....It was after 10pm when the word came up that 19 year old Caroline Kennedy was waiting at the gates, and she was proudly escorted to the front door and into the house. Vernon couldnt believe that the slain Presidents daughter came in the middle of the night to pay her respects, infact she was working and interviewing fans outside in the street. Caroline was upset over the death of Elvis and she viewed the body too, she couldnt believe he was gone. She had reported the family watched the news all day and night to see what they were talking about. No one spoke all night until Priscilla told everyone they should go and get some sleep. Sam Thompson stayed with the body all night until Dick Grob took over in the morning. Outside, thousands of fans lingered and got their place to say goodbye to Elvis for good. About 4am on the 18th, funeral day, Alice Marie Hovatar, Juanita Joanne Johnson and Tammy Baiter were just hanging out and chatting with the other 300 or so mourners holding an all night vigil in front of the mansion. Greatise Wheeler, came driving through the area in a 1963 white Ford. He was driving south on Elvis Presley Blvd, but turned off into some lots on the right, (where Elvis Inc. is located now) and he turned around to head back north. His tires were burning. I dont think the girls knew what hit them. Wheeler barreled through the crowd, going about 40 or 50 mph. Officer F. M. McCann, who was standing nearby stated, I heard the noise of his tires screeching and turned just in time to see his car hit the three bodies, One of the bodies flew up in the air about five feet and landed on the windshield. A second was plastered against the front of the car. The third was being dragged under the car. He dragged her about 20 yards. The car kept going, dragging the Baiter girl, but began sputtering from the impact of the bodies and slowed to a halt about a block away. Wheeler jumps out and does a runner, but the cops nabbed him. He was drunk and there were three 16-year-old girls in the car with him. The victims were taken to City of Memphis Hospital. The two dead girls (Hovatar and Johnson) were mangled beyond recognition, and their purses and identity papers were scattered on the highway. The really scary thing about this part of it were the Elvis fans that were watching. After the initial excitement calmed, some of them yelled out, Lets lynch him! On August 18th at 9am, 100 vans began to carry the flowers to the cemetery, a task that took nearly 4 hours to complete. At noon, guests started to turn up for the service at 2pm. The singers had met in Charlies room earlier in the day to confer about their parts. At Priscillas urging, Kathy Westmoreland was going to sing Heavenly Father, which she always performed on the show to Elviss rapt attention. James Blackwood, who had sung at Gladys Presleys funeral and known Elvis even since he was a Blackwood Brothers teenage fan, would deliver Elviss signature piece How Great Thou Art, with orchestra leader Joe Guerico conducting. Jake Hess, former lead singer for the Statesmen and one of the singers Elvis most admired throughout his life, was present and was going to recreate Known Only To Him, one of the many song Elvis had recorded in explicit homage to him idol. Finally, J.D Sumner and The Stamps would contribute the majority of the program with a selection of hymns for the most part taken from songs they had sung with Elvis on stage. Linda Thompson wore Lavender and Kathy Westmoreland wore white, because that was how each felt Elvis would have wanted her to look. Nearly everyone else arrived garbed in one form or another dressed in black. Only Col. Tom Parker stood out in characteristically adamant exception. You never wore a tie for Elvis when he was alive His admonished promoter Tom Hulett told him as they left their hotel, so Col. Tom changed clothes and wore a baseball cap, seersuckers pants, and a blue short sleeved shirt, fiercely unrepentant for any pain he might give to others. The two hundred invited guests quietly filed into the living room and waited for the service to start. Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton and Chat Atkins had arrived from Nashville, Ann Margaret and her husband, Roger Smith had flown in from Las Vegas with Dr. Ghanem, and there was a substantial representation of the Colonels associates and RCA executives....but it was mostly family and close friends who filled up the wooden folding chairs and spilling over into the hallway, where Col. Tom Parker remained leaning up against a wall peering in at the ceremony from time to time. The service started with the playing of Danny Boy on the organ. It was scheduled to take no more then half an hour, but with Rex Humbards guest sermon, all of the musical selections, plus a eulogy that comedian Jackie Kahane had asked Vernon if he could deliver, it was clear from the start of the ceremony it would ran considerably overtime. Humbard spoke of his meetings with Elvis in Las Vegas and how he had gotten down on his knees and prayed with him. Jackie Kahane who had conceived of the idea for an informal tribute only when he realized no one else in the group was going to give one, give a brief but graceful speech touching on the sense of family that had grown up among them all and the generous and quirky spirit who had been their leader. When Kathy Westmoreland sung Heavenly Father with Hovie Lister accompanying her in a matter that bore little resemblance to the way it sounded on stage, she could see Elvis laughing about it and saying Kathy, thats not the way we always arrange it!. The main sermon, by Reverend Bradley, stressed the inspiring example that Elvis had provided of the potential of a human being who has strong desire and unfailing determination. It spoke of Elviss fundamental decency, and how in a society that has talked so much about the generation gap, the closeness of Elvis and father......was so heartwarming to observe. But Elvis, Bradley said, was a frail human being too and he would have been the first to admit his weaknesses. Maybe because of his fast rise to fame and fortune, he was thrown into temptations that some never get to experience. Elvis would have not want anyone to think he had no flaws or faults. But now he is gone, I find it more helpful to remember his good qualities, and I hope you do too. Vernons racking sobs could be heard throughout the ceremony and afterwards, the mourners would go up one by one and say a final goodbye. Ann Margaret tried to console Vernon, but the two friends held onto each other and cried. Then 9 pallbearers - Joe, Charlie, Felton, Lamar, Jerry Schilling, George Klein, Elviss Cousins Billy and Gene Smith and Dr. Nick- bore the coffin out the front door. Just as they did, a limb on one of the big Oak trees out in the front yard snapped and fell, barely, missing the funeral party. Elvis always said once hes dead, he will send out a message to say he is at peace and happy at last. Everyone was shocked but Lamar didnt miss a beat. We knew youd be back he wisecracked Just not this soon. They made the three and one half mile journey to the cemetery in a cortege made up of 49 cars led by a Silver Cadillac, a police motorcycle, a white hearse and Vernon in the first of the 17 white limousines. Both sides of the road were lined with a crowd estimated at 15 to 20 thousand, and Joe saw Cliff Gleaves standing mournfully among them as they drove past. No one at the gates of Graceland let him in. Once they arrived at the cemetery, the pallbearers carried the rose petal strewn coffin past a massive bank of floral arrangements - Hound Dogs, crowns, guitars and broken heart, the loving tributes from his loyal fans around the world. Then the coffin was carried up the stark gray mausoleum steps just a few hundred feet away from Gladys Presleys grave. Reverend Bradley give a brief 5 minute ceremony in the mausoleum chapel, and then family filed into the crypt one by one to touch or kiss the casket one last time. Vernon remained alone with his son for a few minutes after everyone else left, and he bent down and kissed the casket goodbye. He walked out and then was helped into the car. Then the mausoleum was cleared as 5 workman entered the room with a wheelbarrow full of sand, a 5 gallon bucket of water, some cement and then applied an exterior marble facing which would be inscribed later. Yet even before the workmen did they work, fans had come into the cemetery the back away and pressed themselves against the heavy steel doors of the mausoleum. Elvis Aaron Presley was laid to rest. Meanwhile everyone went back to Graceland for a southern supper. Later that night, Vernon directed that all the flowers were to be given away to the fans. They were still waiting outside Graceland and when the news got out, they all waited outside the cemetery. When the doors opened at 8.25am, the next day, fans walked in and by noon, every last spray and blossom were gone...
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 13:14:20 +0000