Priscilla Presley’s Mother Wept Because Elvis Wouldn’t ‘Find Someone His Own Age’

When Priscilla Presley was still in high school, she convinced her mother and father to let her move to Memphis to be closer to Elvis Presley. The pair met when she was only 14 years old. While her parents allowed her to spend time with the older musician, they weren’t thrilled about their relationship. When Priscilla spoke about taking things a step further, her mother broke down in tears.

Priscilla Presley’s mother was horrified when she asked to move to Memphis with Elvis

Priscilla and Elvis met when he was stationed in Germany with the Army. They began a relationship despite their age difference, and after Elvis moved back to the United States, a teenage Priscilla visited him. She returned to Germany sullen and irritated to be apart from Elvis. She rejected her studies and spent hours on the phone with her boyfriend. Finally, she told her parents she wanted to finish high school in Memphis at Elvis’ request.

“I began to reveal to my mother that Elvis and I loved each other and longed to be together,” she wrote in her book Elvis and Me. “Finally one day I summoned the courage to tell her that Elvis wanted me to finish school in Memphis. Her response: an unqualified no. She felt it could wait until my father’s tour of duty was over. That would be the end of summer, she said, and there was no need for me to return to Elvis sooner.”

Priscilla pushed back, though, insisting that Elvis wanted and needed her in Tennessee with him. This drove her mother to tears.

“‘Why you?’ she asked, her voice thick with emotion. ‘Why can’t he find someone his own age? You’re only sixteen. What is this man doing to our family?’ She buried her face in her hands and began crying.”

Priscilla Presley’s mother worried Elvis would break her daughter’s heart

Priscilla’s mother worried that if she let her daughter move to be close to Elvis, he would break her heart. She was still a teenager, and Elvis was an adult who was — from what they could glean from the newspapers — dating all his co-stars.

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“‘Cilla, I’d never forgive myself if I let you go and if you came back to us with a broken heart. You’re so young! You have no idea what lies ahead of you. All you know is you’re in love. Do you know how difficult that is to fight?’ She sighed. ‘I wouldn’t wish this on any parent.’”

At Priscilla’s continued insistence, though, her mother began to soften to the idea. She agreed to speak with Priscilla’s stepfather about letting her move to Memphis, even if she didn’t think it was a good idea.

“She brushed away her tears and after a moment said, ‘All right, I’ll talk to your father, but not just yet. It’s still too soon.’”

Elvis spoke to her father on the phone

While Priscilla intended to wait for her mother to talk to her father, she eventually took matters into her own hands. She passed the phone to her father during one of her calls with Elvis.

“Drawing on all of his charm, Elvis assured my father that if I was permitted to move to Memphis, I wouldn’t live with him at Graceland but with his daddy, Vernon, and his wife, Dee,” Priscilla wrote. “Elvis promised to enroll me in a good Catholic school — he’d choose it himself — and make sure I graduated. He said I’d always be chaperoned and that he’d care for me in every way. Declaring his intentions honorable, he swore that he loved and needed and respected me. In fact, he couldn’t live without me, he said, intimating that one day we’d marry.”

Her parents still didn’t like the thought of her moving to Memphis, but they eventually agreed.