Elvis Presley was filled with conflicting emotions, including heartache, when his only daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, was born in 1968. He and Priscilla Presley had tied the knot the year before and exactly nine months later they welcomed their bundle of joy into the world.
Elvis was torn between happiness and sadness. Close friend and "Speedway" costar Nancy Sinatra recalled the day Lisa Marie was born. Elvis was ecstatic when he phoned to tell Nancy the news.
He was so "moved by the experience," Nancy revealed, according to the Express. At the same time, Elvis could not shake a feeling of great sadness.
He admitted to Nancy that he felt it was not fair that Lisa Marie "would have such great blessings and the same child born in a ghetto that very night would suffer poverty and want, and God knows what else, perhaps all her life."
A year later Elvis released his hit single, "In the Ghetto."
The King did not suffer extreme poverty as a child but he grew up in a working-class family where money was tight, according to the Graceland website.
This formed the basis of his music career. Elvis was 10 when he asked his parents for a bicycle but they could not afford one.
Instead, they gave him a guitar bought from a hardware store and thus his musical adventure began. Years later and Elvis was dominating the airwaves, but as his fame grew, so did his troubles.
Towards the end of his career, Elvis was addicted to prescription drugs and his health was deteriorating.
His close pal, former Shelby County Mayor and Sheriff Bill Morris, recalled the last time he saw his friend in 1977, just 60 days before he died from a heart attack that many believe was induced by his addiction to prescription barbiturates.
"I couldn’t believe it when I saw him walk back to see us. He had gotten so huge. Put on so much weight," 86-year-old Morris told Fox News. "And my wife [Ann] always bugged him, sort of like mothering him all the time, because they’ve known each other for so many years. And she hugged him. We all hugged each other. And everybody had tears in their eyes because he looked so bad and felt so bad."
Nancy said she wished the world could remember Elvis for his contribution towards music history, and not for his final days.
"I feel kind of sorry for those who don’t get Elvis," she said, according to Express. "A little more open-minded study and they would discover a fabulous soul who contributed plenty to the history of American music."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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