This week on American Routes: how do we preserve the power of music in museum and memory? Jerry Lee Lewis was born in 1935 Ferriday, LA. The house he grew up in is now a museum, filled with family memorabilia ranging from religious art work to bodies, buried in the front yard. Host Nick Spitzer spent an afternoon with sister Frankie Jean, the curator of Lewis museum.
For the full interview and more on music and memory, tune in Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 6 p.m. to WWNO, or listen at Americanroutes.org.
NS: What was life like here growing up in the Lewis Family?
FJ: It was completely sad the way it was, a hulabaloo and a fight, and drunken brawl and a smile and a good dinner every day.
NS: Tell me what you’ve got here in the museum.
FJ: Oh, a little bit of everything. Everything you see is in the plunkin’ order.
NS: And what does that mean?
FJ: Where they plunked it- where they set it down, where it was plunked down. Jerry plunked on the guitar, plunked on the piano, plunked on this and that and wherever it was set down, mother would say, “well, it’s been plunked down here, we’ll leave it here.” So I just don’t change things. And I’m gonna tell you what, it gets on your damn nerves.
NS: But it’s very neat; it’s very orderly.
FJ: Well I kept everything orderly, but I’m gonna tell you one damn thing, there’s not everything here of mine. Thank god.
NS: But you run the place
FJ: Since I was 5 years old; legally since I was 12. I take donations, I do not charge.
NS: So what do we got over here? This looks like a little chapel
FJ: We have got a little white church where we all went to church and that’s a replica of it, but the only thing is it didn’t have a steeple so I tore the steeple off after I got through making it. Put together with all those sticks.
NS: Did you make it?
FJ: Yeah, just with sticks, it’s just a kit.
NS: Why did you make it?
FJ: I don’t know. I draw crosses and I draw I draw ghost and eyes, and I just do all kinds of art junk.
NS: You obviously, this was an important building in your life I guess, huh? The little church?
FJ: The church was the most important-- well, the bible was the most important. Yeah, we drank moonshine then go to church. (laughs)
NS: So, I see a piano over there. Tell me about that piano.
FJ: That’s Jerry’s. Jerry signed that the other day.
NS: He comes by sometimes huh?
FJ: He comes by about once every two months, bless his heart. It’s where he set his Jack Daniels and it’s puckered it all up. This is from Liverpool, and John Lennon actually played it. Grew up with it. It was given to him, by Yoko Ono. All the way from London England. Well, Liverpool. It won’t play. But it’s here to stay. And we’re not worried about it playing. That’s all it’ll do, middle C.
NS: Yeah, that’s where you plunked it down.
FJ: Yeah, where we plunked it.
NS: I do see that gun up on the rack there, what is that?
FJ: Oh, that’s just an old 12-gauge, they make ‘em by the dozen, there’s nothing to it. And I got Darringers, and I got a couple of pistols. Every time Jerry comes to town, I give him a couple of pistols. He loves pistols. But don’t ever pull a gun unless you intend to use it, and don’t ever intend to use it unless you have a reason that is so above board. You had better be careful; you had better know what you’re doing. Do not ever play with a gun. Never have an empty gun, it’ll kill ya.
Somebody said, “why did you start this museum?” And I said, I didn’t start it, it started itself. 1942 when Jerry was seven years old. Mother began to open it in ’42. And I remember it when I was 5 years old.
NS: Yeah the place is beautiful!
FJ: It’s not beautiful, it’s pathetic. But I like it.
This is Frankie Jean Lewis, from the Lewis Family Museum in Ferriday, LA, live on American Routes.