Taylor,. All these arguments were laid forth in voluminous briefs, memoranda, and affidavits filed in Surrogate Court. Elizabeth may have had the hardest time of it. The first decision was made in Waterss favor; Eagle appealed, and in 1989 the New York State Supreme Court Appeals Division overturned the original decision and transferred ownership of Lymon to Eagle. Waters bore Lymon's only known child, a daughter who died shortly after birth. He told his family that night he was on his way to a gig. Emiras case was just beginning when Elizabeth Waters Lymon petitioned the Surrogate Court claiming that she was Frankie Lymons widow, and Zola Taylor also objected claiming that she was Lymons rightful widow. She told Span that she never recovered financially from the loss of her home and still feels "cheated." Whie serving at Ft. Gordon in Georgia, Frankie married again. US fails miserably against Russia at the crucial UN Vote. Morris Levy had not become a force in the music business through fear alone; he was also very clever. He was used and misused, and he used others also, she concluded. Elizabeth's lawyers maintain her marriage is valid, which means that neither Zola's nor Emira's can be. * Playing in general release throughout Southern California. When she recovered, she declared that "she knew it; she'd had faith all along," Peterson said. 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. 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. Lymon was only 12 when he hooked up with the foursome that became the Teenagers, but there was an aura about him that the city's doo-wop entrepreneurs recognized. Id have killed him, I was so angry, Zola told Span. She did not know the druggie described in this trial. The beautiful granite tombstone that Ronnie ordered weighed over 1,000 pounds. They were married in June 1967 at the Beulah Grove Baptist Church, with 50 members of Emiras family in attendance and a reception afterward at the Capri Lounge. The only child he is known to have fathered died hours after her birth. It was the hit that made him and the Teenagers famous back in 1956, and the one song that he recorded that remained both popular and valuable over the years. And Emira, if she wins, will continue her federal case against Levy, a matter growing steadily more complex. He was a soldier for most of their brief marriage, taking the bus from her family's home to the post each day. Her troubles with drugs and the law continued long after Frankie's death. 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. It also dooms, at least for now, the hopes of singer Zola Mae Taylor of Los Angeles, the female member of the original Platters, and Emira Eagle, a schoolteacher from Augusta, Ga., each of whom had claimed in court that she was Lymon's widow and heir. Their affair continued off and on for several years. According to the obituary published Sunday in The Augusta Chronicle, funeral arrangements will be announced by W.H. Zola never saw him alive again. In January 1964, he began a relationship with Elizabeth Mickey Waters, from whom he gave birth to his only daughter Francine, who died two days later. Times guidelines: a bloody beating and some genteel scenes of lovemaking. His was a wasted life, and he was so talented., Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. The next month, according to Zola, she and Frankie drove to Tijuana and got married in a small chapel. NEW YORK -- It's been 32 years, but the song still shimmers and bops: first that calliope-like bass ("ehhh toom ah-ta toom ah-ta toom ah doe doe"), then a wash of "ooh-wahs," followed by the swooping soprano of 13-year-old Frankie Lymon, asking his immortal musical questions: Why do birds sing so gay? She says he didn't mean to hurt her, and blames his behavior on his addictions. 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. Recording costs and commissions for everyone from managers to choreographers could siphon off much of a group's earnings. Copyright document.write(new Date().getFullYear()), Michigan Rock and Roll Legends. "The only thing {Morris Levy} had to do with it was to collect the money," Santiago says. 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. Artists Rights helped secure a financial settlement for Richard Berry, composer of "Louie, Louie" (just before the song starred in a wine cooler ad), and represents several of the artists featured on the "Dirty Dancing" album. The following month, Zola testified that she and Frankie drove to Tijuana and got married in a tiny chapel. 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. Lymon was 14 years old when he began dating Zola Taylor (Berry), the lead singer of the Platters in the mid-1950s. While growing up in New York City, I never had much discipline, Lymon said. He got on that stage, and baby he was huge! Family and friends said goodbye Friday to Emira Eagle Lymon Bryant, who. At the trial, Elizabeth testified that she saw Frankie on that visit, as she had a number of times both before and after his wedding to Emira, which she said she knew nothing of. Rochon portrayed Bryant, who married Lymon on June 30, 1967, at Beulah Grove Baptist Church near Paine College when Lymon was stationed that year at Fort Gordon. Levy was the head of Roulette Records, the independent label that bought out the Gee label which originally released the record. For part of Lymons appeal to women was how uncommonly young he was; the singers first hit came before he was 14, younger than most romantic leads can play. It was Rubin who, several years earlier, came to the conclusion that Lymons estate was not receiving appropriate royalties. He was energetic; dynamic; charismatic. Lymon was discharged a year later, he'd said "I do" once more. Why Do Fools Fall in Love With Frankie Lymon is more like it. Published by Legacy on Jul. As a child star, however, I was subjected to discipline from agents, managers and lawyers, but it was a discipline that protected me from myself so to speak. "Up to a point." She testified that she and Frankie had started living together shortly after they met. The retired Richmond County schoolteacher in her years after Lymon was married to Augustan Leroy Bryant. Zola and Elizabeth didn't get close to Emira; and she didn't have anything much to say to them either during the 10 days they spent in court reliving the past. The death certificate said he died of "acute intravenous narcotism.". By 1962, Frankies career had been in decline for several years but she had nevertheless come with two girlfriends to meet her onetime idol. According to the obituary published Sunday in The Augusta Chronicle, funeral arrangements will be announced by W.H. Both Elizabeth's and Zola's attorneys say Emira offered their clients 20 percent (for Elizabeth) and 5 percent (for Zola) of the estate. Paula Span, Frankie was addicted to drugs and alcohol and Elizabeth, who was 19 at the time, was sympathetic. It is in fact three wives who face the camera, one after another, each claiming to be Lymons true love and legal spouse. The Platters. They point to the absence of documentation from Mexico as evidence that Zola and Frankie never married at all. Back in the 1950s, when a star-struck group like the Teenagers finally got to audition for the head of a record company, such matters as copyright barely figured in the conversation. She knew a soldier., Frankie was interviewed by The Augusta Chronicle while he was stationed at Ft. Gordon. Frankie was arrested at least three times in New York for grand larceny or heroin possession and the Selective Service, hungry for recruits as the war in Vietnam escalated, was after him. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Art director John Chicester. Aside from Waters, the winner of this legal round is Morris Levy, head of Roulette Records, among the defendants when Eagle brought a federal suit in 1984. "I can't just sit here and tell the court anything different. I know some of these characters, and some I like very muchI knew Cardinal Spellman, too. The signs were plain, she says now, that Lymon was floundering, working only intermittently, addicted to drugs and probably to alcohol as well. Her divorce from Phillips was not finalized until 1965. -- a classic bit of doo-wop doggerel with Lymon credited as coauthor -- are murky. His attorney called the charges complete speculation claimed and that there was absolutely no proof of Levy's guilt. This time his bride was Emira Eagle, an educated, churchgoing elementary school teacher who lived with her family in nearby Augusta. But he will apparently have little trouble with Elizabeth Waters. And if Zola wins she's also decided to record an album of Frankie's hits -- "I Want You to Be My Girl," "I Promise to Remember," all the big ones. 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?" (All three women used the surname Lymon in court documents at least part of the time.) I feel sorry for him, most of all," echoes Zola. 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. Zola, in her low-cut gowns, was the dish. Elizabeths claim to be Frankies wife and heir was weakened by the fact that she was still legally married when she wed Frankie in 1964. He was back in New York where, Elizabeth and several other witnesses swore, he said that his marriage to Zola had been only a publicity stunt. Wiki User. This legal drama was made into a movie earlier this year, named after his hit song Why fools fall in love. A headstone was not part of the package, however, and Frankie Lymon was buried in an unmarked grave at St. Raymonds Cemetery. Published by Mobile Register and Baldwin County from Jan. 25 to Jan. 27, 2023. "He had always regarded Zola as his stage mother," Elizabeth explained during the trial. Frankie, by 1965, had pretty much been reduced to lip-synching at record hops on the East Coast. He was told, after he raised the money, that she didnt want the headstone for the grave and that he wasnt authorized to put it on there.. Frankie's particular scam, she believed, was getting married. When asked about his association with alleged mob figures, Levy, who was Jewish, responded: "I've been on Broadway 47 years. DONALD LYMON OBITUARY. 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. But Elizabeth's attorneys argue that she and Frankie lived in Philadelphia and therefore established a common-law marriage under Pennsylvania law. They got married at City Hall in Alexandria, Va., early in 1964. When a touring musical about Lymon's life came to the Imperial Theater in May of 2013, the cast invited Bryant to be the honored guest with her family and took photos with her after the show. Yet just over a year later, Lymon would be found dead in his grandmothers bathroom from drug abuse. It was not, for long, a happy one. Elizabeth Waters claimed to have married Lymon in 1964 in Virginia. Thats why were here today.. He also represented several of the artists featured on the "Dirty Dancing" album. Required fields are marked *. (Diana Ross also had a hit with it), "Goody Goody," "Little Bitty Pretty One" and "Im Not a Juvenile Delinquent.". "Some drug users, they rob, they steal, they do everything to sustain that habit." She's going to call it "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?". The sum, he said, "might have been $1,500. 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. 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. If Emira wins, she'll share the proceeds with Chuck Rubin and go after Morris Levy. 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. Mays Mortuary, 1221 James Brown Blvd. Not that their relationship was entirely maternal. Final briefs are due next week, with a decision expected later this spring. Back in Los Angeles, the club where Zola was performing tossed a celebration, with a cake and champagne. Zola Taylor said she married Lymon on Oct. In a matter that grew steadily more complex, Jimmy Merchant and Herman Santiago, the two surviving members of the original Teenagers, filed their own federal suit against Levy and his companies, with Emira also named as a defendant. And that was that, the last of the hits. Eagle's New York counsel Ira Greenberg agreed that his "current inclination" was to appeal. And then he went out and proved it. 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. 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. So the trial went forward. He didn't mind. The essence of their dispute was which of the marriages was legally binding, given a certain laxity in some quarters about divorce. A lot of people say I knew him so long I became like him.. Her divorce didn't come through until 1965. 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. "Frankly, we do not believe that the claims set forth in the federal court case have merit," says Terrance McKnight, one of Zola's attorneys. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. 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. It was engraved with the words, In Memory Of Frankie Lymon Sept. 30, 1942 - Feb. 27, 1968 "We Promise To Remember". Royalties were underestimated or simply never paid. Years later, in the wainscoted courtroom where Lymon's love life was being retraced in painful detail, Elizabeth turned to the judge. She claimed to have . Emiras Frankie Lymon is not this drunken bum, Pomeroy said. And that led to his 1955 smash hit "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?," singing for Queen Elizabeth II at the London Palladium and performing in nightclubs and theaters worldwide. They were there in Surrogate Court -- the three would-be widows and their teams of lawyers and witnesses -- for 10 days this past December and January, raking over the past. It teaches him responsibility and how to stand on his own two feet. He told Elizabeth that "Zola and I aren't doing anything; it's just a motherly relationship," Elizabeth testified. Borstein also says that Lymon, who was always pestering Levy for money, sold Levy the copyright to all his songs and that Levy has a signed document to that effect. Best Answer. Elizabeth Waters may be entitled to an estate worth $750,000 in accumulated royalties from Lymon 1956 hit and it's more modern iterations, according to Surrogate Court Judge Marie Lambert's ruling. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. "Kids didn't know about royalties," says Bob Hyde of Murray Hill Records. 507 residents | Coed by wing | Single and double rooms. Fox as three women claiming to be the legal wife of Lymon and heir to his recording royalties. During 1965, the copyright for Why Do Fools Fall In Love was changed. Span wrote that she was conscious of her stardom and arrived at court daily in a limousine. "Frankie wasn't much older, either, when he met the third Mrs. Lymon, Emira Eagle. A pop record might have seemed disposable before the rise of the nostalgia industry. Interment: Whispering Pines Cem. It teaches him responsibility and how to stand on his own two feet. Span wrote that Rubin gets his share too. She'll use a 16-piece band and her own group, Zola Taylor's Platters, as backup singers. She called the work "moonlighting" and testified that she was arrested for it 15 or 20 times. He claimed that both women thought that their agreements with Levy were fair, and that neither planned to take legal action against him if she is found to be Frankies widow. "She never disputed his role in the creation and authorship of this song," her attorney says. He recorded other songs, alone and with his group the Teenagers, but none has inspired the same affection. I know its been good for me.. That don't make me a Catholic. Elizabeth Waters may be entitled to an estate worth $750,000 in accumulated royalties from Lymon 1956 hit and its more modern iterations, according to Surrogate Court Judge Marie Lamberts ruling. Why Do Fools Fall In Love was a prime example, and its publishing rights may have earned a lot of money by 1984, according to Chuck Rubin of Artists Rights Enforcement Corp. Rubin established his organization in 1981 to represent artists who he believed had been deprived of their earnings by their record companies. Also Read:Antoinette Giancana Biography, Family and Movies. 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. Key parts of this chronology are in dispute, of course. She met Frankie when he was 20-years-old, backstage at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. These scans come from my rather large magazine collection. The sum, he says, "might have been $1,500. 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. "I'd have killed him, I was so angry," she says. 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