Elvis Presley’s former maid and friend, Nancy Rooks passed away on Monday, August 15th, 2022. The eve of Elvis’ 45th anniversary of his death at Graceland. Rooks was 84 years old.
Nancy B Rooks Givhan, 84 of Mason, Tennessee passed away on Monday, August 15, 2022, at Villages at Primacy Place in Memphis, Tennessee. Born Monday, August 8, 1938, in Braden, Tennessee, she was the daughter of the late Sylvester Mason and the late Rose Douglas Mason.
Surviving are daughter, Norma Jean Chism of Memphis, TN, brothers, Robert Wirt, John Lee Mason, Obediah Mason and Nathaniel Mason; 3 grandchildren; 6 great grandchildren.
The family will receive friends from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM on Thursday, August 25, 2022, at R S Lewis & Sons Funeral Home, 2944 Walnut Grove , Memphis, Tennessee. Funeral service will be at 11:00 AM on Friday August 26, 2022, at Faith Covenant Church located at 4815 Willow Road Memphis, Tennessee 38118. Interment will be in West Tennessee Veterans Cemetery, Memphis, TN.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to her daughter, Norma and the entire family.
Many fans were watching the candlelight service on livestream. And from the start, it became a bizarre event!
First, Priscilla Presley referred to it as Elvis’ birthday. OK, one time I get it, we are all getting older, tiredness etc. But she referred to this as his birthday many times to the point, I thought she was going to have the crowd sing Happy Birthday Elvis. I kid you not! Seriously! So bizarre!
But she did look great as always. All kidding aside, I get it. We all have been there during a big Elvis Week, you’re so tired, you don’t make sense! Priscilla, get some rest! You’re scaring me!
Next, we get Tom Brown Live from the green screen of the “front lawn”, great to see Tom, ok but that’s where we stayed for most of the night. Tom talking and talking and talking about the wonderful new movie, Elvis. Yes, it’s wonderful but tonight was not about sales pitches or the wonderful movie. The candlelight service was created BY FANS FOR FANS.
Fans who are watching the livestream are mostly long time dedicated fans. You don’t have to educate us, or sell to us. We have seen the movie numerous times and we love it. And no shade to Tom, that’s what EPE paid him to do, he is doing his job. He sure is a good talker.
The continuous clips, the impractical joker guy was on for way too long, so boring and not what we want to see. I saw various comments on the livestream feed of complaints. One guy had a great comment, he said Where’s Mickey Mouse? because they had so many clips of people talking about the movie that only Mickey Mouse was missing. Many fans were bored by all the talking and stopped watching the stream. One fan called it a snoozefest.
One thing I have to correct Tom Brown on, he said EPE never shut down the vigil and stopped fans from going up. They tried once. I believe it was the 20th anniversary. The tours were about to start on the morning of the 16th and many fans were still in line to go up and EPE tried to close the line. Two of those fans are very dear friends of mine and they raised hell. EPE was concerned about the tour buses going up the driveway while fans were walking up. So it did happen once. Jack Soden got an earful from my two friends and needless to say, they went up.
So many fans commenting on the talking, Enough of these guys talking, we want to hear Elvis, we want to see the vigil, the fans.
This talking about the movie could have been a special to kick off Elvis Week or the release of the movie. But don’t do this on candlelight night. Save the propaganda. The candlelight is very special, it is highly revered BY fans. Don’t ruin it even if we are only talking about the livestream. That’s where it starts and soon the in person event will change too.
Geez, even The Colonel would no go this far with the propaganda!
Finally when the talking stops, we fans hope ok now we will see the vigil.
Nope, livestream ENDED. WTH! Are you kidding me?
We tune in to experience the candlelight service, we want to hear Elvis singing and watch the fans gathered there to pay their respects to Elvis. We want to see our friends with their candles. We want to share that special evening, that special connection. We want to experience it. It’s an emotional connection, an experience we share with our fellow fans. We lost that tonight for the first time ever.
If anything, all that talking, talking, and more talking and clips could have been shown the hour BEFORE the candlelight started. That would have been great! So many fans found this to be tasteless and disrespectful to Elvis and his fans.
The quality of the livestream has improved tremendously throughout the years. And we fans appreciate the chance to experience this sacred event on line. But please keep it simple, we want to hear ELVIS and see our fellow ELVIS fans.
And two hours? Come on! EPE used to let this keep streaming the fans going up the driveway and playing the music until at least midnight. It felt like you were there. And it was incredible to watch.
THAT will sell more tickets, more hotel rooms not tuning into an infomercial. TACKY!
Salesman talkin’ to me, tryin’ to run me up a creek
Says you can buy it, go on try it, you can pay me next week, ahh
Too much monkey business, too much monkey business
So says a tabloid out on news stands now. Lisa Marie Presley is quoted by the tabloid as saying she won’t let her fathers fans down. They claim she is stepping in to save Elvis’ Graceland.
Every Elvis fan knows or expects to hear this. On every big anniversary like this 35th anniversary of Elvis’ death, the tabloids say Graceland is closing etc etc. It sells papers! Yawn….move on!
Well, here’s a story that caused a lot of controversy. Gotta Have It auction house in NYC had Sharon Tate’s engagement ring up for auction last month. It sold for $21,260. Click here for auction listing & photos
L to R Sharon Tate & sister Debra Tate
The ring was originally listed with the description that Sharon might possibly be wearing this very ring when she was murdered by Charles Manson followers. But her sister, Debra told TMZ the ring featured in a recent auction on GottaHaveRockndRoll.com DID belong to the actress … but she gave it away to a family friend long before she was killed by the Manson family in 1969. Debra says the ring was not an “official” engagement ring — but rather an “unofficial symbol of her relationship” with Roman Polanski. Debra says, “The ring was not Sharon’s style and she never wore it.” Debra says Polanski later gave Sharon an “official” engagement ring — a gold and diamond band “which she treasured.” Despite the auction house’s claim, Debra is adamant Sharon was NOT wearing ANY rings on her finger at the time of her death — adding, “Because Sharon was pregnant, she couldn’t fit any rings on her finger.” Sharon was two weeks away from her due date when she was murdered. The auction house did revise their description of the ring. Although, they continued to describe it as Sharon’s engagement ring.
Suzanna Leigh & Elvis Presley Paradise, Hawaiian Style co-stars
Now here’s where it gets even more tricky. Apparently, the ring was auctioned off by actress Suzanna Leigh. Best known to Elvis Presley fans, as the king’s co-star in Paradise, Hawaiian Style in 1966. But according to a sworn 2006 affidavit, Judy Dreszner said, “Suzanna Leigh stole the ring from me in 1989.”Dreszner said she gave it to Leigh to be appraised and never saw it again. Former fashion model Judy Dreszner who died last year, was given the ring by director Roman Polanski as a treasured memento shortly after Tate’s murder.
Adam Bardach, son of model Judy Dreszner
Judy’s son Adam Bardach says “It was never intended for sale. This is a private symbol of my mother’s friendship with Sharon Tate.” He also says, “It’s disgusting to me that people are attempting to profit from such a tragedy.”
Suzanna Leigh denies stealing the ring and says she’s the rightful owner.
The ring sold in December at auction for $21,260 double it’s estimate of $10,000. The new owner of the ring has not been identified.
Here’s Debra talking about her sister Sharon’s horrific murder by the Manson family .
Elvis Presley shot his television in the 1970s. Leibovitz photographed the perforated set in a storage room at Graceland in 2011. (Annie Leibovitz courtesy of Random House)
Far from the portrait photos that made her famous, a new exhibit by US photographer Annie Leibovitz shows her intimate journey in the footsteps of people or places that inspired her — such as Niagara Falls or the home of Elvis Presley.
Called “Pilgrimage,” Leibovitz put together the exhibition mostly in the United States and a little in England on a “personal journey into her cultural inheritance,” said museum curator Andy Grundberg.
Through 64 photographs taken between April 2009 and May 2011, the show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum evokes images of former American president Abraham Lincoln, painter Georgia O’Keefe, British photography pioneer Julia Margaret Cameron and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.
“She is known for mostly photographing portraits of celebrities and cultural figures for magazines and most of her museum shows have been about those pictures,” Grundberg said.
“This show is a really new stage of her career where she’s photographing historical figures.”
The photographer, who is scheduled to speak about her work next week in Washington, says in the book associated with the exhibit (“Pilgrimage,” Random House New York) how the project started during a visit to Niagara Falls with her three pre-teen daughters.
“From the beginning, when I was watching my children stand mesmerized over Niagara Falls, this project was an exercise in renewal,” Leibovitz said. “It taught me to see again.”
Examples include a Harley Davidson motorcycle at Graceland in Memphis to recall Elvis Presley or the waters of the River Ouse to hint at the suicide by drowning of English author Virginia Woolfe.
The show mainly steers clear of pop culture icons, although Elvis Presley gets his due. When Leibovitz visited Graceland, she captured one of the musician’s motorcycles, a television that Presley shot and the King’s final, ostentatious resting place. There is no evidence of Elvis’s music career, yet the photos offer insight into his personality.
The exhibition, which is open until May 20, is scheduled to tour cities throughout the United States before returning to the Smithsonian American Art Museum for its permanent collection.
Fender’s acoustic division proudly hails the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and transports players back in time to 1967 with the introduction of the Elvis® Kingman acoustic guitar—a sharp looking, rich-sounding version of the carefree Fender acoustic that Elvis Presley® wielded with consummate cool in the late ’60s.
In addition to honoring the king, the Elvis® Kingman dreadnought also successfully recreates Fender’s famous mid-’60s “Wildwood” finish, in which living beech trees that provided the backs and sides of the unusual instruments were dyed with several striking colors before being cut down and made into guitars.
Highly distinctive features of the Elvis Kingman include Presley’s signature on the front of the Wildwood-style headstock, solid spruce top with scalloped X-bracing for full, resonant tone and durability, laminated Wildwood-style back and sides, Ivoroid neck and body binding, stylish dual checkerboard rosette, maple neck, 20-fret rosewood fingerboard with block position inlays and bone nut, Fender “Viking” rosewood bridge with cream-colored pins and compensated bone saddle, chrome hardware and gloss neck and body finish.
American Idol returns tonight! And all of America has fallen in love with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler! We found this clip of Steven talking about America’s first rock star, Elvis Presley!
And if you missed Steven’s brilliant interview with Oprah Winfrey on her new network, OWN. Check out this clip above with Steven talking about American Idol and what it takes to be a judge!
ELVIS Presley’s former tour manager and photographer Ed Bonja is bringing his unique collection of Elvis photographs to the Border, along with a treasure trove of his memories of the King.
Mr Bonja worked with the music superstar for almost seven years, up until a couple of months before he died.
As Elvis’ only official photographer, he built a large collection of images of the star snapped during hundreds of concerts, and intimate portraits taken in his private jet and home.
Most of those he took before 1975, when Presley was still strikingly handsome.
“I stopped taking pictures of him in June of 1975,” Mr Bonja said.
“When he came back to the tour he looked like he had put on weight, so I waited, but he never went back to what he used to be like.”
Mr Bonja said he walked away from the tour because the punishing lifestyle was killing him, too.
Back in those days, the tour manager didn’t just make sure the star of the show had everything they desired, they also had to sell mechandise and count the money at the end of the night.
“It was a different world in the 1970s,” he said.
Now Mr Bonja spends much of his time travelling the world, riding the wave of Elvis’ fame.
One of the things he often shares with people about his famous friend was that he was “a normal guy”.
“Some people who don’t know much about him find it hard to believe that he was really shy, people would give him compliments and he would blush,” Mr Bonja said.
“He wondered if people would remember him when he died and, well, here we are 35 years later.”
A collection of 150 of Mr Bonja’s photographs will be displayed at the Commercial Club on Saturday and Sunday.
Country music recording artist Pam Tillis recorded this tribute song to Elvis Presley & Dr. Martin Luther King. She sings the song with upcoming R & B singer, Kris Thomas, a Memphian himself. The video was filmed in Memphis by local documentary film maker, Molly Secours.Thomas has an impressive music background. He was a member of the StreetCorner Harmonies, he also attended Stax Music Academy. He has performed with Isaac Hayes and Mavis Staples. Pam and Kris filmed the video back in Memphis. Scenes were shot on Beale Street, Mud Island, and Stax museum.Beautiful and heartfelt photos of Elvis Presley and Dr. Martin Luther King are featured in the video. Photos of fans at the annual candle light vigil for Elvis Presley are shown and photos from the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King.And today’s StreetCorner Harmonies perform on the song as well.The song itself was co-written by Brenda O’Brien at a songwriter camp. O’Brien was one of Pam’s students. And the song triggered Tillis.“From the moment I looked at her lyric I just heard a choir singing it,” Tillis said. “That idea fired her up so much that she pursued me for the next year to help her finish it.” Tillis said the pair worked on the song together with Tillis rewriting chunks of it along the way including the music and changing the tone of the lyrics to be more uplifting. But the singer said the extensive work was worth it. “She connected two dots that I hadn’t thought of connecting before,” Tillis explained. “I thought it was a unique idea. A lot of times at songwriter camps, there’s the same idea over and over again.” Tillis described the song as being about “two historical figures and what they have in common.” “I had to ask myself, ‘What is the connection,’” she said.
Starpulse’s Stephanie Nolasco recently interviewed Cassandra Peterson (Elvira). Nolasco told Cassandra she heard the Mistress of the Dark learned everything she needed to know from none other than Elvis Presley and drag queens. Below is Cassandra’s answer.
“I don’t know if I learned everything from Elvis, but I definitely got great advice from him. At the time I was the youngest showgirl in Vegas and if it weren’t for Elvis, I would now be the oldest showgirl in Vegas history. I thought I had made it. It went all downhill from there (laughs). Elvis was the one who convinced me I could go further, instead of just staying in Vegas and dancing. It made a big impact on my life, obviously. Coming from Elvis you’re going to take his advice, right?”
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