Mourners bid Jerry Lee Lewis farewell

FERRIDAY, La. — Family, friends and fans gathered Saturday to bid farewell to rock ’n’ roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis at memorial services held in his north Louisiana hometown.

Lewis, known for hits such as “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” died Oct. 28 at his Mississippi home, south of Memphis. He was 87.

TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, Lewis’ cousin, told the more than 100 people inside Young’s Funeral Home in Ferriday, the town where Lewis was born, that when Lewis died he “lost the brother I never had.”

“We learned to play piano together,” Swaggart recalled. “I had to make myself realize that he was no longer here.”

Swaggart and Lewis released “The Boys From Ferriday,” a gospel album, earlier this year and Swaggart said he wasn’t sure if Lewis was going to be able to get through the recording session.

“He was limited to what he could play because of the stroke, but when the engineer said the red light is on and when he opened his mouth, he said, ‘Jesus, hold my hand, I need thee every hour. Hear my feeble plea, oh Lord, look down on me.’”

The session resulted in the album, and two of its songs played during the service: “In the Garden” and “The Old Rugged Cross.” Audience members were seen wiping tears from their eyes and singing along with Lewis as the recordings played.

“He was one of the greatest entertainers who ever lived,” Swaggart said.

Lewis, who called himself “The Killer,” was the last survivor of a generation of artists that rewrote music history, a group that included Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard.

Lewis’ body was at the front of the funeral home’s main parlor, inside a closed, red casket with a spray of red roses on top. Several funeral wreaths, including one in the form of a musical note, dotted the walls behind and around the casket as did photos of the singer, one of which showed him in a red suit hunched over and singing into a microphone.

In 1986, along with Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and others, Lewis was in the inaugural class of inductees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and joined the Country Hall of Fame this year. His life and music were reintroduced in Ethan Coen’s 2022 documentary “Trouble in Mind.”

Xavier Ellis, 28, a Ferriday native now teaching in Opelousas, La., said Lewis’ life is an inspiration.

“He was a poor kid from Ferriday who made it to the heights he made it to. I’m very impressed with his life story. I’m saddened by him leaving, but his legacy will live on,” Ellis said.

“We love it,” she said of his music. “We’ve been to several of his concerts and even though he’s gone, he will still live on in our hearts.”