We’ll always have Prestwick
60 years on, fans remember welcoming Elvis to Scotland
When Ann Murphy received a call at work from her mum, the teenager knew it must have been important.
They didn’t have a telephone in the family home, so Ann’s mum had rushed to the nearest payphone to deliver the news.
Ann could barely believe what she was hearing. Elvis was coming to Prestwick that night, and 16-year-old Ann should get herself down to the airport after she’d eaten dinner.
“Sergeant Phelps had called my mum personally and she told me he wouldn’t make anything up,” said Ann. “My mum was a cleaner on the American base and I used to babysit for Sgt Phelps, and he told her to let me know Elvis was arriving that night.
“I went straight up the road on the bus, had my tea, and then got on my bike to cycle to the airport.”
On the way, Ann told passers-by she was heading to the airport to meet Elvis, but they all laughed and told her she was making up a story. Except for her pal, Muriel, who jumped on the back of the bike and joined her.
But disaster struck when they fell off and a pedal broke. “We had to run the rest of the way,” Ann said. “We thought we were going to be too late.
“In those days, you had to cross the runway and there were big gates that closed when a plane was coming in. We got lucky, because they were open, and we dashed over to where a small crowd had gathered and managed to get to the front.
“The plane was already there and when he came out we all screamed.
“He was so handsome, especially in that uniform. He was my dream date and I call him my first boyfriend.
“I could have touched him but the military police had warned us not to.
“I’m small, so I had to peek round in order to see him and just at that moment the photographer took a picture of me staring up at Elvis.”
The star made his way into one of two waiting cars and Muriel could contain her excitement no longer. “She went over the barrier and jumped on a car, spread-eagled, and peered in the window,” Ann smiled. “But Elvis wasn’t in that car, it was the military commander, and she was scraped off the bonnet and put back behind the barricade.
“The cars drove away and we were told to go home.
“We went back to our favourite café in Prestwick. Everyone we told said we were telling lies, but they changed their minds when they saw the papers the next day.”
Ann’s love of Elvis never diminished. In fact, she even married an Elvis impersonator. “I met Andy at the dancing – he was a great jiver.
“He would go around the clubs in Ayrshire and do a great Elvis. Our two kids were brought up with Elvis – his music was always on in the house.
“Before Andy died, I won £9,500 on the pools. We’d never been on a plane, even though Andy worked at Prestwick Airport for 28 years. I told him I’d booked us a holiday to Benidorm.
“It was only when we got to Glasgow Airport I told him we were going to America. We went to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and to Graceland in Memphis, and then out to Las Vegas, where Andy got up and did an Elvis song in the casino the night before we came home.”
Ann added: “I still can’t quite believe I got to see
Elvis in Prestwick that night.”