Talk:Myra Lewis Williams

Cousins
I don't understand why this would have freaked out the English more than the Americans. First-cousin marriage is less stigmatized in Europe than in the US. The classic example is all the interlinked royal families, but it is not exceptional in general. Is it just that this information was unearthed while they happened to be in England?24.131.12.228 19:35, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

The movie (which may not be anywhere near accurate) gives the impression that it's just that nobody had noticed until they went to England - when suddenly he was traveling with this very young girl, questions got asked. Her being a vague relation only added to the scandal of marrying a 13yo.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt were fifth cousins once removed, which hardly makes them blood relations at all.


 * From my (British) POV, though I'm too young to have been around at the time, I would agree with the above comment: the fact that she was 13 would have been by far the more shocking factor. (The age of consent then was 16, as now.) I wouldn't say that there's no stigma attached to someone marrying their cousin, but the Victoria/Albert example does help in that regard perhaps. 81.158.0.164 (talk) 18:11, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

First or second cousins?
This article differs from the Jerry Lee Lewis article, where the matter also has been discussed extensively on the Talk page. Can we agree that the JLL article is correct and change this one? AEriksson 12:15, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Or third cousin? (See Rolling Stone's JLL biography!) Rave by the name 10:17, 16 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Myra's father was JLL's first cousin, making Myra JLL's first cousin once removed. See source I added to article. Ward3001 (talk) 01:22, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

JLL: had two or three children?
This article differs again from the JLL one, in which there's a 3rd child, a second son mentioned, who died of car accident at the age of 19. Rave by the name 10:14, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

The Child Bride
I take offense to this quote:

The scandal over the marriage destroyed Lewis' promising rock and roll career, but strengthened their marriage.

Now I’ll lay out first that my opinion is that a 13-year-old cannot consent to marriage with an adult. I think Lewis is a rapist and Brown is a victim. I think he groomed her and took her for himself then dumped her when he found someone he liked better.

Now I’ve read what his bride has had to say. I’ve read her story and I know she sees things differently. I know she doesn’t feel she’d been manipulated or “groomed.” I think that’s awesome that she doesn’t feel that way, and I think that does raise questions about consent. Is it a clear line? I don’t know. I don’t think any of us can answer that.

But what I can say is the above statement is extremely editorialized, and as hobbyist Wikipedia editors, we are the main source of information for many people on the Internet. Maybe a 13-year-old girl will stumble across this article and see that and think “well maybe my relationship to this man isn’t so bad.” I don’t think that would be a good thing, and I don’t think any of you would either.

The scandal did not ruin his career. He ruined it himself. His decision to assault a 13-year-old is what ruined his career along with alcoholism and drug abuse, and it CERTAINLY didn’t strengthen his marriage. He was unfaithful and abusive to this child the whole way through.

I cannot say what the above statement should be replaced with, and clearly I’m too emotionally invested at this point to write something objective, but I can say it shouldn’t say that. Dabblequeen (talk) 00:54, 7 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Just looked this article up after seeing a documentary; what on Earth is the good of this kind of completely subjective, hand-wringing comment? It's just saying "I don't like this!" and offering nothing of any value. The fact was Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin, and this was considered scandalous (per consensus, due to the age rather than the cousin relationship), and thus a scandal resulted. The scandal apparently negatively impacted his career. The wording is perfectly logical and entirely justifiable, and histrionics of the sort above are bewildering and, as the contributor appears to apprehend, entirely useless in offering any meaningful alternative, but nevertheless manages to shoehorn in the buzzwords "consent", "victim", "groomed", etc. The woman herself has spoken on the subject, but THAT'S not good enough either. Sometimes what each and every person under the sun thinks of past events isn't actually of any real relevance, and a report on the historic facts is both sufficient and desirable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.109.202.119 (talk) 05:27, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Name change required?
Hi all. Given the sourced statement that the author in question now goes by the name "Myra Lewis Williams", shouldn't the article title be changed to reflect that? Or perhaps a redirect from Lewis Williams to Gale Brown is in order? I apologise I'm not up to date with the Wikipedia state-of-art, but using current names seems to be the standard I've seen. Thanks. - TwoLeaves (talk) 20:26, 5 December 2021 (UTC)

==== So he was blaming her for the 3yo kid's death she'd left near the pool, they've grown distant, they both probably were cheating, then she's been digging up 'evidence' and then married the guy doing the digging huh.. wanted a divorce in her favor. I mean it's typical, she does a cheating thing (probably with the detective) so she starts digging to feel like a better person, and to save 'face'.. decent people just stay honest to themselves and deal with it, not backdate things and hire detectives (or something else) to enforce control over others. Gendalv (talk) 15:22, 14 April 2022 (UTC)

"Adoptive first cousin"
The article currently lists Williams as Lewis's "adoptive first cousin". There has never been any suggestion that Williams and Lewis were anything other than blood first cousins, once removed, through Williams's father J.W. Brown. There is no reference listed for the adoptive claim so I will remove it. Roisterer (talk) 03:50, 5 June 2024 (UTC)