A mink coat from Elvis like a forever hug

Four decades passed from the time I met Elvis until I danced in the mink coat that he gave to his bodyguard's wife. As she told the story, Elvis had needed her husband to work on her birthday. Believing strongly in family ties, Elvis felt badly that he had interrupted the celebration.

So of course, he gave her a mink coat.

“A few days later, a car pulled up to the house and a big box was delivered,” she told me.

Inside was a gorgeous coat and a handwritten note of apology from her husband's boss, The King of Rock 'n' Roll.

I was in her home to interview her for a series of stories I was writing about Elvis.

“He was good-hearted and very generous,” she said just before asking me if I'd like to see the coat. Then she disappeared up a winding staircase next to a full-length, bejeweled Elvis show costume encased in glass.

“Would you like to try it on?” she asked when she reappeared with the coat.

Really, was that even a question? Would I like to try on a mink coat that was a gift from Elvis Presley!

The bodyguard's widow graciously held the coat open for me and I snuggled into it and spontaneously started dancing around the living room. I was a long way from the teenager who knocked on the door of Presley's hotel suite hoping for an autograph but was treated to a personal serenade, a goodbye kiss and a lifetime of stories she would never tire of telling.

I was thinking about these stories as I watched the new Elvis movie. No longer a screaming schoolgirl who watched all of the Elvis movies multiple times, delighted by every move he made, every song he sang, every smile he flashed, this time I was viewing the soul and sadness of a legend. This time I cried at the stunning truths that were revealed as well as the artful sense and style of the production.

Elvis will always remain who I wanted him to be. Who he was at our first and only meeting. A wellmannered Southern boy who took time to be kind.