"Remember, Frankie needed the money badly," Borstein says. The names of Frankie Lymon and Morris Levy were now listed as the songwriters. They wanted to impress their friends in school by being on the radio. During the trial, the judge even raised the disquieting possibility that none of his three supposed marriages was legally contracted, that Lymon has no widow. If Emira wins, she'll share the proceeds with Chuck Rubin and go after Morris Levy. "Emira's Frankie Lymon is not this drunken bum," Pomeroy says. So estimates Chuck Rubin, a former agent who's become a kind of musical bounty hunter. 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. A decision was reached in November, but the case would not end there. Frankie could fool you, he could fool me, Frankie could fool God. Waters, who on the witness stand acknowledged a long struggle with drugs and prostitution during her tempestuous relationship with the onetime star, got the news from her attorney Monday night. I feel sorry for him, most of all," echoes Zola. With black rhythm and blues releases beginning to win white audiences, music had become a ticket to glory. Director Gregory Nava. Also Read:David Von Drehle: Biography, Career, Education and Books. Hell, the boy had so many needle marks on him, I thought he was a God-damned . At her insistence he checked into a Manhattan hospital to cure his drug habit, and maybe he succeeded for a time. Frankie Lymon, the rock and roll icon who composed and performed Why Do Fools Fall in Love and died decades ago of a heroin overdose has a legal widow named Elizabeth Waters of Philadelphia. She has never remarried. It teaches him responsibility and how to stand on his own two feet. He was apparently a bigamist, or maybe a trigamist. Zola, the second supposed wife, got to be pretty friendly with the first. He was a charmer, they all agree on that much. "Frankie Lymon just transcended all the other doo-wop groups," says Bob Hyde, whose Murray Hill label reissued the Teenagers' recordings last year. It was painfully revealed in court testimony, however, that Frankie Lymon, for all his talent, was a bigamist, hustler, liar, and thief. Legacy.com reports daily on death announcements in local communities nationwide. Dr. William Eugene Sexton Age 88 Hephzibah, GA, GA Dr. William Eugene Sexton, 88, husband of 69 years to Martha Frances Greenway Sexton, entered into rest Wednesday, February 22, 2023. 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. He was the . All rights reserved. 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. Lymon's managers tried packaging him as a solo crooner in a cravat. And that song, which he wrote or helped to write and which will bear his boyish vocal signature forever. 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. Lymon was discharged a year later, he'd said "I do" once more. The marriage to Eagle is valid, so she is entitled to a fief. Set decorator Jackie Carr. "He had always regarded Zola as his stage mother," Elizabeth explained during the trial. He recorded other songs, alone and with his group the Teenagers, but none has inspired the same affection. She claimed to have . 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. He told Zola that the new guest was a friend from New York, Zola recalled. Emira came to New York to arrange for Frankies funeral mass and burial. He was clean for a time when she became pregnant in 1963, and he was deeply saddend by the death of their infant daughter. Zola and Elizabeth didn't get close to Emira; she didn't have anything much to say to them, either. Unfortunately for Elizabeth's claims to the estate, she was then still wed to one Charles Phillips, whom she'd married when she was 16. "I didn't want her to hear it on the news," he said. The Teenagers tried recording on their own, with a new lead singer. -- those he abused and betrayed seem loath to condemn him. 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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. 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Please enter your username or email address to reset your password. Friday, November 06 2020. ELIZABETH OGLE WATERS OBITUARY. Chuck Rubin. "Just make sure the artist or writer gets his share." But I couldnt get my hands on him, couldnt find him. According to Elizabeth and several other witnesses, Frankie was back in New York telling them that his marriage to Zola had only been a publicity stunt. 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. 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. We played down certain things and fudged others to make it work as a film," said director Gregory . Elizabeth Waters was a struggling part-time bill collector from Philadelphia. 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. Rubin's 200 or so clients, from the Del Vikings to the Coasters, constitute an honor roll of early rock 'n' roll. Back in 1956, the hit song had first been credited to Frankie Lymon, Herman Santiago, and George Goldner - head of Gee Records. If none of the women was found to be Frankie's widow, the surviving members of his family stood to inherit. "A lot of people say I knew him so long I became like him.". He figured that once the case was over there would be no problem," Olb recalled. He didn't mind. He was a hustler, a liar and a thief. Kenneth Turan is the former film critic for the Los Angeles Times. Taylor,. 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. "Some drug users, they rob, they steal, they do everything to sustain that habit." Funeral services will be held Monday, February 27, 2023, at 3:00 PM from the chapel. But Elizabeth's attorneys argue that she and Frankie lived in Philadelphia and therefore established a common-law marriage under Pennsylvania law. 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. During his brief lifetime, Lymon became world-famous for his hit singles with The Teenagers including "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" But he will apparently have little trouble with Elizabeth Waters. Waters of Philadelphia claimed to be Lymon's common-law wife during the mid-1960s, according to papers. She also turned to prostitution to support her daughter from her first marriage, to one Charles Phillips, when she was just 16. Macron wont let go off Africa so easily, he is love sick, Canadas Debt Crisis: A Never-Ending Burden Passed On From Generation to Generation, Alcohol tax in Canada: Canadian government is taking a sip out of your beer. 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. 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. The original lineup of the Teenagers, an integrated group, included three . Borstein also said 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. Levy declined direct comment of the Lymon matter. The next month, according to Zola, she and Frankie drove to Tijuana and got married in a small chapel. probe. The origins of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" But the case may not end there, of course. Elizabeth testified that she did not object. Elizabeth, 43, of Philadelphia, claims she married Lymon in Alexandria, Va., in 1964, and that the couple had a child who died. Though Navas soapy directing style makes Fools watchable enough in a campy way, the films unsophisticated nature undermines its better qualities. It was Rubin who, several years earlier, came to the conclusion that Lymons estate was not receiving appropriate royalties. Artist Rights Enforcement Corporation was heralded by the New York Times as the white knight of rock n roll for its efforts in recovering uncollected royalties for a host of artists including Wilbert Harrison, Richard Berry, the Coasters, and the Dell Vikings to name just a few. The two surviving members of the Teenagers claim that they wrote the song with Lymon when they were all Harlem street-corner harmonizers hoping for a break. Lymon was 14 years old when he began to date Zola Taylor (Berry), lead singer of the chart-topping group the Platters in the mid-1950s. She's going to call it "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?". "Up to a point." Music Stephen James Taylor. His was a wasted life, and he was so talented., Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. She had a big house in the hills with a swimming pool, and she immediately took the scruffy Frankie shopping for suits and tuxedos. The elephant in the room was the large sum of money that would be awarded to whoever was determined to be the songwriters of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love. It was copyrighted in the names of Frankie Lymon and Morris Levy. Taylor, of Los Angeles, a singer with the Platters, contends she married Lymon in 1965 in Tijuana, Mexico. Span wrote that she was conscious of her stardom and arrived at court daily in a limousine. "If you have any kind of heart at all," she says, "you know that he went through hell.". Others still do, however. She'd come with two girlfriends to meet her onetime idol. The sum, he says, "might have been $1,500. Elizabeth may have had the hardest time of it. Frankie was that kind of person, Your Honor, Elizabeth said. This time his bride was Emira Eagle, an educated, churchgoing elementary school teacher who lived with her family in nearby Augusta. It was put on hold until the completion of a new trial to determine which of three women Frankie Lymon was said to have married, but none of whom he ever divorced, was his rightful widow and heir. "He had been busted in California again for drugs." As legacies go, it's not bad. Frankie, by 1965, had pretty much been reduced to lip-synching at record hops on the East Coast. 507 residents | Coed by wing | Single and double rooms. Check places of employment, social media profiles, work history, photos and videos, resumes and CV, arrest records, publications, public records and business records . Cinematographer Ed Lachman. His in the end was a wasted life ruined by drugs. Her singing group, the Platters, was sometimes referred to as the Four Platters and a Dish; Zola, in her low-cut gowns, was the dish. 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 was engraved with the words, In Memory Of Frankie Lymon Sept. 30, 1942 - Feb. 27, 1968 "We Promise To Remember". Neither has Elizabeth or Zola. What is less clear from the file is why, 20 years afterward, it has become so important to be Frankie Lymon's legal widow. Her adversary, Morris Levy, was a powerful force in the music business. Elizabeth's lawyers maintain her marriage is valid, which means that neither Zola's nor Emira's can be. Copy. * MPAA rating: R, for language and some sexuality. 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. ("I thought royalties was a dessert," says Elizabeth.). Family and friends said goodbye Friday to Emira Eagle Lymon Bryant, who. Production design Cary White. "Frankie had a very good appetite for the best of life," she says. 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. 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. The sum, he said, "might have been $1,500. She let him live in her hillside house with instructions to pay bills out of an allowance forwarded to him by her attorney. Been reduced to lip-synching at record hops on the radio Turan is the film... Type of personality that would draw people, she and Frankie lived in Philadelphia and established! Was Emira Eagle Lymon Bryant, who part of the `` American Graffiti '' track... 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