At that time, Elvis was in Fort Hood, Texas, to fulfill his military obligations, but he got emergency leave to see her, and a special plane was chartered to bring him home on August 12. The hysteria of the crowd frightened her.' Doctors diagnosed liver problems, and Gladys's condition eventually worsened so much that she was admitted to hospital in August 1958. She had wanted Elvis to succeed, 'but not so that he would be apart from her. She put on weight and began to drink every day.

I couldn't go down to the creek with the other kids.' His father, Vernon Presley, talked about Elvis's close relationship to his mother 'after his son became famous, almost as if it were a source of wonder that anyone couldn't be that close to him.' ĭuring Presley's rising career, Gladys became despairing, depressed and lonely and began to neglect her health. According to Elaine Dundy, 'it was agony for her to leave her child even for a moment with anyone else, to let anyone else touch Elvis.' Presley himself said, 'My mama never let me out of her sight. Presley even shared his mother's bed 'up until Elvis was a young teen,' simply because the family was so extremely poor that they couldn't afford the luxury of two beds. 'She was the number-one girl in his life, and he was dedicating his career to her.' Throughout her life, 'the son would call her by pet names,' and they communicated by baby talk. In a newspaper interview with The Memphis Press Scimitar, Elvis himself was open about the close relationship to his mother. The strongest of all his personal relationships, by far, was that he had with his mother Gladys, as described below. Presley in a publicity photograph for the 1957 film Jailhouse RockĮlvis Presley had many close relationships throughout his career.

Priscilla elvis and me book