Jerry Lee Lewis’ Children: All About the Late Singer’s Family

Over the course of his life, the late singer Jerry Lee Lewis grew a large family.

A peer of Elvis Presley, the rock ‘n’ roll pioneer was nicknamed “The Killer” and was known for hits like “Great Balls of Fire,” “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” and “Breathless.”

Lewis was married seven times, to Dorothy Barton, Sally Jane Mitchum, Myra Gale Brown, Jaren Elizabeth Gunn Pate, Shawn Stephens, Kerrie McCarver and Judith Brown. From those marriages came sons Jerry Lee Lewis Jr., Ronnie Guy Lewis, Steve Allen Lewis and Jerry Lee Lewis III, and daughter Phoebe Allen Lewis-Loftin.

Lewis reportedly had another daughter, Lori Lee Lewis Lancaster, with Pate. According to multiple outlets, Lewis insisted that he was not Lori’s father, although she claimed they reconciled before his 2022 death.

Two of his sons — Jerry Lee Lewis Jr. and Steve Allen Lewis — died young. Steve died at 3 years old in a 1962 drowning accident in Memphis, Tenn. Jerry Jr. died in 1973 at age 19 when his Jeep overturned while driving in Mississippi, not long after Lewis’ mother died of cancer.

“The loss of my mother and two sons got to me,” Lewis told PEOPLE in 1978. “I was drinking heavy. I needed a fifth of tequila just to sober up. I couldn’t cut a record. It wasn’t the marriages that brought me down. It was just the passin’ of the caskets.”

Lewis suffered a minor stroke in 2019 and died of natural causes at home on Oct. 28, 2022. He was 87.

Here’s everything to know about Jerry Lee Lewis’ children.

Jerry Lee Lewis Jr.

Lewis welcomed his first child, son Jerry Lee Lewis Jr., with wife Jane Mitchum in 1954.

The younger Jerry followed in his father’s musical footsteps, joining Lewis’ band as an apprentice drummer, per Rolling Stone. Just a few days before his death, Jerry Jr. performed on the National Broadcasting Company’s Midnight Special, per The New York Times.

Over the course of his life, Jerry Jr. reportedly checked in and out of mental hospitals and drug-addiction wards five times, according to Rolling Stone.

On Nov. 13, 1973, Jerry Jr.’s Jeep flipped on a road in Mississippi, killing him. Jerry Jr., who was 19 at the time, had been living nearby with his dad in Nesbit.

Ronnie Guy Lewis

During the course of their four-year marriage, Lewis and Jane welcomed a second son, Ronnie Guy Lewis, in 1956.

He has led a life outside of the spotlight.

Steve Allen Lewis

Lewis and Myra, who was the singer’s first cousin once removed, had their first child together, son Steve Allen Lewis, in 1959. Myra was reportedly 14 years old when he was born, per the Los Angeles Times.

Their son was named after the comic Steve Allen, who invited Lewis to play on The Steve Allen Show in 1957.

Steve died in 1962 at age 3, when he fell into a swimming pool in Memphis, Tenn., and drowned. Though he experienced a lot of loss in his life, Lewis told The Guardian in 2015 that the deaths of two of his sons hit him hardest.

“Well, I don’t know if it made me stronger or not, sir, but it got my attention real good, I know,” the Grammy winner said. “That was a very hard time, a very sad time for me. But I pulled through it. I buried my own. I took care of everything.”

Phoebe Allen Lewis-Loftin

Myra and Lewis had their second child, daughter Phoebe Allen, in 1963.

“She just unbroke my heart,” Myra said of Phoebe in an episode of Investigation Discovery’s Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry?, per Fox News. “She made me proud and happy to have a child in my arms again … it gave me back something I had lost.”

After Myra and Lewis’ divorce in 1970, the mom and daughter relocated to Stone Mountain, Ga., where Phoebe studied photography.

“I have a close relationship with my father,” Phoebe told reporter Bill King in 1981. “It’s not really a father-daughter relationship, though Jerry would like it to be. But he wasn’t there to discipline me when I was little, and it’s too late for him to start now.”

As a teenager, Phoebe spent two summers as a backup singer for her father. She also worked as his manager from the early 2000s to 2012, going on tour with Lewis and joining him at public events like the 2005 Grammy Awards — where he received the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award — and “An Evening With Jerry Lee Lewis,” held at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles in 2010.

Their working relationship became complicated in 2012 after Lewis began dating Judith Brown, Myra’s former sister-in-law, whom Phoebe had hired as the singer’s caretaker. The day after Lewis and Judith wed in March 2012, Lewis removed Phoebe as his power of attorney and fired her as a manager, per 9News.

In 2017, Lewis sued Phoebe and her husband Ezekiel “Zeke” Loftin, alleging that he stole money and claiming that she forced him to go on tour despite his poor health conditions, per TMZ. In 2019, a judge in Mississippi dismissed most claims in the lawsuit, stating they were barred by the statute of limitations, according to Fox News.

Zeke is the president of Old Virginia Gem Company and CEO/founder of Twisted South Magazine, per his LinkedIn. As of 2024, Phoebe was working on an album, according to a post from her husband.

Lori Lee Lewis Lancaster

Lori Lee Lewis was born in 1972 to Lewis’ fourth wife Jaren Gunn Pate. According to multiple outlets, Lewis insisted that he was not Lori’s father.

According to her, though, the two repaired their relationship after his 2019 stroke.

“I was able to stay with him, part of the day, for months during rehabilitation. I got to ask him all the questions that I wanted to ask him and spend time with him,” she told Action News 5 after Lewis’ funeral. “He was just Jerry Lee my dad. He wasn’t Jerry Lee the entertainer. We had a great relationship.”

Lewis also allegedly went on to meet Lori’s children.

“I think because he was known as ‘the last man standing’ for that era of music, I didn’t think we’d be here for another 10 years,” she continued. “I thought he would be here forever.”

Jerry Lee Lewis III

Lewis and Kerrie Lynn McCarver welcomed their only child together, son Jerry Lee Lewis III, in 1987.

Jerry Lee was raised on the family ranch in Nesbit, Miss., where his dad taught him how to ride jet skis and motorcycles, as he told Behind the Blade in 2024. Jerry Lee said he missed a lot of school going to his dad’s shows, and shared that even if he couldn’t make it to one, he would often be woken up by Lewis for late-night conversations that sometimes lasted until sunrise.

“When you grow up around Chuck Berry and Little Richard and all those, it’s a very interesting lifestyle,” Jerry Lee added.

As a toddler, he made public appearances with his parents, even attending the premiere of Great Balls of Fire in New York City in 1989.

As of 2022, Jerry Lee was working two full-time jobs, writing on Instagram that the dual gigs were “rough but my boys are worth it.” He has two sons, Jerry and Mason.

Jerry Lee was raising his sons on the family ranch before being evicted in 2023. According to news reports, a judge ruled that Jerry and his kids were illegally occupying the property, as the deed was actually in the name of Lewis’ former manager and brother-in-law, Cecil Harrelson. Upon Harrelson’s death in 2013, the ranch passed to Harrelson’s children, not Lewis’.

“Nearly 50 years of the Jerry Lee Lewis legacy was removed from the property on Malone Rd. yesterday when we handed over the keys to our family home,” Jerry Lee wrote in a statement at the time, per Action News 5. “The place where I grew up is no longer our home and our Dad’s legacy, it’s now a property that will, unfortunately, be sold off without our input or decisions and contrary to my understanding of my father’s wishes.”

Jerry Lee regularly posts about his famous father on social media. In 2023, he purchased his dad’s motorcycle from Southern Thunder Harley-Davidson in Southaven, Miss.

“Everyday it didn’t get sold I thought to myself she’s waiting for me… Now she’s mine and I couldn’t be happier! I love you Dad!!” Jerry Lee wrote on Instagram.