Elvis and Me

by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley

The first six months I spent with him were filled with tenderness and affection. Blinded by love, I saw none of his faults or weaknesses. He was to become the passion of my life.

i’m

Over the years he became my father, husband, and very nearly God.

speachless

My mother was too shy to talk about the facts of life, so my sex education came in school, when I was in the sixth grade.

real

“Ninth.” Elvis looked confused. “Ninth what?” “Grade,” I whispered. “Ninth grade,” he said and started laughing. “Why, you’re just a baby.”

i just can’t

know that I’d be picked up around eight. I had to dress quickly, trying to find some way to appear older than my age.

ouch..

When he joined me, he’d lie as close to me as he could. “I love you,” I whispered. “Shhh,” he said as he put his fingers to my lips.

i’m speachless

learned that Elvis always preferred driving at night; it was cooler and there was less traffic. He came alive at night.

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“Why do you always have the TV on?” I asked Elvis. “It keeps me company,” he said. “When it’s on, I feel like there are people around.”

exactly

“How could you cut your goddamn hair? You know I like long hair. Men love long hair.”

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My sole ambition was to please him, to be rewarded with his approval and affection. When he criticized me, I fell to pieces.

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We always seemed to be more in love when we were alone.

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his favorite TV shows like Laugh-In, The Untouchables, The Wild, Wild West, The Tonight Show, and Road Runner.

Omg the tonight shlw

With growing curiosity, I sorted through everything. I felt closer to Elvis just by touching his things, and all I could think of was what girl he’d been with at the time—Dixie, Judy, Anita, Bonnie? I was so possessive, I had to know.

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Afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing, I suppressed my real feelings and eventually developed an ulcer.

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I truly felt our relationship had developed to where he would want my honest opinion. “I don’t really like it,” I said. “What do you mean, you don’t like it?” “I don’t know—there’s just something about it, a catchiness that’s missing.” To my horror, a chair came hurtling toward me.

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You could sense the vibration when he was angry. The tension in the room mounted to flash point, and no one wanted to be around for the explosion. Yet, if anyone decided to leave, they automatically became the target for his rage,

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Sometimes he lashed out just to drive home a point. If he thought it would teach us a lesson, he’d blow some minor grievance out of all proportion, and even as he was yelling he might wink at someone nearby. Then, ten minutes later, he’d be fine, leaving us bewildered and emotionally depleted. There were also times he would leave us emotionally uplifted. He was truly a master at manipulating people.

Sounds familiar

When you look at a body, you realize how temporary it all is, how it could end in a matter of minutes.”

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“I like your perfume, honey. What’s it called?” “Chanel Number Five,” she answered. Chanel Number Five? That’s what I was wearing! Why didn’t he notice it on me?

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I feared his violent temper, which robbed me of my freedom of expression;

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opened the box to find the most beautiful diamond ring I’d ever seen. It was three and a half karats, encircled by a row of smaller diamonds, which were detachable—I could wear them separately. “We’re going to be married,” Elvis said. “You’re going to be his. I told you I’d know when the time was right. Well, the time’s right.”

oh

we had little in common except our daughter.

When it came time for Elvis to give away kisses to the girls in the audience—a regular part of his show—I went up to the stage. Instead of kissing me, he kept on singing his song, leaving me to stand there.

Im

as in the past when I’d enrolled in French classes because he liked the language, took flamenco dancing because he was an aficionado, and ballet because he adored dancers’ bodies.

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I stopped apologizing for my opinions and laughing at jokes I didn’t find amusing.

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The hope of an ideal marriage, which had consumed all my thoughts and energy since I was fourteen, had ended with the simple stroke of a pen.

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Elvis never showed any of his fears. He felt he had a responsibility to make everyone else feel secure. So he gave the impression he was self-assured, because he didn’t want to let any of us down.

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His audience was his true love.

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He was, and remains, the greatest influence in my life.

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He was a man, a very special man.

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