Baby, Let's Play House_ Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him - Alanna Nash [156]
Anita thought he had finally found himself, and Rex Mansfield wondered the same. “He loved the army,” said Rex. “It was a way to express himself and find out who he really was.”
But the last happy chapter of his life was coming to an end. Suddenly Gladys’s health began to spiral. She lost her appetite, and she seemed so listless in the Texas heat, found it hard to breathe. Lamar saw what was happening. “One day I looked at her, and she had a yellow tinge to her eyes. I went to Elvis and I said, ‘You need to call a doctor. Something’s wrong, and I mean it.’ But he didn’t want to hear about it.”
Her liver was giving out. Gladys was jaundiced, suffering from acute hepatitis.
Within days, her skin took on an ocher hue. Lamar again pleaded with Elvis. They fought about it (“If you don’t let her go to the hospital, buddy, she’s going to die right here on you”), but Elvis didn’t want it to be true, insisting she’d get better. Then Red came down, and the two of them forced Elvis to act. A local doctor came to the house and recommended that Gladys return immediately to her own physician, Dr. Charles Clarke, in Memphis. On Friday, August 8, Elvis drove his parents to Temple, Texas, and put them on the train.
“She didn’t want to go,” Lamar says. “She knew she was dying.”
Vernon and Elvis, Methodist Hospital, Memphis, August 12, 1958. After threatening to go AWOL, Elvis had just received emergency leave to visit his stricken mother. (Robin Rosaaen Collection)
Chapter Sixteen
“Wake up, Mama, Wake up”
As Elvis completed his advanced tank training the next day, August 9, 1958, Gladys was being put into an ambulance and taken to Methodist Hospital, where she’d once been a nurse’s aide. Her condition was listed as grave.
Vernon called Lamar.
“You need to tell Elvis to get up here as quick as possible—tomorrow if he can!”
“He’s out in the field, Vernon,” Lamar said. He borrowed a jeep and went out and got him. The next day, Elvis, now frantic with the realization that Gladys could die, tried to get home. But he was set to begin basic unit training, and his captain denied emergency leave. Gladys’s doctor called military personnel in Washington and stressed the urgency of the situation, but only when Elvis threatened to go AWOL did the army grant his leave. On August 12, Lamar flew with him from Fort Worth to Memphis, where Elvis got a cab to the house, and then drove up to the hospital on his own.
When he went over again the next morning, August 13, Gladys told Elvis she was feeling better, that the doctors were saying she could go home the next day if she kept improving. He breathed a sigh of relief, kissed his mother, and went home for a few hours before returning in the afternoon.
In the interim, Gladys had another visitor, Dotty Ayers, a fan who had met the family after writing Gladys a letter of support at the height of Elvis’s negative press.
“We were in the room talking, and they brought in some flowers and asked Gladys to sign for them. Her hands were swelled. She was swelled all over, and she asked me to sign for her. I signed, ‘Mrs. Presley,’ and laughed and said, ‘I didn’t think I would ever be signing this name.’ She said, ‘Don’t ever give up hope, honey.’
“Gladys looked at me, and she must have had a premonition or something. She said, ‘Dotty, I don’t think I’ll ever see Graceland again.’ I said, ‘Gladys, you know the doctors said that you’re better.’ She said, ‘I know, but I just got this awful feeling.’ She said, ‘Will you promise me something? Will you watch after my boy, ’cause there’s just so many people that don’t care about him.’ ”
Billy Smith went back with Elvis to the hospital later that day. They stayed until nearly midnight, Elvis patting her, asking if he could do anything for her.
“Mama,” he asked. “Do you want me to stay the night?”
“No, son, everything’s okay.”
“Well, I might go to the movie,