Baby, Let's Play House_ Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him - Alanna Nash [267]
“I said fine, and stormed out of the room. But he never left, nor asked me to leave, and never mentioned it again. I was relieved, but things were never quite the same after that.”
Susan Henning played the symbolic “Virgin” to Elvis’s itinerant “Guitar Man” in his 1968 Comeback Special. Off the set, she helped him get over his Madonna complex. (Robin Rosaaen Collection)
Chapter Twenty-Seven
A Baby, a Babe, and Black Leather
On the morning of February 1, 1968, Priscilla’s water broke. She and Elvis were at Graceland, and he was still asleep. Priscilla managed to rouse him, and she hurried with her hair and makeup while Elvis rallied Jerry and his wife, Sandy, in the annex. Jerry would drive Elvis and Priscilla to the hospital while Charlie rode shotgun.
“Hey, don’t get yourself all excited,” Elvis said over the intercom. “But meet me in the kitchen. Priscilla’s ready to go to the hospital.”
By the time the Schillings came inside, Charlie and Minnie Mae were up, and everyone nervously buzzed around. Everyone except Elvis.
“Where’s that box of cigars I bought?” Elvis calmly asked. No one seemed to know, but he wasn’t leaving without the Roi-Tans.
“Who cares about the cigars?” Priscilla asked.
“I do. I need to pass out cigars at the hospital.”
Priscilla would remember that her husband seemed to be moving in slow motion—finally finding the cigars, and then stopping in the kitchen to fix a bite to eat. Meanwhile, Priscilla was crossing her legs.
Jerry knew that it was just a front, that Elvis was more nervous than he had been at any other time in his life. But his way of dealing with it was to slow himself down and act as if absolutely nothing was the matter.
Now Elvis and Jerry went over the plan again. They’d rehearsed it repeatedly. They’d even made several trial runs to Methodist Hospital, timing the trip, and checking out alternative routes in case there was a problem.
“Elvis—HURRY UP!” Priscilla yelled.
She was out in the front drive trying to get in the Lincoln. Elvis could tell she was panicked now. The color went out of his face as he and Jerry and Charlie rushed out the door and got Priscilla comfortable in the backseat. Then they took off down the winding drive.
When they drove through the Graceland gates, the press gave chase. Elvis was amused. But Priscilla looked puzzled.
“Are we headed in the direction of Baptist Hospital? If not, I’m having the baby in this car.”
Charlie spoke up.
“It’s the wrong hospital.”
Jerry ignored him. He knew the plan.
Then Elvis meekly said, “It’s the wrong hospital, Jerry. I forgot to tell you—we switched it over to Baptist.”
“Oh, no,” Priscilla said softly, her voice tense and strained. “Hurry!”
Jerry was perspiring as he changed course, praying the backseat wouldn’t soon become a delivery room.
When they got there, the nurses took Priscilla down the hall, and Elvis, Charlie, and Jerry went to a special waiting room the hospital had reserved for them. Soon, Vernon and Minnie Mae arrived, and then as the day wore on, some of the other guys showed up, including Joe, who flew in from California.
By early afternoon, Elvis, “hot-wired with nervous energy,” as Jerry remembered, could no longer contain himself. He bounced around the little room until Minnie Mae couldn’t take it anymore.
“Calm down!” the old lady told him. “You’re not having the baby. She is!”
Finally, at 5:01 P.M., Elvis became a father. He left to go see his child, and when he came back, his face was one big smile. He led everyone to the nursery to proudly point out the newest Presley, Lisa Marie.
“I’ve never seen Elvis that ecstatic,” Patsy later said. “He was in heaven. He became an extremely conscientious and protective dad.