The private funeral of elvis presley on Thursday 18th august was plain and simple. Pallbearers were long time friends Lamar Fike, George Klein and Joe Esposito, guitarist Charlie Hodge, cousins Billy and Gene Smith, Beach Bays road manager Jerry Schilling, personal physician Dr. George Nichopoulos and record producer Felton Jarvis. About 200 persons crowded into and out of Elvis' music room at Graceland at two p.m. to hear remarks by Rex Humbard, the TV evangelist from Akron, Ohio; comedian Jack Kahane, who had opened shows for Elvis; and the Reverend C.W. Bradley, pastor of Memphis' Wooddale Church of Christ. Bradley gave the main eulogy.
Then the caravan, led by a silver Cadillac followed by the white Cadillac hearse with Elvis' body and seventeen white Cadillac limousines, toiled its way past bystanders the two and a half miles to Forest Hill Cemetery Midtown.
A short ceremony followed in the white marble mausoleum where Elvis was entombed at 4:24 p.m. in a sixcrypt family chamber. Elvis' manager, Colonel Tom Parker, sat outside on a police motorcycle for a while. Elvis' friends said the Colonel was not letting anyone know how he felt. (There was open speculation that Colonel Parker had earlier canceled his contract with Elvis. Road manager Joe Esposito said that was ridiculous: "I called the Colonel about that. He laughed and said, 'Where do these stories start?' The Colonel's plans are the same today as if Elvis were still here. They had a written contract.")
Vernon Presley stayed with his son after everyone else left the mausoleum and emerged visibly shaken.
Family and friends returned to Graceland for a Southern supper. Vernon Presley decided to give all the flowers to fans, and at 8:25 a.m. Friday the gates to Forest Hill were opened. By 11:30 the flowers were gone.
After the funeral, after it was all over, the crowds continued to grow outside Graceland. "We'll stay out here all night just to get into the cemetery. We drove all night to get here. I will get a flower from the cemetery."
on Sunday the 8th of January 2012 Elvis Presley would of celebrated his 77th birthday, hundreds of fans came from
around the world to make the annual pilgrimage
to his home
Graceland's,
It was early in January 1973, Elvis was due to be in Hawaii.and on the 14Th, just past
midnight,Elvis was to appear at the Honolulu International Centre, in a concert that would
be beamed live by satellite all around the world
We are having our Annual Elvis Presley Continentals Charity Festival and Car Show. Held at the Ramada Orlando Celebration Resort, 6375 W. Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway, Kissimmee Fl. 34747