PATSY: Graceland is Elvis’s heart. It’s where he was most himself and where he felt most loved. It’s where he returned, time and time again, from all his great adventures—movies in Hollywood, shows in Las Vegas, concerts in Hawaii.
I worked in the office at Graceland with Elvis’s dad, Uncle Vernon. Elvis was not only my cousin, he was my boss, but mainly he was my brother. From the time we were little kids in Mississippi to the day he died, we had a close and loving relationship.
In Elvis’s mind, he always associated Graceland with his mother, my aunt Gladys. In 1957, he bought the big estate for her. Remember, we were Depression poor people from Tupelo. When Elvis’s records got popular, among the first things he did was buy Aunt Gladys a pink Cadillac, pretty dresses and nice jewelry. He wanted to buy her the world. All his life he dreamed of making her comfortable. Graceland was that dream come true. The tragedy was that she lived there barely a year before she died in 1958. Her death shocked us all. Elvis was devastated. No one could console him. She was his life.
ELVIS: Everyone loves their mother, but I was an only child and Mother was always right there with me. All my life. It wasn’t like losing a mother, it was like losing a friend, a companion, someone to talk to. I could wake her up any hour of the night if I was worried or troubled by something. She’d get up and try to help me.
PATSY: I never saw a more loving relationship between a mother and son. Aunt Gladys was full of fun and energy. She brought out the best in Elvis. He inherited her vitality and humor. When Gladys was around, Elvis was never down or depressed. When Elvis was away, Gladys was never relaxed. She worried something would happen to her boy. The bond between them was so close no one could get in between. Gladys gave Elvis the confidence he needed to go out into the world. When she left the world, he didn’t know what to do. Maybe it was a good thing that he had to go back to the army where he was sent over to Germany. Being at Graceland right after his mother passed might have been too much to bear.
His homecoming in 1960 was wonderful. Graceland was exciting again. Graceland was alive again. I could see he was thrilled to be home. But I also felt his sadness. I felt how much he missed his mother. For all the wonderful times at Graceland—all the meals and parties and games and birthdays and holidays—Graceland was never the same after Aunt Gladys passed. Elvis was never the same.
PRISCILLA: When Elvis and I met in Germany a few months before the end of his army stint, he kept describing Graceland to me—how much I would love it, and how much his mother would have loved me were she still alive. He pined for his home and he pined for his mother. I was a young girl then—only fourteen—and couldn’t begin to understand the importance that Graceland held in Elvis’s heart. As years went by, though, as I myself lived in Graceland and Graceland became part of my own heart, I understood that it was much more than a place. It was Elvis’s refuge from the storms of life. It was where he dreamt of raising a family and finding simple peace. Sometimes he found that peace, sometimes he didn’t, but he never stopped trying. Graceland symbolized his hopes for a happy life. That’s why he always came home.
Copyright © 2020 by Priscilla Presley and Lisa Marie Presley; Edited by David Ritz. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
