Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 42, prompting a wave of mourning from fans and friends alike. Scott and Jen delve into the circumstances surrounding his death, the initial burial at Forest Hill Cemetery, and the decision to later move his remains to Graceland. They explore the significance of Elvis’s connection to Memphis, including his mother Gladys’s resting place and the impact of his sudden passing on the community and his fans. Listeners will hear about the chaos during his funeral, the emotional tributes from fans, and the eventual relocation to Graceland for security and legacy preservation. Join them as they navigate the poignant history behind Elvis’s burial and the enduring influence he continues to have on music and culture.
š„ Video of Elvis Presley’s original gravesite
š Google Maps links to Gladys and Elvis Presley’s original resting places
Links referenced in this episode:
Transcript
128 Elvis’ original gravesite
[00:00:00] Introduction and Busy October Recap
[00:00:00] Scott: All right Jen, we have had an incredibly busy October. Part of it’s just because my job has been 100 miles an hour for the past basically the entire month. I’ve been working weekends and doing all that stuff. So we republished an old episode last week, which is really cool. It was fun to talk a little Halloween theme on Night of the Living Dead.
[00:00:20] Jenn: I think that that episode doesn’t get as much love as it should because it’s so cool.
[00:00:24] Scott: and it was our original, it was like our seventh episode ever. And actually I look at that, listen back to it. It’s pretty good. So if you, if you’re not a living dead fan or you’re a zombie genre movie fan, you can go listen to that.
[00:00:35] Upcoming Live Stream and Listener Appreciation
[00:00:35] Scott: I want to thank a couple people first, because we’ve had some kind of stuff happening.
[00:00:41] We’ve potentially got a live stream coming up. So if you’re listening to this after it’s released, we’re going to let, try to live stream on Wednesday. If you’re listening to this sometime in the future, we’re going to try to do. Get some more live streams back. We used to do them quite a bit, but first I want to thank Larry Z.
[00:00:56] So he, he dropped us basically like kind of like a one time tip , over at talkwithhistory. com. There’s a support link in the bottom. And I think he’s been listening to like our entire back catalog. Of, of podcasts and he, he dropped us a 25 tip. So we really appreciate that, Larry. He said, caught up with every podcast discovered after learning about them through pinups for vets.
[00:01:16] When Jim became an ambassador, World War II content is my favorite. And I think he’s been commenting on some of our podcast episodes because in Spotify, you can actually drop comments now. So if you’re a Spotify listener, please feel free to drop us a comment or, or. Let us know what you’re learning or if you have a question or anything like that.
[00:01:31] So we really appreciate that kind of support.
[00:01:33] Supporting the Podcast
[00:01:33] Scott: If you want to support the podcast, you can always go to talkwithhistory. com. There’s a support link at the bottom, or if you want some kind of extra content that we’re going to slowly release and work on over at the history road trip, our newsletter website, you can sign up for a membership or even do just like a one month type thing.
[00:01:52] So it’s monthly or annually. And that support really. It really does help the podcast. We haven’t really had any partnerships or sponsorships on the podcast, although we have some potential ones coming up here. We’ll see. And we love hearing from listeners and from our audience. Like it’s just, it’s closing that circle, that, that kind of Content circle and having folks email us or reach out to us and say hey Thank you for this episode or that episode or I love this kind of content.
[00:02:19] We we really do love that
[00:02:20] Jenn: We do really appreciate your your feedback for us. It’s just a labor of love. And sometimes we don’t get to hear what you guys think. And when you give us such positive reinforcement, really it, it inspires us and keeps us going. So thank you so much.
[00:02:34] Scott: Yeah So again, if you want to drop us a one time tip buy us some coffee or a couple coffees You can do that over at talkwithhistory. com Or if you want to sign up for our newsletter where we’re going to start generating some exclusive content over there In addition to the free newsletter You can see that over at thehistoryroadtrip.
[00:02:52] com Alright, Jen. So, we are talking about the king. So, the king, his big tagline was taking care of business. So, let’s take care of business and talk about his original grave site here in Memphis that a lot of people don’t know about.
[00:03:30] Jenn: Absolutely.
[00:03:31] Elvis’s Early Life and Family
[00:03:31] Jenn: So we’re, We are now Memphis residents again, and there’s none more influential in this town than Elvis Presley. Now Elvis Presley wasn’t born here was born in Mississippi, but he moves here as a child goes to high school here. Even after he becomes famous, he will forever have his home here.
[00:03:51] So when he passes at such a young age, so unexpectedly at 42 years old, August 16th, 1977, there isn’t much in the way of preparations for his death. So nothing has really been planned on what to do with Elvis. No one planned for him to pass away at 42 years old. The only thing that was like a precursor to where they were going to put Elvis, where were they going to put him as far as the cemetery is concerned, is his mother had passed.
[00:04:23] And she had died August 14th, 1958. And it’s significant if you’re an Elvis fan because he was in the army at the time and he gets emergency family leave to come home. He gets home August 12th and he’s able to spend two days with his mother, Gladys, before she passes from heart failure. And then two days after that, she is buried at Forest Hill Cemetery, which is one of the older original cemeteries of Memphis, Tennessee.
[00:04:55] It’s a, it’s a. Pretty elaborate funeral because 900 people come to the funeral, but most of them to see Elvis Presley.
[00:05:03] He gets an extension of his emergency leave from the army for another five days. He doesn’t report back until August 24th, 1958. But there’s also a picture of him at her original gravesite with all the flowers. And When you look at our videos, like from, if you’ve watched our shorts from Graceland, and if you’ve ever been to the Graceland to the meditation garden, which is now the forever home of Elvis and his family there is a big white cross there that says Presley on it.
[00:05:31] And that’s the original monument marker for Gladys in the Forest Hill Cemetery.
[00:05:38] Scott: a picture of the original location, original picture of that cross at her original grave
[00:05:43] Jenn: Yes, and so we visit that in the in the video because there is still a concrete slab for where that cross was placed and Unbeknownst to us when we went to make the video someone had actually left a wreath there like a funeral
[00:05:58] Scott: there was a ribbon, it said Gladys on
[00:06:00] Jenn: Yes, and they have marked out a square where her grave was because some people think she’s still there.
[00:06:07] So we wanted to just emphasize the reason why Forest Hill Cemetery was picked so quickly after Elvis’s death. Passing is because his mother was
[00:06:15] Scott: And he had out of the family.
[00:06:16] Jenn: and he had other family there, which we also show. So we show and who hadn’t passed at the time, but his uncle was there and his cousin very close to Gladys’s grave.
[00:06:27] So other funerals that Elvis would have attended and he visited his mother very regularly in Memphis. So when he passes so quickly in 1977, they, they just default to this place that Elvis has his, his mother at.
[00:06:45] Elvis’s Original Resting Place
[00:06:45] Jenn: Now they disinter her, they dig up her grave and they put her in a mausoleum.
[00:06:51] There is a mausoleum there that was built in 1915 for the elite of Memphis. Now in 1958. Eight. Was Elvis an elite of Memphis? Could his mother have been put there? Probably his stardom was rising. He wasn’t quite the star he was to he is today or was when he hits the stardom, but his star was rising. He had some moderate fame and they had Purchase Graceland, but I don’t think their mind set was there yet where they’re going to be such an elite family and people are going to visit this family and want to be so connected to Elvis Presley that they just put, you know, they buried her where her family was
[00:07:33] Scott: Yeah, they didn’t think that would be a future at the time, right, in 58, that this would be a future thing they would have to
[00:07:38] Jenn: Yes. And so I don’t even think they think considered putting Gladys in the mausoleum, even though it was available then, because they just didn’t see themselves as that part of society yet. Now in 1977, I make it very clear, Elvis Presley is probably one of, if not the richest person in the Memphis
[00:07:55] Scott: Oh, yeah, the footage from the day of his funeral procession was bonkers. I mean, people, we’ve had people commenting on our video saying, I remember my parents driving me down to Graceland to see his funeral.
[00:08:12] Jenn: Yeah, so, so people lined up to view Elvis in state. They had an open casket in the music room. So if you’ve ever been to Graceland, it’s the room with the piano, the very first room you come to, to the right. And they had him laying in state in there. And even Lisa Marie remembers Elvis. So many people coming to see her father, right?
[00:08:31] And she had alone time with him at night when nobody was there, but so many people came in to view the body of the King and he’s laid out in this 800 pound copper line casket, which is a replica, exact replica of the same casket his mother is in. So she’s also in an 800 pound copper line casket. And so, yeah, for two days.
[00:08:55] So he passes on August 16th, August 16th. For two days he lays in state and all these people come through Graceland to view his coffin and to mourn.
[00:09:04] Scott: and there’s news footage of like women passing out and men, you know, like waking people up who, who like are just visibly distraught and it like, there’s emotion there. It’s it’s, I’ve never seen anything else really like it.
[00:09:20] Jenn: Well, he meant so much to people because he, I always say Elvis Presley is a great example of the quintessential American dream because a man who comes from nothing, a boy who’s born into poverty and in a rural, Mississippi and is able to become everything a movie star, the king of rock and roll, an influence on music and influence on movies and influence on media.
[00:09:46] Like the mark he leaves behind is so untouchable. People even today are influenced by Elvis Presley’s Sun Studio, you have famous people who will come to record albums in Sun Studio. Why? Because Elvis Presley recorded an album in Sun Studio. So He meant so much to people. And since he died so young and so unexpectedly, people wanted to come and say, thank you for what you did in my life.
[00:10:12] And I feel like a lot of people grew up with him from from the time he does like love me tender and goes into the army. And then you see him like jailhouse rock and all these other, but you see him grow up. And then he had to do his residency in Vegas. Like you see this man from his twenties to his forties, you’ve grown up with him for 20 years.
[00:10:33] Scott: When, when was, when did he do all like the comeback special stuff? Was that late? Yeah. Yeah. So that was, it wasn’t that long. That far long ago, right? In his late thirties. So the comeback special had happened. He had come back onto the scene, right? And less than, you know, you know, seven or eight years later, all of a sudden he passes at 42.
[00:10:52] Like, it, it’s, it’s one of, it’s in that aspect of it, it’s that quintessential. You know, superstar that dies young,
[00:11:00] Jenn: Yeah. You can almost like a James Dean or
[00:11:02] Scott: Dean or Marilyn Monroe or, you know, things like that that just really cements that stardom because that’s, that’s it. It’s the snapshot in time. That’s the last thing that everybody remembers is like when they’re almost at their peak and they’re forever in that status.
[00:11:17] Jenn: yeah, he grew, he grew to legend. Just like you get James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, they’ll never age. They grow on into legend. They’re become bigger than really they ever were in life. And so he, The mausoleum being reserved for the elite of Memphis there, they put, they put his body there. Now, it wasn’t permanent yet, right?
[00:11:39] Because when you’re in the mausoleum, there’s markers that have been permanently etched and made, and he’s just put in a room off to the right, His mother’s been disinterred. She’s been placed in that room and he’s placed on top of her in that room. So we show you, you see, you see the video of 12, 15 men carrying the coffin in.
[00:12:00] There is a little makeshift chapel. When you walk in that front door, they do a family ceremony there. Now they do this all August 18th, about 3. 30 PM. Only close family members can be at that makeshift event because it’s very small. You only see like. four pews per side. So it’s really like close family and close friends.
[00:12:23] And then he is placed in that room off to the right
[00:12:26] Scott: yeah, and you can’t always get into the mausoleum like the front doors is often locked
[00:12:31] Jenn: It is.
[00:12:32] Scott: But and the day we went there when we were filming was actually completely locked
[00:12:36] Jenn: So it’s usually always locked on
[00:12:37] Scott: Always locked on Sundays, and we didn’t realize that and so we were like, oh man So you actually had to come back a couple days later The back door was still locked But you were able to go up to the front office and you said they were very nice about it and had someone Unlock it for you.
[00:12:49] So you could get in and visit his previous kind of graves
[00:12:52] Jenn: His original resting place. So it’s now, you know, 1616 Elvis Presley Boulevard. It’s the Forest Hill Cemetery. Again, it was, you know, Established in 1888, but then chartered in 1892. And there is some famous, other famous graves there as well. And we mentioned them in the video, but the founder of Holiday Inn is there.
[00:13:14] Some people who played backup with Elvis and his original records are there. One of the co founders of Stax is there. And so this, the Memphis Bell, that’s what brought us there in the first place. We were there visiting the Memphis Bell
[00:13:29] Scott: Margaret, Margaret
[00:13:30] Jenn: Margaret Polk is there. So. It is a Memphis, a famous Memphis graveyard.
[00:13:35] This bit, there’s two of them and this is the second one. So we were able to get into the mausoleum, see the original resting place of Elvis. People have been signing the marble beside it and that’s why they lock it up now because it’s defacing to the marble. But real, you know, people have done that to the gate of Graceland
[00:13:54] Scott: Yeah. If you see the Graceland, the wall outside of Graceland, I mean, it is covered for like multiple feet, you know, probably dozen, you know, 10, 20, 30 feet of people signing. Yeah. And that’s more stone.
[00:14:05] Jenn: Yeah. And they’ve accepted that. But in the mausoleum, they’re trying to avoid that. So we left a flag for Elvis’s military service, but he’s not there for long because unfortunately, August 29th, three men were arrested trying to break into the mausoleum. And they’re not quite sure what they were going to do because like I said, it’s an 800 pound coffin.
[00:14:31] And it takes 12 men to lift it. Some think that they, he would, they were going to try to steal his body and hold it for ransom. But no one knows for sure because they didn’t get
[00:14:40] Scott: Yeah, and we actually had a commenter on the on the video who said someone had done that to like Charlie Chaplin’s body or something like
[00:14:47] Jenn: Oh, wow.
[00:14:47] Scott: And so they had, they had basically taken his body, held it for ransom. And I think they were actually caught, but it’s not unprecedented.
[00:14:54] Jenn: Sure. And I mean, I guess it’s a get rich quick scheme.
[00:14:59] Moving Elvis to Graceland
[00:14:59] Jenn: But what happens is about I’d say a week later on September 7th A letter is sent to the officials of Memphis from the Presley family now remember Vernon is still alive Elvis’s father Asking if they can move Elvis’s body and Gladys’s body to Graceland if they can they’ll put them in the meditation garden.
[00:15:21] They’ll bury them in the ground And they can provide security at Graceland since they already do that if they would have to provide security at the mausoleum It would be 200 a day Not that Elvis couldn’t afford that but he but Vernon felt since they already already do it at Graceland. This would be better for him to just be home.
[00:15:42] Scott: Yeah, and that was in the 70s.
[00:15:44] Jenn: That was in the 70s, but this was not done. That’s why they had to send a letter. And nowadays people just think of Elvis at Graceland, but this is not the norm even then. So on and it was, it took about a month, but it was approved. And then October 2nd, 1977 is when Elvis’s body is actually moved to Graceland with his mother.
[00:16:05] So it’s about a month, a month and a half after he passes is he’s actually brought back to Graceland. And since then, Vernon has passed. He is there. His grandmother has passed. She is there. Lisa Marie, unfortunately, untimely again, passes. She’s there. And so is Elvis’s grandson, Ben. Lisa Marie’s son is there as well.
[00:16:26] And it has become. the gravesite of the Presley family. I would, I would venture that Priscilla will be there and Riley will be there. Now the cross that was at Gladys’s grave has been moved there and all of the other items, there was a, there was a headstone. Those have been moved there as well. So if you visit the meditation garden that has become the gravesite of the Presley family, all those items from Forest Hill Cemetery are now there as well.
[00:16:52] Scott: it was it was neat, it’s always neat to go to these cemeteries, right? The more often that you and I do things like this, it’s, it’s just neat to see what else is there. And actually, funny enough, I will put a link to exactly where Gladys’s grave site is, because the one that’s marked already in, in Google maps is wrong.
[00:17:10] So we were looking at that and you, we found the right, the correct site, cause you can see from the pictures and there’s like another little mini mausoleum for some other family that was buried near Gladys’s site. And so we found the exact right spot and I was looking on Google maps, I was like, Hey, the, the marker for Gladys’s.
[00:17:25] You know, burial site is actually in the wrong spot. So if you use Google maps, the one that’s in there, that’s actually wrong from what we saw, this is November of 2024, but I’ll leave a link to the exact spot in the podcast show notes to her site.
[00:17:36] Jenn: Yes. And It is in the wrong location, although you can see the right location from that wrong location. And even from the original location, the right location of where Gladys was originally buried, you can see the mausoleum, the expensive mausoleum. That is the only large mausoleum of Forest Hill. Driving in looking for the mausoleum.
[00:17:58] It is the only large
[00:17:59] Scott: Yeah. And there’s signs on the outside of the mausoleum that says Elvis Presley, like original site or something like
[00:18:05] Jenn: Yeah, so they’ve embraced their story. I mean this is Footprints of Elvis’s early resting place and this reveals like layers of his significance in Memphis layers of who he is Was in life and then who he becomes in death as well. I think this is a very significant visiting location. If you are a true Elvis fan, even when we visited and it’s on the video, they have a picture of Elvis inside that original place.
[00:18:37] No one else has been put in there. I don’t think they will ever use it. I think it’ll always have a home as Elvis’s original resting place. They have a little, monument outside to him about that. There’s pictures inside the sanctuary that little makes of sanctuary of him and his mother and what the funeral procession looked like the day Elvis died.
[00:18:59] So I think they’ve embraced their story, much like the city of Memphis embraces him as the you know, the original son. of Memphis. I think the mausoleum has embraced their part in the Elvis Presley story as well.
[00:19:12] Scott: Yeah, it was, it was fun to make it’s always good to, good to get out there and if you live in the Memphis area, or if you’re here in Graceland, it’s, it’s not hard to visit.
[00:19:20] Conclusion and Future Content
[00:19:20] Scott: So thank you again for supporting us. If you want to support the podcast, you can do so over at talkwithhistory. com, or if you want to support it and get some extra content that we’re going to be making we Potentially have another history after dark episode that we’ve been tossing around about some kind of famous historic celebrities in their I’ll say their night lives I’ll put it that way and kind of some of the some of the things that come from that So we’re gonna we’re gonna talk a little bit about that over at history after
[00:19:48] Jenn: We’ll talk about history after dark. If you’re interested, the the sowing of the oats of celebrity. We’ll talk about that.
[00:19:55] Scott: All right, well, thank you so much everybody