People sometimes compare him with the young Michael Jackson, who also knew how to combine innocence and knowingness. US fails miserably against Russia at the crucial UN Vote. Jimmy Merchant and Herman Santiago, the two surviving members of the original Teenagers (Sherman Garnes, the inventive bass, and Joe Negroni were the others), say they wrote "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" Zola and Elizabeth didn't get close to Emira; she didn't have anything much to say to them, either. He was characterized as The Octopus by Varietymagazine for his far-reaching control and power in the record industry and his connections to organized crime. Friday, November 06 2020. With black rhythm and blues releases beginning to win white audiences, music had become a ticket to glory. William McCracken, who represents Emira Eagle, called her at the elementary school where she teaches. Then, two months after his dishonorable discharge (for repeatedly being AWOL), he went to New York, telling Emira he wanted to see about reviving his career. When she and Frankie fought about it, Elizabeth said in court, he pulled a gun on her and she fled. Rodgers, who had been Roulettes top-selling artist in the 50s and early 60s with his #1 hit Honeycomb and 26 other charting singles, suffered traumatic head injuries from a blunt instrument in the beating. Elizabeth Waters Lymon, Elizabeth also acknowledged in court that she started using heroin and cocaine at this point. 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Phils 2023-24 season lineup celebrates the 20th anniversary of Walt Disney Concert Hall, Cardi B changes tune on community service, calls it best thing, spiritual journey, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, Shocking, impossible gas bills push restaurants to the brink of closures, The chance of a lifetime: Five friends ski the tallest mountain in Los Angeles, Im visiting all 600 L.A. spots on the National Register. According to Paula Span, her sisters boyfriend introduced them, and soon after, Emira was cooking meals for Frankie and they were shopping for wedding rings. When she recovered, she declared that "she knew it; she'd had faith all along," Peterson said. The record company executive has other problems: He was sentenced last week to 10 years in prison for his conspiracy conviction arising from an FBI investigation of racketeering in the recording industry. His widow in 2013 said she was lucky to know and love Lymon at a good time in his life when he was happy being in the Army and still had hopes for the future. 1 pop hit for Diana Ross in 1981 and recently turned up in a greeting card commercial. In 1984, as the original copyright term of Why Do Fools Fall In Love was expiring, Emira Eagle Lymon brought suit in the U.S. District Court in New York against Morris Levy, his record label, and his publishing company. Zola testified that their affair continued off and on for several more years. Emira Eagle Lymon Bryant, the legally declared widow of '50s teenage rock star Frankie Lymon, died Saturday at AU Medical Center. Also Read:Uplift Suasion: the notion to change racism, Your email address will not be published. He moved into her home and her bedroom. It teaches him responsibility and how to stand on his own two feet. "She was so taken with the idea of being once and for all declared the real Mrs. Frankie Lymon." Rubin gets his share, too: Emira testified in Surrogate Court that her arrangement called for any money recovered through her suit to be shared 50-50 with Rubin, after expenses and legal fees, which have already reached a substantial subtotal. She did not know the druggie described in this trial. So Lymon was already a 20-year-old has-been when he met Elizabeth Waters backstage at the Audubon Ballroom. Paralleling the spectacle of these three women battling over Lymons heritage is the way different elements of this film, directed by Nava from a script by Tina Andrews, are in conflict with one another. He took the bus to the post from her familys home each day. (All three women used the surname Lymon in court documents at least part of the time.) November 2, 1988 NEW YORK -- The judge who last winter heard three middle-aged women testify to their heartaches with the late Frankie Lymon -- the doo-wop idol who cowrote and sang "Why Do Fools. It is in fact three wives who face the camera, one after another, each claiming to be Lymons true love and legal spouse. ELIZABETH OGLE WATERS OBITUARY. There was nothing in writing in regards to the fundraisers or purchasing the headstone, Olb said. 1, "that would draw people to him.". Owning the rights to 1950s rock and roll songs meant more in the 1980s than it did when they were hits. ", But in 1984 (as the original copyright term of the song was expiring) Emira Eagle Lymon brought suit in U.S. District Court in New York against Levy, his attorney, his record label and his publishing company. Span wrote that Elizabeth called her work as a prostitute moonlighting in her testimony, and that Elizabeth said she had been arrested for it 15 or 20 times. With the trial about to begin and still believing that he had a firm agreement with Emira, Ronnie ran a second benefit concert in the fall of 1985 to raise additional funds for Frankie Lymons tombstone. Zola had also been a teenage star. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Required fields are marked *. A lot of people say I knew him so long I became like him.. None of the many tracks they made together or separately ever duplicated the jubilance of their early records. He had the looks; he had the voice; he had the moves. She did not object when he decided to head for California in 1965. Elizabeth, now 46, said she had been born again, but she still strove for glamor, her skirt fashionably above the knee, her fingernails long and orange. Elizabeth Lymon said in court papers that she married Lymon on Jan. 23, 1964, in Alexandria, Va., and had his daughter, Gloria Francine, who died shortly after birth in 1965. Each woman suspected he was sleeping with the other, and both were apparently correct. Neither Zola nor Elizabeth could quite figure Emira Eagle Lymon, the 48-year-old third wife from Augusta, Ga. Frankie marrying a schoolteacher? She was 19 and sympathetic; she wanted to help him regain what he'd lost. Her adversary, Morris Levy, was a powerful force in the music business. Mini Bio (1) Frankie Lymon was born on September 30, 1942 in Harlem, New York City, New York, USA. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. That eventually led to singing on street corners with friends and being discovered at age 12 by George Goldner of GEE Records. The monetary figure was estimated by Chuck Rubin, a former agent, who Paula Span described as a kind of musical bounty hunter. She also wrote that he established his Artists Rights Enforcement Corp. in 1981 to hound, bully, or sue record companies that he thought were depriving artists of their earnings, while taking a substantial cut for his efforts. Also Read:David Von Drehle: Biography, Career, Education and Books. The opinion dismisses the claims of Taylor, who was unable to produce "credible proof" of her marriage to Lymon or her divorce from her previous husband, both of which she said occurred in Mexico. Instead, he has posthumously provoked a trial that will determine which of the three women he is said to have married -- without ever scrupling to divorce any of them -- is really his widow and heir. Elizabeth 'Mickey' Waters : You see, y'all gotta understand. During 1965, the copyright for Why Do Fools Fall In Love was changed. But Elizabeth's attorneys argue that she and Frankie lived in Philadelphia and therefore established a common-law marriage under Pennsylvania law. Emiras Frankie Lymon is not this drunken bum, Pomeroy said. 1200 Observatory Drive | Madison, WI 53706-1212 | Map. Recording costs and commissions for everyone from managers to choreographers could siphon off much of a groups earnings. His bride was Emira Eagle, an elementary school teacher who lived with her family in nearby Augusta. For his part, Rubin's not opposed to generating new income from old music. Paula Span reported that, during the trial, the judge even raised the disquieting possibility that none of his three supposed marriages was legally contracted, that Lymon had no widow. Donald Ray Lymon Sep. 6, 1964 - Jan. 23, 2023 Lie in State Fri. 1/27/23, 4-8pm at Small's Mortuary. "Sell, sell, sell," he advised. And the true imponderable, "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?". Final briefs are due next week, with a decision expected later this spring. Rubin's 200 or so clients constituted an honor roll of early rock and roll. The small wedding party celebrated by getting very drunk, not an uncommon state for Frankie at the time. with Frankie Lymon, and they have filed their own federal suit against Levy et al., with Emira also named as a defendant. Her published account of the trial and the three women contesting to be named Frankies legal wife and heir was titled The Three Wives: The Legacy Of Love. It was engraved with the words, In Memory Of Frankie Lymon Sept. 30, 1942 - Feb. 27, 1968 "We Promise To Remember". Elizabeth Waters claimed to have married Lymon in 1964 in Virginia. She also turned to prostitution to support her daughter from her first marriage, to one Charles Phillips, when she was just 16. He had a bad year in 1966. What seemed pretty clear from all the filings is the reason why, 20 years afterward, it had become so important to be Frankie Lymon's legal widow. He was an actor and composer, known for American Graffiti (1973), October Sky (1999) and The Big Fix (1978). He left no fortune; when he died of a heroin overdose 20 years ago, he was broke and troubled, trying again for a comeback he never achieved. Lymon, known for being the lead vocalist of the world-wide popular rock group Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers, died less than a year later on Feb. 27, 1968, at age 25 in New York City, reportedly of a heroin overdose. Rubin's 200 or so clients, from the Del Vikings to the Coasters, constitute an honor roll of early rock 'n' roll. He had the type of personality that would draw people, she said. The retired Richmond County schoolteacher in her years after Lymon was married to Augustan Leroy Bryant. co-starring Halle Barry, Lela Rochon and Vivica A. As legacies go, it's not bad. That don't make me a Catholic. Lymon related that he started singing publicly with his three brothers in a choral group at Gospel Church in New York City. The stone was dedicated by his fans and friends on February 27, 1988, the 20th anniversary of Frankie's death and one month before the opening arguments in the case that would determine his legal wife and rightful heir. The Taylor sections are the most fun, largely because Taylor knew Lymon when he was at his performing peak and director Gregory Nava, whose last film was Selena, does an energetic job of re-creating the exuberant rock stage shows of the period. Emira came to New York to arrange for Frankies funeral mass and burial. The names of Frankie Lymon and Morris Levy were now listed as the songwriters. She told the court that she wanted to help him get back on his feet and regain all he had lost, but that trying to help him wasnt easy. Maybe it was the afterglow from her Tijuana marriage that induced Zola to trust a junkie like Frankie to take care of her financial affairs when she left to tour Japan with the Platters in December 1965. Lymon was one of hundreds of kids in Harlem who had taken to street-corner harmonizing in the 1950s, rehearsing in apartment house hallways and echoey subway stations. Check places of employment, social media profiles, work history, photos and videos, resumes and CV, arrest records, publications, public records and business records . There may be further delays, though, while that executive faces federal extortion charges. This trio first meets as a group in 1985 in the offices of Morris Levy (Paul Mazursky), the shrewd operator whose company released Lymons hits. The following month, Zola testified that she and Frankie drove to Tijuana and got married in a tiny chapel. And it was not uncommon for someone -- an agent, producer or record label head -- to name himself cowriter of a group's songs, entitling him to half the author's publishing royalties. Back in Los Angeles, the club where Zola was performing tossed a celebration, with a cake and champagne. Emira Lymon, who was appointed administrator of his estate in Georgia in 1973, sued her dead husband`s record company in 1984 for $500,000 in royalties. As Waters' claim went to court, Taylor claimed that she had been sexually active with Lymon as early as the "Biggest Rock "n" Roll Show of 1956" tour. It makes him not only a good soldier, but a better individual. 22, 2021. Elizabeth Lymon says she married Lymon on Jan. 23, 1964, in Alexandria, Va., and bore him a daughter the following year. She also stole the hearts of many people and led to a five-year legal battle to answer which of the three women who claimed to be married to the star was the real Mrs. Frankie Lemmon . Army discipline, I think, teaches a man how to protect himself. By 1962, Frankies career had been in decline for several years but she had nevertheless come with two girlfriends to meet her onetime idol. It was painfully revealed in court testimony, however, that Frankie Lymon, for all his talent, was a bigamist, hustler, liar, and thief. Both Zola and Elizabeth think their agreements with Levy fair, and neither plans to take legal action against him if she is found to be Lymon's widow. In fact, Rubin calls them "mundane, everyday.". And that song, which he wrote or helped to write and which will bear his boyish vocal signature forever. Yet just over a year later, Lymon would be found dead in his grandmothers bathroom from drug abuse. They fought and separated continually. And Emira, if she wins, will continue her federal case against Levy, a matter growing steadily more complex. Lymon didn't even leave a grieving widow to serve as keeper of his flame. "I'm not going to wear mink coats with {you} in jeans," she announced. Before the case came to court, Emira changed her mind about the tombstone, despite initially agreeing to have Ronnie Italiano and the UGHA to undertake the project. Cinematographer Ed Lachman. He can't remember what Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers sounded like that day -- the girls' shrieks all but drowned them out -- but he recalls the excitement. At the age of 13 little Lymon and his group of singers Teens signed a recording contract. Her divorce didn't come through until 1965. I feel sorry for him, most of all," echoed Zola. Zola Taylor Lymon, who was 50, had flown in from Los Angeles. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. The Platters. "She's a square," Zola decided, noticing that Emira was coming to court in sneakers. The pair claimed they wrote "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" with Frankie Lymon and asked for a declaration of rights to the copyright of the hit song. Last in line is Emira Eagle (Lela Rochon), a demure, well-bred Southern educator. Each woman suspected he was sleeping with the other, and both apparently were correct. Privacy Policy Agreement * I agree to the Terms of use and Privacy Policy. Paula Span reported that neither Zola nor Elizabeth could quite figure Emira Eagle Lymon, the 48-year-old third wife from Augusta, Georgia. Frankie, by 1965, had pretty much been reduced to lip-synching at record hops on the East Coast. Wiki User. "I'd have killed him, I was so angry," she says. At her insistence he checked into a Manhattan hospital to cure his drug habit, and maybe he succeeded for a time. Fox), a prison-hardened former shoplifter and prostitute. All these arguments are laid forth in voluminous briefs, memoranda and affidavits filed in Surrogate Court. Though Waters was not yet divorced from her first husband when she and Frankie Lymon married in a civil ceremony in Alexandria in 1964, their union became valid when that divorce became final in 1965, the judge found. Cheesborough. Elizabeth, 43, of Philadelphia, claims she married Lymon in Alexandria, Va., in 1964, and that the couple had a child who died. Consequently, he left behind a tangled and miserable legal and financial mess along with three wounded women. Her divorce from Phillips was not finalized until 1965. * MPAA rating: R, for language and some sexuality. He was clean for a time when she became pregnant in 1963, and he was deeply saddend by the death of their infant daughter. Back in New Jersey, Ronnie Italiano and the UGHA had adhered to Emiras aforementioned wishes and held off on moving forward with their project to acquire and place a memorial tombstone on Frankie Lymons grave until her lawsuit was settled. She said he didn't mean to hurt her, and blamed his behavior on his addictions. The court found that "the decedent and Elizabeth {Waters} have satisfied the requirements of common law marriage in the State of Pennsylvania." 'S not opposed to generating New income from old music in 1981 and recently turned up in a choral at! 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