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 Fall in Love" and died 20 years ago of a heroin overdose -- has found Elizabeth Waters, 46, of Philadelphia, to be Lymon's legal widow. The doo-wop classic (its earnings boosted by Diana Ross' 1981 version and by its use in a greeting card commercial) was recorded by Lymon's group the Teenagers. 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. Key parts of this chronology are in dispute, of course. Fox), a prison-hardened former shoplifter and prostitute. He recorded other songs, alone and with his group the Teenagers, but none has inspired the same affection. By the time of the trial, publishing rights to the song might have been worth seven figures. Not to mention that two other members of the Teenagers have filed suit claiming they cowrote "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" Ah, Frankie. Last in line is Emira Eagle (Lela Rochon), a demure, well-bred Southern educator. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. "Just make sure the artist or writer gets his share." Both Elizabeth's and Zola's attorneys said that Emira offered their clients 20 percent (for Elizabeth) and 5 percent (for Zola) of the estate. 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. Executive producers Gregory Nava, Mark Allan, Harold Bronson. The small wedding party celebrated by getting very drunk, not an uncommon state for Frankie at the time. When she returned in April, the house was in foreclosure and Frankie was gone with the money. Fox as three women claiming to be the legal wife of Lymon and heir to his recording royalties. 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. He was staying in his grandmother's apartment on West 165th Street. Screenplay by Tina Andrews. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. ", Like the jazz and blues artists before them, the rock and rollers of the 1950s and 1960s were often ripe for rip-offs, and royalties were underestimated or simply never paid. Who owns the rights to old songs matters as much or more now than it did when they were hits. Her only marriage lasted 4.1 years. Lymon related that he started singing publicly with his three brothers in a choral group at Gospel Church in New York City. He moved into her home and her bedroom. They became lovers, Zola testified, one night in Bangor, Maine, when Frankie had won $1,700 gambling with Clyde McPhatter and she had gotten "a little loaded drinking scotch and water." Span wrote that Frankies relationship with Zola was not entirely maternal. They got married at City Hall in Alexandria, Va., early in 1964. Next comes the feisty Elizabeth Waters (Vivica A. Elizabeth Waters claimed to have married Lymon in 1964 in Virginia. Elizabeth, 43, of Philadelphia, claims she married Lymon in Alexandria, Va., in 1964, and that the couple had a child who died. A memorial service. The signs were plain, she says now, that Lymon was floundering, working only intermittently, addicted to drugs and probably to alcohol as well. They wanted to impress their friends in school by being on the radio. And yet -- what was it about him? He had a bad year in 1966. So the trial went forward. "Knowing the facts like I know them, I feel confident there will be an appeal," McCracken predicted. Not that their relationship was entirely maternal. 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 makes him not only a good soldier, but a better individual. According to Spans story, Frankie moved into Zolas home and her bedroom. Lymon signed with both 20th Century Fox Records and Columbia Records, but both deals were short-lived. When she left to tour Japan with the Platters in December 1965, she says, she left Frankie living in her hillside house with instructions to pay the bills out of an allowance forwarded by her attorney. Frankie Lymon died in New York. 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. 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. 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. Debunking the Myth: Is Maduro a Dictator? Years later, in the wainscoted courtroom where Lymon's love life was being retraced in painful detail, Elizabeth turned to the judge. But "I couldn't get my hands on him, couldn't find him." co-starring Halle Barry, Lela Rochon and Vivica A. (Diana Ross also had a hit with it), "Goody Goody," "Little Bitty Pretty One" and "Im Not a Juvenile Delinquent.". The small wedding party celebrated by getting very drunk, not an uncommon state for Frankie at the time. Next comes the feisty Elizabeth Waters (Vivica A. with Frankie Lymon, and they have filed their own federal suit against Levy et al., with Emira also named as a defendant. What is less clear from the file is why, 20 years afterward, it has become so important to be Frankie Lymon's legal widow. Span reported that Zolas secretary and her booking agent both testified that they were witnesses to the wedding, and that her attorneys argued that California law made her a putative (believed to be) spouse entitled to share in Frankie Lymons property. Zola and Elizabeth didn't get close to Emira; she didn't have anything much to say to them, either. Ten years after his initial success, however, he was wearing an Army uniform as a private at Fort Gordon. 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. After learning of this, Elizabeth went to court to request the suspension of the law. 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 feel sorry for him, most of all," echoed Zola. Privacy Policy Agreement * I agree to the Terms of use and Privacy Policy. Zola Taylor Lymon, now 50, one of the original Platters, had flown in from Los Angeles. A pop record might have seemed disposable before the rise of the nostalgia industry. She told the judge that Frankie Lymon was a charmer. He was previously married to Emira Lymon, Zola Taylor and Elizabeth Waters. People sometimes compare him with the young Michael Jackson, who also knew how to combine innocence and knowingness. 22, 2021. 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. 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.. When she and Frankie fought about it, Elizabeth told the court, he pulled a gun on her and fled. Frankie Lymon/Wife. "I can't just sit here and tell the court anything different. probe. The essence of their dispute was which of the marriages was legally binding, given a certain laxity in some quarters about divorce. Paula Span reported that neither Zola nor Elizabeth could quite figure Emira Eagle Lymon, the 48-year-old third wife from Augusta, Georgia. Emira came to New York to arrange for Frankies funeral mass and burial. 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. "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. She attempted to recover all the royalties from the date of the records release because she alleged that neither Levy nor his predecessor as co-writer, George Goldner who discovered and recorded the Teenagers, was actually a songwriter. The Surrogate Court judge hearing the widowhood case has been pushing for a settlement. Zola, the second supposed wife, got to be pretty friendly with the first. It was also Rubin who located Emira, put her in touch with an attorney, helped line up witnesses and documentation. He was used and misused, and he used others also, she concluded. -- a classic bit of doo-wop doggerel with Lymon credited as coauthor -- are murky. They also pointed to the absence of documentation from Mexico as evidence that Zola and Frankie never married at all. Neither Zola nor Elizabeth could quite. "She was speechless, actually unable to talk," reported the attorney, Dwight Peterson. He was apparently a bigamist, or maybe a trigamist. 2010-02-12 00:06:12. -- those he abused and betrayed seem loath to condemn him. According to Spans reporting, Emira paid the $2,000 bill. 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. It was painfully revealed in court testimony, however, that Frankie Lymon, for all his talent, was a bigamist, hustler, liar, and thief. Waters of Philadelphia claimed to be Lymon's common-law wife during the mid-1960s, according to papers. She called the work "moonlighting" and testified that she was arrested for it 15 or 20 times. As Water's claim went to court, Zola Taylor ex-member of the Platters, claimed that she had been sexually active with Lymon as early as the "Biggest Rock "n" Roll Show of 1956" tour. 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. She has never remarried. 507 residents | Coed by wing | Single and double rooms. If Emira wins, she'll share the proceeds with Chuck Rubin and go after Morris Levy. 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. William McCracken, who represents Emira Eagle, called her at the elementary school where she teaches. 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. With black rhythm and blues releases beginning to win white audiences, music had become a ticket to glory. 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. 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. Believing that she had the stronger case, Big Seven agreed to pay Elizabeth an additional $5,000 if the federal lawsuit was dismissed because the plaintiff (Emira) was determined to not be the legal 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. Production design Cary White. 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. The way '50s singer Frankie Lymon is presented in "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" is "mostly true. 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. According to Span, Rubin was not opposed to generating new income from old music. Also Read Inside Data and Cyber Security issue in Barbados Europe plays chess with Wagner's African moves, imposes sanctions 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. 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. Elizabeth Waters Lymon, Elizabeth also acknowledged in court that she started using heroin and cocaine at this point. Zola, the older woman, was 17. By 1962, Frankies career had been in decline for several years but she had nevertheless come with two girlfriends to meet her onetime idol. Kenneth Turan is the former film critic for the Los Angeles Times. The trial of the three wives went forward, and final briefs were due in early 1988. Zola and Elizabeth declined, but say they were willing to accept an equal, three-way split. Zola Taylor Lymon, who was 50, had flown in from Los Angeles. Big Seven agreed to pay Elizabeth an additional $5,000 if the federal lawsuit is dismissed because the plaintiff (Emira) is not the legal widow. 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. Left-Wing Meloni: Italys Attempt to Replicate Giorgia Meloni, Europe is dumping its migrants in Africa in exchange of money, Antoinette Giancana Biography, Family and Movies, David Von Drehle: Biography, Career, Education and Books, Uplift Suasion: the notion to change racism, Mexicos constitutional crisis has its roots in Washington, The EU-Mercosur Deal: Macrons Duplicity Unveiled, Paraguay declares Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation. For Frankie at the time of the nostalgia industry getting very drunk, not an uncommon for... 15 or 20 times the rise of the marriages was legally binding, given a certain laxity in some about... Funeral mass and burial '' echoed Zola of use and privacy Policy Agreement * I agree to the.! A good soldier, but both deals were short-lived an attorney, line! Taylor and Elizabeth Waters Lymon, who was 50, had flown in from Los Angeles Army as... 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