My Elvis Presley Blog

Part I of the Ongoing Series: Did Elvis Ever Really Know True Love?

Elvis met Dixie at the First Assembly of God church in Memphis in January of 1954 where he attended services primarily to hear the Blackwood Brothers sing gospel.

“I thought he was the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen. He was a very shy person, but when he started singing he put so much into putting the music across that he kind of lost himself. He threw himself into it completely,” she says.

Dixie purposely set out to meet Elvis by speaking loudly in church to her girlfriends about plans to go rollerskating the next weekend.  She hoped Elvis would hear and possibly show up.  He did.  She says he was dressed in some sort of bolero outfit with a short black bullfighter’s jacket, ruffled shirt and black pegged pants with a pink stripe down the leg.  Although he had skates on, she became aware soon enough that he couldn’t actually skate.

She finally went over and introduced herself and instead of getting any more skating in, she spent the evening drinking cokes and listening to Elvis talk.  She says it seemed like he’d been waiting his whole life for someone to talk to as he spoke of his dreams and hopes, his plans for his future.

When Dixie took Elvis home to meet her parents, they were less then impressed with the older boy who dressed funny and had greasy long hair.  Her uncle even offered her $2 for Elvis to get a hair cut.  However, Elvis’s manners and respectful nature won them over and it was not long after that, Elvis took Dixie home to meet his parents.

Gladys was ever suspicious of everybody but after a grueling evening of answering her questions about her family, her schooling and anything else Gladys wanted to know, Dixie received a stamp of approval from Mrs. Presley, much to Elvis’s relief.

Dixie and Elvis went everywhere together but never too far from home.  They’d sit on the front porch, go for rides, go the movies or for walks.  They talked about marriage and even came close to running off one day to get married but common sense prevailed.  Dixie was still very young, not yet 16 and in school. Her mother would be heartbroken if she was to do such a thing.

The first time they were separated was in July of 1954 when Dixie’s parents were leaving for vacation in Florida.  It was the day after the Blackwood Brothers plane crash tragedy that rocked Memphis on June 30, 1954 and both Dixie and Elvis were among thousands of people who were devasted by the loss of two of the brothers of the quartet.  Dixie didn’t want to leave Elvis and Elvis certainly didn’t want her to go but go she did.  They promised to write and that nothing would change while she was gone. They had their whole lives ahead of them when she got back.

Meanwhile, Elvis was called into Sun Studios by Sam Phillips to try to work something out with guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black.  They worked it out all right and before long, Elvis’s That’s All Right Mama was being played by DJ Dewey Philips and the rest, as they say, is history.

After Dixie came back from Florida, things were never the same although they appeared to be the same for awhile.  Dixie accompanied Elvis on his truck route for the electric company he drove for and she went with him to the radio station where Dewy Phillips would put on his crazy man act in front of the microphone. On rehearsal nights, she’d sit with the wives of Scotty and Bill who were older women in their 20’s.  She couldn’t go to watch Elvis perform at the clubs because she was underage and they served alcohol but as soon as the performance was over, Elvis would come over to her house to pick her up and take her out.

As time went on, Elvis spent more and more time on the road performing and accumulating his circle of friends that would later be referred to as the Memphis Mafia.  In the spring and summer of 1955, Dixie and Elvis broke up several times and always over Elvis’s jealousy or distrust of what she was doing while he was on the road.  Ironic isn’t it knowing what we know about what Elvis did on the road?  But what was good for goose was not good for gander and Elvis was suspicious, possessive and jealous.  What was Dixie supposed to do while he’s gone for weeks at a time?  Stay home and watch tv alone?

By the fall of 1955 it was officially over between Dixie and Elvis.  Gladys was heartbroken about the break up as she had her plans all invested into Dixie being the mother of her grandchildren. Just as  soon as her boy got this being famous stuff out of his system, he was going to buy a furniture store or something, marry Dixie and have a bunch of kids.  But it was not to be.

“It was kind of a mutual thing. His career was going in one direction, and I didn’t feel that I could be a part of it. His career kind of consumed him there, and there wasn’t much time for anything else.”

Conclusion: Dixie definitely loved Elvis but not Elvis the performer, the entertainer, the world famous icon he was to become. She loved the shy, oddly dressed boy who took her out for milkshakes and made her laugh.  Elvis couldn’t help but change after being on the road and discovering a world outside of their little neighborhood in Memphis.  As he became more worldly, he saw Dixie as the innocent, good Christian girl she was and in all good conscience, could not subject her to the lifestyle he was beginning to enjoy.  Keep in mind Dixie was only 15 and 16 during the time she dated Elvis and he was considerably older at 19 and 20.

Elvis probably loved Dixie in his own way but not enough to sacrifice anything to keep her, especially his career.

Video: Dixie Talks About Dating Elvis

Elvis Presley: Today in History – July 19, 1975

Elvis performed at the Nassau County Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York at 2.30 and 8.30 p.m.

Proof positive that Elvis could wear absolutely anything and make it look good. Noticeably absent are his infamous rings.

Is it possible that Elvis lived his brief 42 years and never knew true unconditional love?   Could Elvis even recognize true unconditional love if he saw it?

I think this question is much too deep and complicated to cover under one blog so this is merely an introduction to the subject.  I will be exploring it in more depth in upcoming blogs.

But first, what is true unconditional love?  Click here to read what I think are probably the best definitions although everyone’s idea will be different for sure.

I suspect Elvis didn’t really know what true love was despite the hundreds of songs he sang about the subject, despite the millions of fans who never wavered in their undying love and support of him even after his passing, despite the numerous people he kept close to  him who “claimed” to have loved him but made no effort to save him and despite the numerous women who passed through his life who also claimed to have loved him but only if he changed his “evil ways” for them.

It may be that these people did in fact love him but was it unconditional and did he know it to be true?  Did Elvis actually love anybody besides his mother unconditionally?  Did he know true love in his lifetime? So many questions, where shall I find the answers?

The Women in Elvis’ Life:
It is my opinion that Elvis did not really love Priscilla nor do I believe that she ever truly loved him.  She loved Elvis Presley the rock star, she didn’t really love Elvis the man until possibly after he died.  To understand Elvis’ attraction to Priscilla we have to understand a darker side of Elvis that seemed to enjoy being with young girls.  There seemed to be a part of him that enjoyed the control and power he had with younger girls.  Of note is the molding of Priscilla into a girl barely recognizable when she married Elvis from the young girl he met in Germany.

There were a lot of significant women in Elvis’s life and this subject will be lengthy and complicated.  I look forward to exploring it further.

The Friends Elvis Surrounded Himself With:
Elvis also depended on his Memphis Mafia buddies to protect him from harm, but more importantly I think it was to feed his gigantic ego and to keep him from ever being lonely.  Loneliness was something Elvis suffered his whole life as ironic as that may seem.  Did he love any of these men? Was that love unconditional? My research so far indicates the answer is no and I will explore that more deeply later as well.

Elvis’ Family:
I’m sure just about everybody has heard the story of how one Christmas, shortly after Elvis purchased Graceland, he decided to test every family member who was hanging around the house.  After inviting them individually up to his bedroom for a chat, he excused himself to go to the bathroom.  After being in the bathroom awhile, he’d come out, end his conversation with the family member and show them out.  Then he counted the stack of money he’d left out on his bed.  I don’t think he ever revealed to anyone who if anyone actually snatched a bill or two but he was always wary of letting certain family members hang around after that, so the story goes.

This is not a good sign of unconditional love which you might actually expect in a large, Southern, closely knit family such as the Presley/Smith clan.  These families all lived together mostly before Elvis became famous because they were all too poor to support their own homes.  So they were close.  Apparently close didn’t mean trustworthy necessarily.

I will also being exploring whether or not Elvis loved his father, Vernon Presley.  There wasn’t much there to love.  We know Elvis felt obligated but did he feel love?

Elvis’s Manager:
There’s no doubt that Elvis put his entire career in the hands of a flim flam man who had the entire world fooled about his credibility, his citizenship and his intentions.  Some people claim that Elvis loved Tom Parker but I completely disagree with that theory and will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that not only did Elvis not love Parker but that he actually despised him.  Parker had something on Elvis and it was that something that kept Elvis from firing the circus man.  It certainly wasn’t love.

So sign up and join me as we explore this mystery.

Update: July 24th, 2009

Great News! They Reconsidered Baby!

“Resurrection”

So Elvisnews.com is back and life can return to normal.  The reactions of the members of Elvisnews.com are predictably elated as it appears lots of people tried to find a replacement and found, as I already knew, there is not a better a Elvis site on the internet.
Read comments at: Resurrection

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Original post:

It’s a sad day for us Elvis fans who count on one website for our Elvis news and all things Elvis. This has been my Elvis-a-pedia since I first fell in with Elvis fandom and I can’t tell you how many times while researching Elvis I’ve used this site for background and information, pictures and even song lyrics.

Elvisnews.com has announced today that they are shutting down their operation just a few  weeks short of the their 10th anniversary. I won’t recount here all the reasons that they made this decision and there is a link at the bottom of this article if you want to read more, but Michael Jackson’s passing seems to have been the straw that broke the camel’s already straining back.

Elvisnews.com provides it’s members an area to post reactions and comments to the stories they publish.  Of course, the world is full of a–holes who will try to make our world a stink hole to live in and these same morons felt it was their God-given right to write extremely negative and even inflammatory comments about MJ’s passing.   But I’ve seen these ignorant comments everywhere not just at elvisnews.com.  CBC’s website as an example has hundreds of comments on MJ stories that are insulting to Michael’s fans, completely disrespectful to Michael’s family, and could permanently stain the memory of Michael for the rest of us if we’re not careful.  These comments are counted in the thousands and are all over the internet.

Unfortunately it appears that the comments on Elvisnews.com produced conflict within the elvisnews.com partnership and added fuel to an already existing fire of what used to be a pleasure for the partners but has now become a chore.  Regretfully, they decided to shut it all down.

For the record, I have read a dozen or more books about Elvis and feel like I have a pretty fair cross section of who the man was.  I am certain that if he knew that so-called Elvis fans were making these nasty and defamatory remarks about Michael posthumously, he would be revolted and saddened and he certainly would not approve.  A true Elvis fan only has to remember what it was like when we were all mourning Elvis’ death and being subjected to listening to all the disgusting and horrible things being said about Elvis while we did so.

Elvis sang a wonderful song called “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” and I would suggest those that want to bash Michael Jackson with unproven and disgusting remarks should re-listen to the words of that song.  There’s also “Clean Up Your Own Backyard” if the first one doesn’t get the point across.

In the meantime, we’re are losing the best Elvis site on the internet and I shall be in mourning for that loss for sometime to come.  I understand all the work that goes into that site and if your passion has been dampened for one reason or another, I completely understand how it becomes a chore rather then a pleasure.  Still, it saddens me that Elvisnews.com won’t be around anymore and the shoes required to fill this gap will be huge.

When I told my husband the news this morning, he said “So pick up the slack”.  I responded with “Not in a million years could I ever hope to provide all the Elvis related news and information that Elvisnews.com provides!”

I am sorry to see you go guys but I thank you for the dedication and passion you’ve given in the past 10 years to make Elvisnews.com the premier site for all things Elvis.

Read Final Curtain on elvisnews.com