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AP photo | Whether he was singing about a boy gunned bottomward in the ghetto, a asinine adulation song from a bank cine or a actuality cardinal such as “How Abundant Thou Art,” the articulation of Elvis Presley was apparent from the aboriginal bar.
["447.17"]Matt Hamilton | The Circadian Citizen | Greg Pellom shows off some of his Elvis memorabilia at his home in Dalton.
VALDOSTA — In August 1977, Dalton citizen Greg Pellom was 14 and active in Navy apartment in Charleston, S.C., aback he heard the news.
"I was out arena with some of my Navy brat friends," he said. "I bethink it was actual hot that day. We were active aback and alternating into the abode to get article to drink.”
Pellom had gone into his abode for some lemonade aback he heard a TV anchorperson say the words that ricocheted beyond the nation: Elvis Presley was asleep at 42.
"I aloof stood there in shock. I couldn't accept it," Pellom said.
Doerun citizen Diane Horne was at Riverside Manufacturing, a compatible business, in Moultrie. She heard it on the radio and remembers a babe bawl and bawl because she never got the adventitious to see him live.
Eve Guevara | The Tifton Gazette | Darlene Griner, from Omega, said she was devastated aback Elvis died. "I acquainted like my dreams had been crushed. It was consistently a dream of abundance to accommodated him in person," she said.
Darlene Griner from Omega was animate at a doctor’s appointment in Jacksonville, Fla., aback the account hit.
“I was devastated,” she said. “I acquainted like my dreams had been crushed. It was consistently a dream of abundance to accommodated him in person.
Eve Guevara | The Tifton Gazette | Omega citizen Darlene Griner has Elvis plates on the wall, Elvis Barbie dolls, an Elvis alarm and books, magazines and stamps.
“Everybody has to accept a Prince Charming and Elvis was mine. I listened to his music on a circadian basis.”
Valdosta citizen Kent Moore was packing for a move from Georgia to North Carolina the day it happened, and he didn’t acquisition out until the abutting morning.
He went to a little donut boutique on the bend of Gordon and Oak and saw the bi-weekly with “ELVIS” printed in big belletrist beyond the top.
“My affection went bottomward in my stomach. It aloof acquainted so empty, aloof like I’d absent a ancestors member,” he said.
Angela Spillers, a Milledgeville resident, said everybody seemed to be in mourning. Thomasville’s Mary Kaye Nobles was one of the abounding stricken by grief.
She cried aback her television blared the news.
"Didn't everybody?" she asked.
Whether he was singing about a boy gunned bottomward in the ghetto, a asinine adulation song from a bank cine or a actuality cardinal such as “How Abundant Thou Art,” the articulation of Elvis Presley was apparent from the aboriginal bar.
In a lifetime beneath by biologic use, Presley embodied the personalities in those disparate agreeable forms and afflicted the face of American pop music forth the way.
Since his abrupt afterlife Aug. 16, 1977, his fable has alone developed larger. From his apprehensive ancestry in Tupelo, Miss., Presley became agreeable royalty.
For many, the awareness who was told afresh that he should get a day job and accord up on the singing is and will consistently be the King.
Kent Moore is somewhat of an Elvis expert, accepting accounting two books on the man, besides actuality a diehard fan.
He writes that “Elvis began as a raw aptitude in 1954 and developed into the acknowledged (more than 1 billion annal sold) and arguably the best pop accompanist in history.”
“He attenuated country, gospel, and emphasis and dejection to actualize bedrock and roll. Elvis’ three greatest assets were his arresting voice, his absorbing date attendance and his versatility.
Jordan Barela | Thomasville Times-Enterprise | “All Shook Up” and “Hound Dog” were some of Elvis’ accepted songs.
“He sang assuming bedrock (‘Jailhouse Rock’), lighter pop bedrock (‘Return to Sender’), country (‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’), dejection (‘Blue Christmas’), acute ballads (‘Can’t Advice Falling in Love’), pop standards (‘My Way’) and religious songs (‘How Abundant Thou Art’).
“No added accompanist can sing all of these genres able-bodied like Elvis did.”
Blowing the roof off the agreeable arena with his gyrations and nonconformist vibe, putting the abhorrence of God into preachers’ letters about what was afresh advised bawdy and lascivious behavior, and authoritative the girls swoon, he swiveled his way into the hearts of a nation.
This year marks four decades aback his passing, and his bequest shows no assurance of concealment or crumbling away.
Patti Dozier | Thomasville Times-Enterprise | Seated on a bank busy with Elvis-themed bandy pillows, Thomasville's Mary Kaye Nobles displays a replica of Elvis' 1955 blush Cadillac.
["582"]To Elvis Presley fans, his activity and music were magic. Elvis' followers, decidedly women, were added than fans. They absolutely admired the King of Bedrock 'n' Roll. Despite Presley's tragic, abortive afterlife 40 years ago, the adulation is no less. The affections accept not waned.
Mary Kaye Nobles, a Thomasville hairdresser, is a case in point. Sunshine Corner, her South Broad Street salon, is all but a altar to Elvis.
Upon entering the business, one is greeted by a life-size affinity of Elvis attired in a gold lame' suit. To the appropriate is a agnate likeness, with Elvis cutting a tight, adorned apparel from his heyday Vegas performances.
Patti Dozier | Thomasville Times-Enterprise | Mary Kaye Nobles, captivation a account of Elvis, stands amid two life-size Elvis likenesses in her Thomasville salon.
Overhead is a alarm that plays "Don't Be Cruel" at the top of the hour, alternating with "Hound Dog" at the top of the abutting hour.
Growing up in Americus, Nobles abounding cine matinees featuring Elvis films. Her admired Elvis cine is "Love Me Tender" and "The Wonder of You" her admired song.
"I anticipate he had a lot of appearance and allure about him,” she said. “I anticipate he was a acceptable actuality and acceptable and caring. ... Aback he smiled, I mean, my God, you aloof melt."
Patti Dozier | Thomasville Times-Enterprise | Thomasville citizen Mary Kaye Nobles displays her Elvis mugs with guitar handles, a replica of Elvis' 1955 blush Cadillac and a 1950s-attired Barbie with an Elvis doll.
Her boutique is abounding of Elvis memorabilia — black-and-white Elvis wallpaper in the restroom, a cardinal of Elvis photographs, Elvis bandy pillows, an Elvis snow apple and a ample replica of Graceland. Elvis altar are everywhere, and she has abundant added at her home, including an Elvis Christmas apple and a replica of a 1955 blush Cadillac.
"I accept abundant Christmas ornaments to beautify a Christmas tree," Nobles, 60, said.
She saw Presley in concert in Macon in June 1977, two months afore he died.
"You could acquaint he was sick." Nobles said. "He was affectionate of puffy."
Declining bloom or not, she still got chills aback he fabricated his entrance.
Kent Moore got to see Elvis at the Macon Coliseum in 1972.
“Elvis was so far abroad that his jump clothing was a white becloud but the complete was great,” he said. “He was so charismatic. He was aloof absolutely electric aback he came on the stage.”
Moore still listens to Elvis consistently and he’s got a lot of music to accept from. He owns all of Elvis’s flat recordings and official animate recordings (about 700 songs).
“Because of the absurd array of his songs, I don’t anytime get annoyed of alert to him,” Moore said.
Kenneth Williams, 69, of Moultrie said during Elvis’ time, his aptitude was unmatched.
“When I (saw) him for the aboriginal time, I was absolutely impressed. He affectionate of rocked my world,” he said. “They alleged him the King. He was the King.”
Sometimes it wasn’t his amazing music but aloof his magnetic, affable persona that won bodies over.
“The way he gave his handkerchiefs to one of the girls,” Doerun citizen Gloria Rogers, 84, said, reminiscing about watching Elvis on TV. “I anticipate I’d accept been in heaven if it could accept been me.”
Will Woolever | The Union-Recorder | Milledgeville citizen Kenneth Jones saw Elvis afore he was a domiciliary name, but he remembers that bodies were fatigued to the absorbing accompanist from the start.
Milledgeville citizen Kenneth Jones saw Elvis afore he was a domiciliary name but he remembers that bodies were fatigued to the accompanist from the start.
“My sister lived in Memphis and I lived in Arkansas, and one time aback I went to appointment her, she capital to booty me out to his band. They had Johnny Cash and a accomplished agglomeration of bodies playing, aback all of a abrupt this adolescent guy came out and anybody went wild. I said ‘Who is that?’ … and it was Elvis Presley, afore he anytime got started (on the civic stage),” Jones said.
Patti Dozier | Thomasville Times-Enterprise | Len Robinson, buyer of two Thomasville radio stations, mimicked Elvis in his '50s band, the Chevelles.
Len Robinson, buyer of Thomasville radio stations WPAX and WTUF, was 15 or 16 aback Elvis came on the scene. Robinson had a bedrock 'n' cycle band, the Chevelles. It was binding that he apprentice Elvis' songs but Robinson knew he could not actor the moves.
"But if I told you I did not try to complete and sing like him, I would be lying, and so would every added accompanist of the bedrock 'n' cycle era," Robinson said, "whether they would accept it or not."
Of course, Robinson played guitar. He had to if he was to comedy like Elvis. He sported a ducktail hairstyle and continued sideburns.
Elvis brought about the better change in music that Robinson has anytime witnessed, he said.
The King had it all, Robinson said: He fabricated girls swoon, exuded sex appeal, apparent allure on date and afresh there was the talent.
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"He was the abounding package," Robinson said.
Submitted photo | Elvis Presley's grave at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee.
Forty years afterwards his death, bodies still army to the home that Elvis lived in for 20 years, Graceland. Aback actuality opened to the accessible in 1982, the acreage has apparent added than 20 actor visitors.
"I acquaint bodies that alike if you aren't an Elvis fan, you charge to appointment Graceland. There's annihilation abroad like it,” Dalton citizen Greg Pellom said of the abode that sits on 13 acreage in Memphis.
Pellom has been absorbed on Elvis anytime aback he was a adolescent and heard Elvis sing “How Abundant Thou Art” on the radio. He’s fabricated the expedition to Graceland abounding times.
Moultrie citizen Patsy Miller has too, but the aboriginal time she was afraid because she had accepted article a little added bright from a appearance such as Elvis.
“It wasn’t as adorned as I’d accept anticipation it would accept been,” she said.
Submitted photo | The TV allowance at Graceland, area Elvis lived for 20 years.
But she couldn’t altercate the gigantic admeasurement of the place. It’s 17,500 aboveboard feet, complete with bristles staircases and three fireplaces.
The bout shows off Elvis’ toys — his planes, Rolls Royces and motorcycles — not to acknowledgment his abounding accolades.
Patti Dozier | Thomasville Times-Enterprise | Sheryl Sealy was alone 6 aback Elvis died, but she’s a fan nonetheless, and she and her sister still argument anniversary added aback an Elvis cine ancestor up on TV.
Sheryl Sealy of Thomasville said the accolade allowance goes “on and on and on.” Sealy was alone 6 aback Elvis died, but she’s a fan nonetheless, and she and her sister still argument anniversary added aback an Elvis cine ancestor up on TV.
When adolescent Thomasville citizen Lisa Bynum visited Graceland, audition Elvis songs on the tram fabricated her emotional.
“I said, ‘I’m about to cry,’ and the adult abaft me said, ‘me too,’” she said. “Even admitting he had so abundant success, it’s sad that he died at such a adolescent age. I admired Elvis. I admired his music.”
Jessie R. Box | Suwannee Democrat | A Animate Oak abode acclimated during the filming of the Elvis cine “Follow That Dream” was donated to the Florida Sheriff’s Boys Ranch.
Jessie R. Box | Suwannee Democrat | Bill Riggins, admiral of the Florida Sheriff’s Boys Ranch Alumni Association, stands in advanced of the Animate Oak abode donated by Elvis Presley.
Graceland isn’t the alone home fabricated acclaimed by Elvis. Admitting not as well-known, a abode in Animate Oak, Fla., has a appropriate tie to the agreeable icon. It was his home in the 1962 cine “Follow That Dream.”
Elvis and his manager, Col. Tom Parker, donated the house, a miniature chuckwagon and two miniature Shetland ponies — Cheyenne and Checker Tab — to the Florida Sheriff’s Boy’s Ranch in Animate Oak.
Bill Riggins, admiral of the Florida Sheriff’s Boys Ranch Alumni Association, said the wagon and horses were in several Animate Oak parades during the 1960s.
The abode was angry into the Boy’s Ranch Canteen, and for years housed a barbershop and a baby canteen for the boys to acquirement candy and drinks.
Several decades ago, the canteen became the address for the Florida Sheriff’s Boys Ranch Alumni Association. Riggins said throughout the years, bodies accept donated Elvis memorabilia to him and the association.
Jessie R. Box | Suwannee Democrat | An old bi-weekly abridgement shows a account of Elvis Presley greeting boys active at the Florida Sheriff’s Boys Ranch in Animate Oak.
Jessie R. Box | Suwannee Democrat | A cine affiche for “Follow That Dream” and a apprehension of Elvis Presley beautify the walls of a Animate Oak abode he donated.
Most of it now decorates the apartment central of the building, befitting the King’s bequest alive.
Matt Hamilton | The Circadian Citizen | Bob Jenkins sings to those accessory the Humane Association of Northwest Georgia's Celebrity Luncheon as he plays Elvis at the Dalton Golf and Country Club.
Normally demography on someone’s affinity is looked bottomward on by society, but aback it comes to Elvis, the added the merrier.
Robert D. Jenkins Sr. is a Dalton attorney, the columnist of two books on the Civil War and, for accommodating causes, an Elvis impersonator.
"Like Elvis, I was built-in in Mississippi, admitting aloft in Georgia, so the emphasis isn't abundant of a reach," he said. "Although my speaking articulation doesn't complete like his, my singing articulation is artlessly appealing abutting to his.”
When he was a child, Jenkins’ parents generally played Elvis' music, abnormally his actuality albums.
"I grew up singing his stuff," he said. "That's area it all got started. … My ancestors members, associates of my church, knew that aback I sang I articulate like Elvis. So growing up, at ancestors reunions or abbey events, addition would ask me to sing an Elvis song.”
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Matt Hamilton | The Circadian Citizen | Bob Jenkins croons an Elvis tune to Karen Smith, left, and Kim Painter as he plays the King of bedrock 'n' cycle during the Celebrity Luncheon at the Dalton Golf and Country Club.
Several years ago, the Humane Association of Northwest Georgia was accepting a fundraiser, and one of the associates asked Jenkins to accomplish as Elvis.
"That was the aboriginal time that I absolutely approved to attending like and dress Iike Elvis," he said. "It was a lot of fun and I assumption bodies enjoyed it because I've been asked to do it again.
Jenkins said there are so abounding things to point out aback answer what fabricated Elvis so special.
"Obviously, he had a aureate voice. He was handsome. Aback he came out, he was accomplishing article absolutely new," Jenkins said. "But I anticipate it was added than that. He had a aureate heart. He absolutely admired people, and that showed.
“There are belief of Elvis spotting addition walking bottomward the road, addition he didn't know, and anon endlessly and affairs them a Cadillac so they didn't accept to airing anymore.”
Ted “Teddy Mac Elvis” McMullen of Animate Oak is addition Elvis amateur who said he is adored to accept the articulation to be an Elvis accolade artist. It’s article he’s done for 40 years.
Submitted photo | Ted "Teddy Mac Elvis" McMullen regularly performs as Elvis at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Animate Oak, Fla.
“The man is never activity to die spiritually ever,” McMullen said. “His music is activity to accumulate activity for ages.”
McMullen has consistently been complex in music, including accepting his own bandage at the age of 15. He was generally told he had an Elvis-type voice.
A year afore Elvis’s death, he performed his aboriginal appearance as Elvis.
“I absolutely admired his music,” McMullen said.
McMullen performs several times a year at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park but actuality a accolade artisan is not his alone affiliation to Presley.
Submitted photo | Ted 'Teddy Mac Elvis' McMullen of Animate Oak is an Elvis amateur who said he is adored to accept the articulation to be an Elvis accolade artist. It’s article he’s done for 40 years.
His father, Bill, composed music for lyrics accounting by Mae Boren Axton, a ancestors friend, and Tommy Durden in 1956 aback the McMullens were active in Jacksonville. That song went on to become Elvis’ aboriginal No. 1 record, “Heartbreak Hotel.”
“He got $5 for his help,” McMullen said.
In a antecedent account with the Suwannee Democrat, McMullen said Elvis beatific his ancestor a archetype of his aboriginal anthology aback it came out as a acknowledge you and had absolutely active it.
“I account the man,” McMullen said. “There was alone one Elvis and there will alone be one Elvis.”
When on the stage, McMullen said he tries to absorb the bodies so it brings aback memories. He said abounding of the guests were with Elvis from the beginning.
“The bodies that appear to the shows accept aggressive me to accumulate going,” McMullen said, able to abide until his articulation can’t handle it anymore.
Jordan Barela | Thomasville Times-Enterprise | Did you apperceive all this about the King of bedrock 'n roll?
The 40th anniversary Elvis Week in Memphis, commemorating Elvis’s activity and legacy, will run Aug. 11-19, and Valdosta citizen Kent Moore will accompany the anniversary for the aboriginal time.
While there, Moore and adolescent Elvis admirers will see Priscilla Presley, Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers, songwriter/singer Mac Davis, and two bandage members: advance guitarist James Burton and bagman D.J. Fontana.
The admirable afterpiece will be a concert in Memphis’ FedEx Forum with Elvis singing on big screens accompanied by a animate symphony orchestra. The event, which has awash out arenas about the apple in the aftermost year, has been declared as “thrilling and so astute that admirers acquainted like Elvis was in the building.”
But alike alfresco of Memphis, Elvis admirers all beyond the nation and the apple will bethink his afterlife — and added importantly, his activity — in their own appropriate way.
Matt Hamilton | The Circadian Citizen | Greg Pellom shows off some of his Elvis memorabilia at his home in Dalton.
Dalton’s Pellom said he knows absolutely how he'll be spending Aug. 16, and it involves the King’s admired sandwich.
"I'll be watching Elvis movies, alert to his music and bistro a absurd peanut adulate and assistant sandwich, with either an RC Cola or a Coke," he said.
The SunLight Project aggregation of journalists who contributed to this address includes Patti Dozier, Alan Mauldin, Charles Oliver, Will Woolever, Jessie Box, Eve Guevara, Jordan Barela and aggregation baton John Stephen.
To acquaintance the team, email sunlightproject@gaflnews.com.
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