Former Middle Georgia teacher always has Elvis on her mind

Elaine Greene was in her kitchen the day Elvis Presley died.

The phone rang. Had she heard the news?

Aug. 16, 1977. The earth stood still. The birds stopped singing. 

“It was like losing a member of the family,’’ Greene said. “I was shocked. I guess I thought he would live forever. And he does still live in the hearts of those who loved his music.’’

She regretted that she could not attend the funeral. But she was married, with a 3-year-old child, and working to make ends meet on a teacher’s salary.

Still, she had wanted to be there with other Elvis fans from all over the world. To comfort and be comforted. To say goodbye to the King.  

It’s hard to believe, but in two years it will have been 50 years since Presley’s death. It also will be the same year Greene will turn 80. Lord willing, she would like nothing more than to make the pilgrimage to Las Vegas … and maybe Memphis and Tupelo.

Her crush on Elvis began when she was 9 years old. She watched “The Ed Sullivan Show” on a black-and-white television.  He was known as “Elvis the Pelvis” for his outlandish hip gyrations, and the TV cameras were instructed to only show him from the waist up.

In high school, she accepted Elvis records instead of babysitting money. 

She married her husband, Wayne, in 1970 at Hillsboro Baptist Church in Jasper County. No, Elvis wasn’t invited, but “Can’t Help Falling in Love’’ was sung at the wedding.

Her son, Chandler, was born on January 7, 1984. Since that was a day before Presley’s January 8 birthday, she joked about naming him Elvis Wayne Greene.

“My mother-in-law said, ‘No you’re not,’ ’’ she said, laughing.

Greene taught school for 32 years in Gray and Macon. At Tattnall Square Academy, where she was a seventh-grade English teacher, she included “Elvis” as a teaching tool on her syllabus. Her classroom was a shrine to all things Elvis — from album covers to blankets, jigsaw puzzles and Christmas ornaments.

When she retired in 2009, Elvis became a permanent house guest in her home in Jones County. She moved her collection of Elvis memorabilia from Room 304 at Tattnall into a spare bedroom. 

Her “Elvis Greene Room” was another way of keeping him on life support. She showed off her collection of Elvis records, books, postcards, posters, coffee mugs, stamps and soda bottles.

She became the proud owner of three almost life-sized Elvis cut-outs and a bust of Elvis left on her doorstep one night by a friend. Not to be outdone, she acquired a slot machine that plays an Elvis song if you drop in a coin and three Elvis heads pop up.

She has a red cap covered with Elvis pins. It is so heavy that she can only wear it on her head for a few minutes at a time. Among her prized possessions is a school desk from Humes High School in Memphis, where Presley graduated in 1953. 

And, yes, she does own a pair of blue suede shoes … so don’t step on them.

She went to see Elvis three times in concert – twice in Macon and once in Atlanta. On one of the ticket stubs, it lists the admission as $7.50. She attended an Elvis concert with a friend, who was pregnant.

“We both said we weren’t going to scream and holler when the music came on,’’ Greene said. “But as soon as they started playing ‘A Space Odyssey’ (Also Sprach Zarathustra), she got on top of her chair. Her husband was furious. He said if she didn’t get off that chair, she was going to have the baby right there. And she said, ‘Well, at least I’ll be at an Elvis concert.’ ’’

Greene had an opportunity to attend what turned out to be Presley’s final Macon concert on June 1, 1977 –  just 11 weeks before he died. But she declined. 

“I didn’t want to see him the way he was,’’ she said. “I wanted to remember the Elvis I saw in his thinner days.’’

Greene and her friend, Beth Davidson, have been together on countless Elvis adventures. They have made 17 trips to Graceland – the second-most-toured home in the country next to the White House – and traveled twice to his birthplace and museum in Tupelo, Mississippi. 

They have been regulars for Elvis Week in Memphis. They once managed to catch a glimpse of his wife, Priscilla. Another time, they “stalked” his only child, the late Lisa Marie Presley, when she was dating actor Nicolas Cage. A security guard allowed them to watch as she exited the theater after the first “Elvis Virtual Concert” at Mud Island.

One year, Greene and Davidson were able to get on a waiting list and book a room at the original Heartbreak Hotel. A pink Cadillac picked them up and took them to dinner at Marlowe’s Ribs, where Elvis fans from all over the world gather to swap stories.

They introduced themselves to Sandi Miller, the infamous “Gate Girl,’’ who was Presley’s close friend and confidante. She has more than 30 scrapbooks of photographs. They were honored to shake hands with Jerry Schilling, one of Presley’s bodyguards.

There have been enough Elvis encounters to fill a book. They once met an Italian man, dressed in a royal blue jumpsuit, and invited him to join them for pizza. He had earned a trip to “Elvis Week’’ by being named the Italian Elvis Entertainment Artist. He didn’t speak English but knew the words to every Elvis song. They later saw him weeping in the meditation garden at Graceland.

 And then there was the time they both returned home with Elvis tattoos. Only they didn’t tell family members that the tattoos were temporary. But that’s a story for another day.

They are part of a group of legendary women who attend the Georgia Elvis Festival every December. The three-day event is held at Epworth by the Sea’s Strickland Auditorium at St. Simons Island, where a lineup of entertainers pays tribute to
Presley. 

Many of her former students from Tattnall now have children of their own. They have never forgotten her lesson plans with the King.

“Mrs. Greene,’’ they tell her, “every time I hear an Elvis song, I think of you.’’