Pryor Scrapbook Clippings, 1955-1980

The Presleys tn 1958 •Thia wu,the scene when Vernon and son, Elvis, to the draft board in Mem– G1-dys Presley escorted their famous phis in March, 1958. P:resley Estate Held In Abeyance The d~ath of Vernon Presley leaves the Minnie Mae ·Presley, who lives at Grace- S7.6-milhon estate of his late son in abey- land, and of Elvis' only child Lisa Marie l ance until a will is filed and probated in Presley of Beverly Hills, Calif. court, probably within the .next week, The will stipulated.that upon the deaths , sources said. , of Elvis' father and grandmother, Lisa Ma- The elder Presley was executor of the rie, now 11, would inherit the estate upon estate and also was given authority in his reaching her 25th birthday. l son's.willtoappointasuccessor,~qu~on The elder Presley had been receivil).g th2't 1S expected to be answered in lus own $1,400 per week for his estate duties, t e Will. same salary he receivedl>efore his so 's An executor for Ve~on Presley' estate death Aug. 16, 1977. also is expected to be named. His former wife, Priscilla Beaulieu Pr According to Elvis' will, the N tional ley, and his fiancee, Ginger Alden, we e Senk of Commerce automatically would not included in the will. . become the new executor in the ev nt his Among J)O§esSions included in the fater appointed no succemr to ct as tate are Graceland mansion and the executor of the estate. acre grounds valued last year at SS56,9 , (Continued from Page Al) ment of chest pains. He was readmitted for ~li~ness and a fast heartbeat in October, 1978. He was admitted to the 1-1Pital again on '--- . Spt;c;hdiet.t..84i(l eart attacks or myocardtlt' infarctio d scarr'¥! his heart .muscle. As they had with his son, many fans turned their thoughts to Presley when be entered the hospital in January. The pro– prietors of a restaurant near Graceland even rented an airplane to fly a "Get Well Vernon" banner acr~ the sky Jan. 27_. Vernon Elvis Presley rarely was in the limelight during his son's career, but en– joyed show business as he tended to the accompanying business and financial af– fairs. He also enjoyed living in Memphis. In the summer of 1959, while his son Elvis served as a tank driver for the Army in West Germany, Vernon Presley re– turned home to Graceland. "Germany is a wonderful place for a vacation," Presley said. "It's got beautiful scenery and it's cool there even this late in th~ summer. But I came back. There were things I had to take care of." Presley was born April 10, 1916, near Fulton, Miss. He moved to East Tupelo, Miss., when he was 4 years old and attend– ed Priceville Elementary School and East Tupelo High ScQool. He worked as a car– ,pent"'"' -:harecropper, trU;ck driver and · painter. He and his family often sang at dinners and in the Church of God. His first wife, Gladys, died on Aug. 14, 1958. Twp years later, in a secret ceremony· in Huntsville, Ala., be married 34-year-old Devada Mae 'Dee' Elliott, a S-foot-2, blue– eyed blond he met at a coffee party while the Presleys were liying in Germany. emon Presley said last fall that,.due to- household furnishings and clothi g hls•nealth, "everything has been done le- worth S216,265 and a Palm Springs, ea1· ., They were divorced in November, 1977, g.Uy to insure an orderly transition" of home and lot valued at $364,500. in the Dominican Republic, after a three- the handling of the estate in the event ·of Last year Vernon Presley turned do$ year separatio,n. n :aeath. "Associates said be had no plans an offer or $10 million from a groupif Presley was eirergetic and attractive in to ~11 the mansion. businessmen who were interested in p . his younger days, but rarely was he flashy. His ~ttomey, D. BeecherSmith n, yester.- chasingGraceland for the purpose of tu . In 1959, he boasted that two young women day S81d Presley's legal matters are in or- . ing it into a tourist attraction. appr~ched him in Germany and asked if l der, but declined to elaborate. Vester Presley, an uncle of Elvis said he was Elvis' father. "They said I looked \ As executor of his son's estate, Vernon the mansion grounds would be clo~ to like Elvis' daddy, except I was younger alid Presley was directed to care for the well. visitors until funeral ceremonies are com- not as heavy." , being of himseH; Elvis' grandmother, Mrs. pleted and a new executor is named. The greatest tragedy Presley faced in bis Legend's Eathet Hacl SFmp e Outlook By JAMFS KINGSLEY reminisced about the tours that Elvis made and discussed Although Vernon Elvis Presley was the father of a his personal health. leg~nd, his simple outlook on life ,.never changed. He was known for keeping a tight rein on money and I While he had ac~ to millions of dollars as executor carefully watched Elvis' spending while on the ·road, of Elvis' estate, his tastes remained simple. checking gasoline statepients, telephone bills, grocery He didn't care for caviar and preferred pork chops spending, travel, lodging and other expenditures. · I over steak. He seemed heartbroken when doctors told him And the bills eventually became tremendous as Elvis' , he would have to curb his taste for buttermilk and com overhead skyrocketed with maintenance of several homes bread because of circulatory problems. and pay rolls to maintain them. He would often wipe a His lif~ was built ar.ound. working for El~, which handkerchief across his face and remark, "I don't really meant tounng the world in lavish style. But the fnends he know if it does much good for you to make $4 million a year 1 had made as a young f.ather in Tupelo, Miss., remained his . and spend ss million. I friends - welcomed friends - long after Elvis' rise to "Elvis just likes to give things away. He has a generous ~dom. One of the last ~ings he di~ was to dona~e Elvis' heart and is still just like kid in a candy store. If be sees Bible to the small memorial chapel m Tupelo which will something he likes or so ething a friend would lite he be dedicated in Elvis' honor in August. just buys it." ' Presley, who was born on a small farm north of Ful- Presley eventually an calling in scores of accoun- , t~n, Miss., and married in the mid~e of the Great Depres- tants ~d attorneys to ha dle the intricacies of managing . 1 ~o~ knew near poverty as a child and young man. the millions of dollars gjnerated by Elvis' career in re- As the manager of Elvis' personal business and man- cords, movies, personal appearances and music publishing ~get of the Graceland Estate, Vernon never had what companies. . , I . would be called hobbies. His son was his life. Elvis and Vernon enJoyed each others presen~, 1 • • whether it was bac~age at a concert, traveli~g on his I But probably his next loves were driving his auto- custom-fitted 727 jet or walking over farmland in the mobiles, overseeing several farms he once owned and Mississippi hill country 'llhich both called home. I standing for hours to play the slot machines in Las Vegas But Presley considered all times spent with members while Elvis was appearing at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel. of the family strictly private. He declined to discuss Elvis' When Elvis returned to live performances in 1969 , perso~ activities, Elvis' affection for ~is mother and I Vernon could be seen relaxing almost anytime of the day Presle~ s late ~e, ~. Gladys Presley, h1S ~wn relation– at ~e sl_ot machines. Last September when he attended the :VY/':!VlS, or vtrtually any other family aspect of _dedication of the ~vis Presley sta~e at the Hilton in Las Presley, perhaps remembering the earlier hard times Vegas he would Sl~ on a stool furnished by the hotel and in bis life, never seemed to get caught up in the turmoil of play the progres51ve Sl '1achines. the superstar status that Elvis eventually achieved. During that visit, Presley announced l\iS engagement . Yesterday he left the world as he bad lived in it. to Mrs. SandraMiller, his private duty nurse, while the two,_ ....;:Qu;,.__ 1 e_t1.:..y.________ ~---~=-~=:'.:::--:---1' were at the Hilton. v I A wedding date was never set, however, because of his . , ill health. , · .He wu aware of his worsening health problems last September when he started using a wheelchair for the first time. Sitting at dinner at the hotel. he .ioked about life, 63 years was the death of Elvis on Aug. 16, 19n. Just a few days earlier, Presley said, Elvis "was happy and was walking around talking about the upcoming tour" which was to open in Portland, Maine. "He was jovial and in a happy mood." They spoke their final words to each other less than 24 hours before Elvis died. "I told Elvis, 'I think I'll just go with you on this tour,"' the elder Presley recalled. . "Then Elvis said, 'Fine. The more the mer– rier."' The next afternoon, Presley was sum– moned to an upstairs room at Graceland by his son's road manager, Joe Esposito, who told him only that "something had hap– pened." • "I went upstairs and we started giving Elvis mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but I thought it was probably too late," Presley sadly recalled later that·week. "I looked at Elvis and I realized ~t was probably a help– less situation but it was so hard to believe it had happened." Tens of thousands of saddened fans came to Memphis that week to join Presley in mourning Elvis' death, but the singer's father spent three days privately grieving the loss of his son. When he emerged, the white-haired Presley, drained and tired, thanked Mem– phis and the world for their concern and condolences. Aweek later, when his son's will was made public, Presley was named executor of the multimillion-dollar estate his son had built and would receive $72,800 a year at a rate of S1,400 a week. But his reputation as a tight money man– ager remained intact after his son's death. Although most believed he would move into the 20-room Gt'aceland Mansion, Pres– ley sold his four-bedroom, three-bath house at 1266 Dolan for $85,000 in August and moved into a three-bedroom, three– bath garage apartment he had built as an annex to Graceland. '·'I decided to keep the main house intact as it was when Elvis died," he explained. "The furniture and all the other fixtures are still as they were then." Though he had sole discretion to do whatever he wanted with Graceland, be said he would "do_nothing unless I.isa Ma– rie would be happy." • • ,,