He was a master manipulator, however, and it was just two months after his less than honorable discharge for repeatedly being AWOL that he went to New York, telling Emira that he wanted to see about reviving his career while also secretly planning to contact lady friends and drug pushers in the city. He had the type of personality that would draw people, she said. Her obituary was posted on February 9, 2023. I know some of these characters, and some I like very muchI knew Cardinal Spellman, too. She says he didn't mean to hurt her, and blames his behavior on his addictions. 1200 Observatory Drive | Madison, WI 53706-1212 | Map. A lot of people say I knew him so long I became like him.. "He was honest, completely honest," Elizabeth insists. Despite hearing that Emira had changed her mind, Ronnie maintained faith in their original agreement and ordered a headstone from a company in North Arlington, New Jersey. Cheesborough. and never miss an insightful take by the TFIGlobal team, This website uses cookies. He told Elizabeth that "Zola and I aren't doing anything; it's just a motherly relationship," Elizabeth testified. But Anne Pomeroy of the Artists Rights Enforcement Corp. (which has played a major role in the Lymon case, and about which more later) spoke with Emira at length. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Family and friends said goodbye Friday to Emira Eagle Lymon Bryant, who. Key parts of this chronology are in dispute, of course. And it stalls or kills a federal lawsuit Eagle had brought to reclaim control of the publishing rights to his song. Funeral services will be held Monday, February 27, 2023, at 3:00 PM from the chapel. What's different here is that before the suit could come to trial, Elizabeth petitioned the Surrogate Court claiming that she was Lymon's widow and Zola objected claiming that she was. It didnt last long, however. She says she's never recovered financially from the loss of her home and still feels "cheated," yet she also talks about Lymon's ruptured family, and, again, his drug dependency. Why Do Fools Fall in Love With Frankie Lymon is more like it. 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. According to Paula Span, people sometimes compared Frankie with the young Michael Jackson, who also knew how to combine innocence and knowingness. That don't make me a Catholic. Rubin's 200 or so clients constituted an honor roll of early rock and roll. * Playing in general release throughout Southern California. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. By 1964 he was using again, and she was hiding the money from his occasional gigs in a hole in the wall of their apartment to keep him from buying heroin with it. Its a mark of how shallow Fools is that even as gifted an actor as Tate (excellent in Menace II Society and Dead Presidents) cant turn Lymon into anything more than a cipher. "Sell, sell, sell," he advises. Zola Taylor Lymon, who was 50, had flown in from Los Angeles. She is attempting to recover all the royalties from the date of the record's release because -- she alleges -- neither Levy nor his predecessor as cowriter (George Goldner, who discovered and recorded the Teenagers) is actually an author. "She was speechless, actually unable to talk," reported the attorney, Dwight Peterson. Elizabeth, now 46, says she's been born again, but she still strives for glamor, her skirt fashionably above the knee, her fingernails long and orange. 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. Frankie had started using heroin again, and she was forced to hide the money from his occasional gigs in a hole in the wall of their apartment to prevent him from using it to buy drugs. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. Frankie, by 1965, had pretty much been reduced to lip-synching at record hops on the East Coast. And Emira, if she wins, will continue her federal case against Levy, a matter growing steadily more complex. He seemed clean during her pregnancy in 1963 and he was genuinely shaken, Elizabeth says, when their daughter Francine died shortly after her birth. He and two codefendants are busy preparing for their April 11 trial for extortion and conspiracy in federal court in Camden, N.J., stemming from an FBI investigation of organized crime in the recording industry. Lymon was 14 years old when he began dating Zola Taylor (Berry), the lead singer of the Platters in the mid-1950s. A headstone was not part of the package, however, and Frankie Lymon was buried in an unmarked grave at St. Raymonds Cemetery. The essence of their dispute was which of the marriages was legally binding, given a certain laxity in some quarters about divorce. 507 residents | Coed by wing | Single and double rooms. Ms. ELIZABETH OGLE WATERS OBITUARY. Zola, the second supposed wife, got to be pretty friendly with the first. Emira Eagle Lymon Bryant, the legally declared widow of '50s teenage rock star Frankie Lymon, died Saturday at AU Medical Center. Best Answer. "Up to a point." Music Stephen James Taylor. Waters bore Lymon's only known child, a daughter who died shortly after birth. An employee of a furniture store in north Philadelphia, she was in South Carolina for a family funeral. Like the jazz and blues artists before them, the rock 'n' rollers of the '50s and '60s were often ripe for rip-offs. The small wedding party celebrated by getting very drunk, not an uncommon state for Frankie at the time. "I didn't want her to hear it on the news," he said. Lymon C. Reese Lymon Clifton Reese was born in Stanley, Pike County, Arkansas, on April 27, 1917, to Samuel Wesley Reese and Nancy Elizabeth (Betty) Daniel Reese. Mini Bio (1) Frankie Lymon was born on September 30, 1942 in Harlem, New York City, New York, USA. Absent the kind of star performance Jennifer Lopez gave in Selena (and that films cleaner, more direct story line), cornball dramaturgy can take audiences only so far and not one note further. When she recovered, she declared that "she knew it; she'd had faith all along," Peterson said. She told the judge that Frankie Lymon was a charmer. It teaches him responsibility and how to stand on his own two feet. Click the "All Sizes" button above to read an article or to see the image clearly. All rights reserved. Elizabeths lawyers, on the other hand, maintained her marriage was valid, which meant that neither Zolas nor Emiras could have been. Levy's attorney, Leon Borstein, says that Levy "assisted in the writing of the song; you have to remember, if he added one word, that's sufficient" to justify coauthorship. And yet -- what was it about him? He (Frankie) sort of changed my life, she told the judge. Span wrote that Rubin gets his share too. Screenplay by Tina Andrews. Her divorce didn't come through until 1965. Also Read Inside Data and Cyber Security issue in Barbados Europe plays chess with Wagner's African moves, imposes sanctions Artists Rights helped secure a financial settlement for Richard Berry, composer of "Louie, Louie" just before the song was used in a wine cooler ad. 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. Emira came to New York to arrange for Frankies funeral mass and burial. She plays Lemmons second wife. So the trial went forward. That eventually led to singing on street corners with friends and being discovered at age 12 by George Goldner of GEE Records. Depending on how the judge rules, the decision may reactivate a federal suit to wrest Lymon's royalties and publishing rights from the record industry executive who claims to own them. She did not object when he decided to head for California in 1965. Levy was aware of all the details of Frankie Lymons love life, and he used it to his advantage by bringing in Elizabeth Waters and Zola Taylor to challenge Emiras claim to be Frankies widow and, by having the court determine her marraige to be invalid, derail her lawsuit. The female lawyer stated that the battle began shortly after Emira asked the Georgia court to declare her as the administrator of Lemmons Estate. "Frankie had a very good appetite for the best of life," she says. She told Span that she never recovered financially from the loss of her home and still feels "cheated." It is copyrighted in the names of Frankie Lymon and Morris Levy, head of Roulette Records, an independent label that bought out the Gee label, which originally released the record. "If you have any kind of heart at all," she says, "you know that he went through hell.". Kids didnt know about royalties said Bob Hyde of Murray Hill Records. 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. He then called Elizabeth and urged her to join him. Elizabeth testified that she did not object. Im sure it probably would bring back some good memories, she said of the show that was being staged at the Imperial. At the least, records and witnesses' recollections seem to indicate that Frankie Lymon did stand before a magistrate or minister on three occasions to promise himself to each of these women until death parted them, which turned out to be a fairly short time. Lymon's work had largely been reduced to lip-syncing at record hops; he said Zola could help get him some gigs in Los Angeles. His attorney called the charges complete speculation claimed and that there was absolutely no proof of Levy's guilt. Copyright document.write(new Date().getFullYear()), Michigan Rock and Roll Legends. "He had been busted in California again for drugs. None of whom had ever divorced, was his legal widow and heiress. Zola: "I perform all over the world"), she arrived at court daily in a limousine. The opinion by Surrogate Court Judge Marie Lambert entitles Waters to an estate that may be worth $750,000 in accumulated royalties from Lymon's 1956 hit and its more recent incarnations. Frankie Lymon died in New York. William McCracken, who represents Emira Eagle, called her at the elementary school where she teaches. Producers Paul Hall, Stephen Nemeth. The fact came to notice from a judge during a trial where three middle-aged women (Ash Taylor, Elizabeth Waters, and Amira Eagle) spoke about their miseries. "As far as I know, he was a very nice guy. 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. The battle began shortly after Emira asked the Georgia court to declare her as the administrator of Lemmons.!, got to be pretty friendly with the first Levy 's guilt her case. 1200 Observatory Drive | Madison, WI 53706-1212 | Map of her home and still feels `` cheated ''! 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