Quote:
Originally Posted by sluce
She lived off of his legacy. She had much to gain by opening Graceland to the public and selling the rights to his songs, etc.
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Exactly, you hit the nail right on its head. Yes, she opened up
Graceland to the public, but only because she didn't have
enough income at the time to preserve and maintain it.
She had and still has no problem twisting facts and even making
up entirely new "facts" to tweak her own role in history.
It's astounding how many facts, that are totally available to
the public if they'd do their research, are now presented in a
completely different light, 99% of the time to her benefit.
When Elvis was alive, in the early years Vernon was in charge
of finances. An odd choice, since he did not have much of
an education and had - because of their extreme poverty -
once been in jail for forging a check for the laughable
amount of 8 dollars, a loan his boss had given them to
build his house (shack). Yet, he was also a tightwad, always
questioning for every purchase "do we need that?" and always
wanting to see receipts for every purchase made. Why do
you think many of Graceland's artifacts are checks and receipts?
Later, Elvis gave Joe Esposito co-responsibility for the
finances, who learned at the hands of Vernon.
But: Elvis was a man who was ruled by his heart, not his
intellect (and no, contrary to some publications, Elvis was
not some dumb hick, he pretty much educated himself by
voraciously reading books on philosophy, religion, politics
and the occult, aside from his dozens of Bibles - all books
he took with him wherever he went in a huge trunk).
When he wanted something, no matter how much Vernon
or Joe protested, he got it. And of course his giving and
sharing are legendary. The crazy thing about Elvis was,
that he could be very frugal, too. If something didn't
pull at his heartstrings, he wouldn't spend a nickle on it,
even if it was something that he'd spent fortunes on
before. With Elvis, things had to "feel" right, whether
it was recording a song, buying a farm, giving a big
gift or including somebody into his circle.
As time went on and Elvis became more clouded by
his prescription drug intake to deal with his frustrations,
both of a professional and personal nature, that's when
things started happening that before would not have.
The "colonel" upping his percentage, selling Elvis' song
catelogue and the string of sycophants around him
growing.... Vernon's deteriorating health and personal
(marital) problems forced him to relinquish what control
he had left over the finances and some of the colonel's
staff wiggled their way in.
By the mid seventies, the new people in Elvis' circle
were pretty much ruling everything. None of Elvis' staff,
well, except for Charlie Hodge, who lived in a room at
Graceland, and Joe Esposito, was 100% of the time
employed by Elvis.
They all held odd jobs when Elvis wasn't on tour.
The West cousins, for instance, had gotten their foot
into Hollywood while making movies with Elvis, and had
occasional jobs as stuntmen or bit players. Red West
also wrote several of Elvis' songs like "Separate Ways",
"If Every Day Was Like Christmas" and "Seeing is Believing".
By 1976 Red & Sonny West and newcomer Dave Hebler
announced their book "Elvis, what happened?" their
final attempt to get through to Elvis. He'd had Vernon
fire them earlier because they kept nagging him about
his drug dependency, his many doctors and all kinds
of other issues. Red & Elvis never lost touch, even
when the book was published in the summer of '77.
Elvis died weeks after its release.
At first the colonel's staff took over, Vernon being
quite ill (in 1976 it looked like he was going to die).
Elvis had altered his will in March of 1977, possibly
with the thought of him surviving Vernon and
there not being anybody around to take care of
what little was left. Since Beaulieu was the mother
of his (only official) child (he had a clause added to
his will in which he spoke of any possible other
children that may be included as heirs AFTER it
were 100% proven they were his - obviously none
passed that test
), she was the guardian of
underaged Lisa. However, in his will, Beaulieu is
NOT mentioned by name. Another interesting
thing is that his will mentions that
If, for
any reason, my said father be unable to serve or to
continue to serve as Executor and/or as Trustee, or
if he be deceased and shall not have appointed a
successor Executor or Trustee, by virtue of his last
will and testament as stated -above, then I appoint
National Bank of Commerce, Memphis, Tennessee,
or its successor or the institution with which it may
merge, as successor Executor and/or as successor
Trustee of all trusts required to be established hereunder
.
His father, however, as the appointed executor was
entitled by his last will and testament, duly probated,
to appoint a successor Executor of my estate, as well
as a successor Trustee or successor Trustees of all the
trusts to be created under my last will and testament.
Knowing that Vernon was seriously ill for the last few
years of his life (in and out of hospital, home nursed)
it's interesting how quickly he changed his will to include
Beaulieu as the executor of Elvis' estate, while Elvis had
not included her at all in his will.
Vernon died in June of 1979 at the age of 63.
He'd had plenty of time to arrange things, so he
had named Beaulieu guardian of the estate for
Lisa, who was the only heir left, after he'd pass.
Grandma Minnie Mae "Dodger" Presley, Vernon's
mom, died in 1980, one month short of her 90th
birthday. She'd survived everybody in the family:
Jesse Garon (Elvis' twin), Gladys (E's mom),
Jesse (her husband), Elvis (her grandson) and
Vernon (her son).
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