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Lorraine Taylor was Ike Turner’s live-in partner in East St. Louis during the late 1950s and the mother of two of his sons, Ike Turner Jr. and Michael Turner. She lived with Ike before Tina Turner’s rise, and she is often mistakenly called his “first wife.” Most people know her through one dramatic scene in the 1993 biopic What’s Love Got to Do with It. The real story is less cinematic but more interesting.

Quick Facts

Was Lorraine Taylor Ike Turner’s First Wife?

No, although that label follows her almost everywhere. Searches for “Ike Turner first wife” or “first wife Lorraine Taylor Turner” usually rest on two mistaken assumptions.

First, Ike Turner married long before he met Lorraine. His first marriage was to Edna Dean Stewart in 1948, when he was about 16. Several other marriages followed in the early 1950s. Ike claimed to have married as many as 14 times, although many of those unions were never legally finalized.

Second, Ike described Lorraine as his live-in girlfriend rather than a wife. Some sources call the relationship a common-law marriage, and a few cite marriage and divorce dates. No marriage record has been confirmed publicly, and the most reliable accounts of Ike’s life treat her as a long-term partner.

The confusion is understandable. She shared his home, raised his children, and was the woman in his life just before Tina. For many readers, that made her “the wife before Tina,” even though it isn’t technically accurate.

Life With Ike Turner in East St. Louis

Ike moved to the St. Louis area in 1954, and his band, the Kings of Rhythm, became one of the busiest acts on the local club circuit. His house doubled as the band’s base and studio. Lorraine lived there with him during these years, when he was a well-known regional bandleader but not yet a national star.

Lorraine already had two children when she and Ike started their family. Their first son, Izear “Ike” Turner Jr., was born on November 5, 1958. A second son, Michael, followed about a year later.

Lorraine Taylor and Tina Turner

Tina Turner, then still Ann Bullock, entered the household before she became Ike’s partner. She was dating Ike’s saxophonist, Raymond Hill, and became pregnant by him. While expecting that child, her son Craig, she lived for a time in the home Ike shared with Lorraine.

That arrangement led to the incident most associated with Lorraine’s name. In 1958, Lorraine became convinced that Ann and Ike were having an affair. She confronted the pregnant Ann with a gun and then turned it on herself. Her wound was not fatal, and she survived.

The 1993 film changed the details. It suggests Ike and Tina had already become intimate that night, which, according to the accounts the film was based on, was not yet the case. Their relationship began later, and their son Ronnie was born in October 1960. Ike and Tina married in Tijuana in 1962.

What Happened to Lorraine Taylor’s Sons?

By the early 1960s, Ike Jr. and Michael were living with Ike and Tina, who had moved to Los Angeles. In the film, Lorraine arrives unannounced and leaves the boys at the couple’s door. That scene, much discussed on social media, was invented for the movie. In reality, the boys came to live with their father after Lorraine made clear she would not keep them.

Tina adopted both boys, and Ike adopted her son Craig. The four brothers grew up together in the Turner household in Los Angeles.

Their adult lives were difficult:

• Ike Turner Jr. became a musician and recording engineer. He helped run his father’s Bolic Sound studio and shared a Grammy for producing Ike Sr.’s 2006 album Risin’ with the Blues. He died of kidney failure in a Los Angeles hospital on October 4, 2025, one day after turning 67.
• Michael Turner later had serious health problems. In 2017 and 2018, Ike Jr. said his brother had suffered strokes and seizures, used a wheelchair, and was living in a convalescent home in Southern California.

Ike Jr. often called Tina the only mother he had known, which says a good deal about how early Lorraine’s direct role in her sons’ lives ended.

Where Is Lorraine Taylor Now? Is She Still Alive?

There is no confirmed public record of Lorraine Taylor’s current whereabouts, her birth date, or whether she is still alive. She never gave interviews or sought publicity, and she stepped out of the Turner story completely after the early 1960s.

Be cautious with websites that give her a precise age, a hometown, or a detailed later life. Those details usually appear without supporting evidence, and some pages mix her up with other women named Lorraine Taylor. Coverage of Ike Jr.’s death in 2025 identified her as his biological mother but did not report on her own status.

Lorraine Taylor Pictures

Verified photographs of Lorraine Taylor are rare. Most images that come up for “Lorraine Taylor Ike Turner pictures” show one of three things:

• Actress Penny Johnson Jerald in the role from What’s Love Got to Do with It
• The well-known Turner family portrait from around 1972, which includes her sons Michael and Ike Jr. alongside Ike, Tina, Craig, and Ronnie, but not Lorraine
• Unrelated women who share her name

If an image claims to show the real Lorraine Taylor, it’s worth checking where it came from before trusting the caption.

Why Lorraine Taylor Is Still Searched Today

Lorraine Taylor’s place in music history comes almost entirely from circumstance. She was the woman in Ike Turner’s life at the moment Ann Bullock walked into it, and her sons became part of one of rock and roll’s most scrutinized families. The biopic turned a private, painful chapter into a memorable scene, and that scene continues to circulate online decades later.

Beyond those facts, she remains one of the least documented people in the Turner story. That is probably by her own choice.