Priscilla Presley turns to say Hi to Ronnie Tutt during Elvis Week 2022 Concert

This past Elvis Week 2022 during the big concert, Priscilla Presley came on stage with Andy Childs and his band. Priscilla (referring to Elvis’ original TCB Band) turns around and says,” I just want to say hello to Ronnie….wow, they’re not out here yet. Are they? No! Glen D Hardin is here? And Jerry Scheff is here?” While Andy is shaking his head to confirm.

@fangirlgianna #priscillapresley #elvispresley #elvispresleyfans #elvis #graceland #gracelandsoundstage #fyp #45thanniversaryelvis #elvismovie ♬ original sound – G

https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js

Apparently, Priscilla forgot that Ronnie Tutt passed away. In October of 2021, Priscilla had posted a photo of herself and Ronnie Tutt and expressed condolences to his family on Instagram. This was the second time Priscilla showed signs of fatigue or possibly memory issues during Elvis Week. Many of us have been to a big anniversary year for Elvis Week. All the running around from event to event, lack of sleep, no time to eat, it can make anyone a little out of it.

On the evening of August 15th, Priscilla Presley stood on stage outside of Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion to speak to fans for the opening ceremony of the annual candlelight vigil service. Priscilla referred to it as Elvis’ birthday. She said it was Elvis’ 45th birthday and even asked the fans to say Happy Birthday Elvis! Some did while others stood stunned at her behavior. She told a story about how Elvis did not like to celebrate his birthday but did celebrate others birthdays. She referred to this death anniversary as his birthday many times (6 to 7 times) to the point, I thought she was going to have the crowd sing Happy Birthday.

@backinmemphis #PriscillaPresley wishes #Elvis a Happy 45th Birthday on the anniversary of his death during annual candlelight vigil during #ElvisWeek at #Graceland ♬ original sound – BackinMemphis

https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js

We have to acknowledge, Priscilla is 77 years old. Memory issues are common at that age. It will happen to us all. And these past few years, she has endured so many family issues. It started in 2016 with Lisa Marie’s issues then her brutal divorce. Priscilla stepped up and helped take care of Lisa’s twins while Lisa went to deal with her issues. In 2018, Priscilla lost her (step) father, Paul Beaulieu. In 2020, Priscilla’s grandson and Lisa Marie’s only son committed suicide. Priscilla not only had to deal with that trauma but as a mother, she must have worried terribly how her only daughter would handle the loss of her only son with whom Lisa had an intensely strong bond. Priscilla also travels the world hosting different Elvis related concerts and events which can take it’s toll. Priscilla had been caring for her 95 year old mother Ann. On August 3rd, 2021, Priscilla was heart broken when she lost her beloved mother. These traumatic events have certainly taken their toll on Priscilla and rightfully so.

Priscilla has been a wonderful ambassador to Graceland and always so gracious to the Elvis Presley fans. We hope this is simply fatigue from a hectic Elvis Week and wish her the very best.

Nancy Rooks – Elvis Presley’s Maid passed away – August 15th, 2022

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.

Priscilla Presley wishes Elvis Happy Birthday on 45th anniversary of his death

During last night’s candlelight vigil, Priscilla Presley wished Elvis a Happy Birthday. She actually mentioned his birthday 6 times while speaking on the 45th anniversary of his death.

If this was a one off, I’d get it. We all misspeak. It’s Elvis Week, you’re tired. But 6 times? It almost got to the point where she had the crowd singing. Priscilla did ask the crowd to wish him a Happy Birthday and in this short clip, you can hear a handful do so. Very bizarre!

I have seen some people blame Scientology. This just is not true. In fact, Scientologists celebrate the birthday, and I mean actual birthday of their leader, L.Ron Hubbard. Not his death date, his actual birthday. Scientologists also in fact have funerals and memorial services for their deceased. It is in no way referred to as a birthday. That’s an entirely different religion. 

 Lastly, Priscilla has never done this in the past.I think she was tired and got confused. We all have been there during a big anniversary like this, so many events, lack of sleep. It was just bizarre!

Elvis Candlelight Livestream filled with Too Much Monkey Business!

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 

Too much monkey business for me to be involved in

Too Much Monkey Bu$ine$$, EPE! 

Not cool! You dropped the ball!

Lisa Marie Presley to save Graceland

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!

Annie Leibovitz Exhibit @ Smithsonian Museum features Elvis Presley

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.

Time to Turn Page to a Better Year for Memphis

Time to Turn Page to a Better Year

2011 was another year where what had once glittered wasn’t always what was of value.

Recessions have a way of ripping away veneers that look more substantial and less tentative than we hope they are.

What is clear for the year ahead is that it is up to us collectively to make our destiny.

Perhaps what we do deliberately will be tempered considerably by the weight of other factors beyond our control. But not all of the elements that determine success or failure and the ground between them are out of our reach.

2012 will be the year a specific plan to consolidate Shelby County’s two public school systems takes shape. Our civic disposition to look at what others have done has been satisfied.

With that, we hope the consolidation planning commission will fashion a school system that has as its goal a single public school system that strives to be better for the parents of all children in what are now two school systems. By better we mean in measurable terms of student achievement that is clear in how students function in their everyday lives not just in test results.

Any plan should also realize that public education is no longer a monopoly but a partner with the transformation of private schools as well as other schools that are a mixture of public and private school tenets.

Showing others outside our community how well adults can work get along and what grand general statements they can make is completely secondary to the task of meeting the expectations any parent has for his or her child. That will be the real test of the plan to come in this year.

The New Year promises to be a critical one for Overton Square’s revitalization. Like similar endeavors across the city and the region, this is a plan that has been waiting for some sort of signal that a stubborn recession is coming to an end.

We also hope it is the year our city can perfect the art of doing several things at once like the long awaited and too long delayed revitalization of Elvis Presley Boulevard between Brooks Road and Shelby Drive.

This revitalization is not about Graceland and the tourists who come there as much as it is about Whitehaven and the communities a block behind what could once again be a thriving business district fronting the boulevard on both sides.

2012 could be the year that we learn how to turn revitalization plans into reality beyond the Downtown core.

The seeds for that revitalization might involve seed money. But let’s not forget that the seed that will grow the deepest roots in any terrain is an education system repurposed to grow thicker than kudzu across an achievement gap. The gap was here before the recession and it will be here after the recession without leadership and bold, meaningful action.

The Memphis News

Mother of St. Jude Patient Calls Graceland Hateful

We brought you this story yesterday about the Mackenzie family who were robbed outside Graceland on Christmas Day. The family is in Memphis while their 13 year old son, Dustyn is being treated at St. Jude Children’s Hospital for leukemia.

Shannon MacKenzie said her son gave Memphis police a description of the man, who has not been identified.

“He said after he took my purse, he turned around and started laughing about it,” MacKenzie said. She said she was not sure which aspect of the incident was more painful.

Even more discouraging, MacKenzie said officials at Graceland have not been very helpful to her.

“They’ve been hateful,” MacKenzie said. “They said they didn’t want this kind of publicity and did not file an internal report like they were supposed to.”

MacKenzie said Graceland officials provided video surveillance to authorities in Memphis, but said the footage was poor. She said after the incident, she and her family have sworn off visiting any other parts of the city.

“We just go to the hospital and back to where we are staying,” MacKenzie said. She said authorities have kept her updated on the incident.

MacKenzie said when the thief stole her purse, he also took a cellphone, cash, prescription medication, Dustyn’s St. Jude information, credit cards and a food stamp card. She said police have located and returned the phone to her, and the thief used some of the cards.

“They said they think he still has the food card,” MacKenzie said. “If he uses that, we should be able to find him.”

Calls and emails to the Memphis Police Department were not returned.

If it’s true Graceland staff said this would be bad publicity, treating a St. Jude family this way is far worse publicity! And just so unElvis like!

Many of us often think we are safe by Graceland especially by the gates. It’s Elvis’ house and we are surrounded by fans, right? NO! We are surrounded by criminals in a high crime area. Be alert! It was not long ago that a family was car jacked at the gates. So while it is understandable, Graceland would not want to advertise the crime rate in the area, it’s not exactly good for business. They still have a responsibility to make the area safe. They are encouraging people to travel from all over the world to patronize their business and therefore, they owe it to the public to make it safe. Graceland has yet to comment so we can not put them on blast yet. Let’s just hope that this latest crime is an eye opener. Let’s hope a murder or violent crime does not have to occur before something is done. God forbid.

Just at the end of the Graceland wall is a very dark small alley where I have personally witnessed a night walker or two crawl out of, that needs to be addressed. As well as more cameras (and better equipment considering this footage was such bad quality), more lighting, signs posted to not leave cars unlocked, unattended. And instead of guards sitting in the guard shack all night, they should come out and greet people who drive up to the gate at night. Their presence alone would deter criminals from hanging around the gates and keep visitors safe.

If you are traveling to Memphis for the birthday celebration, be alert and very aware of your surroundings at all times!

St. Jude Patient’s Family Robbed @ Graceland

Source: Zack Southwell – News Star / Megan Murphy – Back in Memphis

St. Jude Patient’s Family Robbed Outside Graceland on Christmas Day

Eleven-year-old Dustyn Ates and his family were visiting Graceland when a Grinch stole their Christmas joy. Photo courtesy Shannon MacKenzie.

FAST FACTS:

13-year-old Dustyn Ates was just diagnosed with leukemia.
 After getting out of intensive care, he wanted to visit Graceland.
 A man stole a purse out of the family car while Dustyn and his brother were in the back seat.

(Memphis, TN 12/26/11) A family whose 13-year-old son is undergoing treatment for leukemia was robbed outside Graceland on Christmas Day.

Dustyn Ates was diagnosed with leukemia on Dec. 15 and flown from his home near Shreveport, LA, to Memphis, to be treated at St. Jude.

“We thought he had the stomach flu. Had no idea. He was the picture of health. And the next thing you know, it was a whirlwind. We were all just here,” said Shannon MacKenzie, his mother.

Since being released from intensive care, the family decided to leave the hospital and do something in Memphis.

“He said, ‘Mom, I just want to get out. I want to go to Graceland,” she said.
The family pulled up to the gates of Graceland, not knowing it was closed on Christmas Day. MacKenzie got out of the car to talk to the security guard, to see when would be best to come back for a visit.

After a while, MacKenzie’s husband went to check on her, telling their two sons he’d be right back.

Dustyn and his brother, Dakota MacKenzie, were in the back seat of their car, when they saw a strange man approach.

“All of a sudden this person came up from behind our car and leaned up against the door that my brother was sitting right beside. He leaned against the door, and then he popped the door open,” said Dakota.

Dakota described a man in dark blue jeans and a black football jacket with tan sleeves, standing by the propped door for a couple of minutes.

“I stuck in a corner and I just started shaking,” he said.

Dustyn yelled, and the two tried to call their mother, but were too nervous to dial correctly.

Dakota said the man finally “swung [the door] open, grabbed her purse, turned around, looked through the window and just laughed at us.”

The man had taken their mother’s purse, containing a Droid phone, cash, prescription medication, Dustyn’s St. Jude information, credit cards, and EBT card.

After police were called to the scene, someone located the Droid phone at a nearby Citgo gas station. MacKenzie said that a couple of her cards were also used.

“How could some low-life do this? With my son being a St. Jude patient, how can you look that child in his face, on Christmas Day, and take everything from him?” she said.

Memphis police said that Graceland does have surveillance video of the suspect, but that it was not made available yet. Graceland representatives did not wish to comment on this story.
Shannon MacKenzie hopes to see the suspect arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent.

“We will face our fears and get through this, because we’re a strong family, and love keeps us together. And you won’t ever get that. You might have took everything else I had,” she said.

WREG