of memoirs at Givens Books
http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/e ... 3ad5a.html

posted: Friday, June 10, 2016 5:52 pm
Myrna Lewis Williams, the ex-wife of rock ‘n’ roll musician Jerry Lee Lewis (“Great Balls of Fire”) will be hosting a book signing at Givens Books, 2236 Lakeside Dr, from noon to 2 p.m. Monday.
She will be signing copies of her second memoir, “The Spark that Survived.”
Williams is best known for the controversy surrounding her marriage to Lewis, her second cousin, in 1958, when she was 13 years old. The marriage created a scandal that almost ended the musician’s career.
— Casey Gillis

[tchr]

Ex-wife of Jerry Lee Lewis signs new book in Lynchburg
http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/e ... a07c0.html

Sitting at a small, wooden table in the entrance of Givens Books on Monday afternoon, Myra Williams listened intently to Wayne Fitzgerald, a fan of her ex-husband, Jerry Lee Lewis, as he told her about the time he saw The Killer perform in Amherst during the early ’60s.
“There were 200, 250 people — more than the fire department would have allowed,” he said, causing Williams to chuckle loudly. “The stage was so small that they had to put Jerry’s piano down on the dance floor. … I was standing as close to him as I am to you now during this performance.”
“You got a good show, then?” she asked.
Best known as the rock ‘n’ roll musician’s child bride, Williams, now 72, has been hearing stories like Fitzgerald’s for most of her life.
“That’s the thing, when they meet me, they want to tell me their experiences with Jerry,” she said. “People were always telling me like they didn’t know I knew this stuff.”
Williams made a special stop by the bookstore on Lakeside Drive to sign copies of her second memoir, “The Spark That Survived,” as part of a weeklong book tour that included a visit to her daughter’s home in Lynchburg.
“It was a privilege to welcome Myra Lewis Williams to our store today,” said Zahna Soule of Givens Books. She was “a delightful and personable woman. There was a good turnout and folks were excited to meet and speak with her.”
Throughout Monday afternoon, Williams signed books and spoke with fans about her new book, ex-husband and her previous publication.
Lewis’ third wife and first cousin once removed — or possibly his second cousin, the family’s not completely sure — Williams made waves nationally in the ’80s with the release of “Great Balls of Fire,” a biography that offered her insider’s view on the rock ‘n’ roller’s life and career.
In actuality, that first book, which she co-wrote with Murray Silver, never turned out the way she wanted.
“I wanted to write the story of a woman’s survival throughout the scandal, being married young,” she said. “I wanted to explain some of it away and tell how it really was and things that were misunderstood. But my publishers in New York, that was not what they wanted. … they really wanted the man’s story, not the woman’s.”
“Great Balls of Fire,” she said, ended up reading like a “date book” of events in Lewis’ life, from concerts and record releases to meetings with
celebrities. To make matters worse, the book became what she has dubbed a “stupid” Hollywood movie starring Dennis Quaid, which took creative liberties with many of the events in their marriage.
“It was too soon after, even if it was many years after she’d been divorced and all that,” said Phoebe Lewis-Loftin, the daughter of Williams and Jerry Lee Lewis, who lives in Lynchburg. “She wasn’t old enough yet. She hadn’t gone through enough of her life to be able to look back on it with more objectivity and compassion.”
Thirty years later, Williams has written the memory she always wanted to tell — a story of survival and overcoming the obstacles of life, those that are random and tragic as well as those that are self-made.
“The Spark That Survived” covers Williams’ story from the beginning, while delving into her marriage to Lewis, and how she eventually left the abusive relationship and regained control of her life.
“She is tough as a boot,” Lewis-Loftin said in describing her mother. “I think about things, having a child when she was a teenager, and then losing that child as a teenager. Being married to this man, who is really beyond description.”
Myra Williams, then Myra Brown, met Lewis when her father, J.W. Brown, brought the musician, his first cousin, to Memphis for an audition with Sun Records, the company that launched the career of Elvis Presley.
The two fell in love and married in 1957, when Lewis had his friend forge Williams’ name on a marriage license.
He was 22 and she was 13.
“You’ve got to remember, at 13, you don’t know what marriages are really like. I was a child,” she said. “Although, I was the most mature of the two of us. He was the kid and I was the serious one.”
The scandal broke the following year when the two traveled to England for a tour that Lewis and his managers expected to catapult his career internationally. Presley had joined the military and the timing was perfect for Lewis to step into his shoes as the leader of rock ‘n’ roll.
When they met the reporters in the airport in London upon landing, Williams, who had not been told to keep the marriage a secret, answered a reporter’s question as Lewis’ wife.
The British tabloids went ballistic, the tour was canceled and Lewis was asked to leave the country. Upon their return to the U.S., Lewis’ career continued to nosedive.
“People were incensed, they were angry,” Williams recalled. “[The scandal] hasn’t gone away yet. It’s still quoted in things.”
Despite the ire from the public, the scandal only served to bring Lewis and his bride closer together. The two stayed together for 13 years, and had two children, one of which they lost tragically in a pool accident.
In the end, what doomed the marriage, said Williams, was a classic case of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Lewis grew more violent and volatile as he became more involved with drinking and drugs. When Williams learned about her husband’s on-the-road affairs, she decided enough was enough and divorced him in 1971 at 26 years old.
“It was difficult,” she said. “And you’ve got to be brave. You basically do what you got to do. It turned my world upside-down; I had a child, and it was her life, too. It was horrifying. …There was plenty of nights I cried myself to sleep, I can assure of that. It was a slow go, but I never turned around and gave up.”
She moved to Georgia and built a life for herself and her daughter. In 1984, she married her husband Richard, who she described in her book as “a true gentleman,” and has built a successful real estate career.
Williams said she has also mended fences with Lewis since the divorce more than 40 years ago and no longer feels the agonizing pain of a failed marriage. Instead, she views the memories of her life with Lewis through a more mature lens.
“I laugh about things now instead of cry about them,” she said. “It’s in looking back everything became so ironic or so silly, and I can’t believe we got upset about something like that.”
In fact, she said, Lewis flirts with her, now, when they see each other.
“I think they love each other, still,” said Lewis-Loftin. “I think it’s a great love story, I do. It’s a shame things have to happen the way they do, but at the same time, I can’t imagine the two of them still being married. There’d have been a couple funerals by now.”

[Piet]

https://medium.com/cuepoint/ballad-of-t ... .w943lxuif

Can't remember if this was posted before so maybe here it is..again

[PirateHook]

Any rare photos in this book?