Baby, Let's Play House_ Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him - Alanna Nash [339]
But Melissa could not stay, not after she fed him yogurt and hot cereal and he started shaking and “got so sick he could barely hold his head up.” She watched as he took his pills, and when he struggled to swallow, it scared her so her heart fired like a jackhammer in her chest. She asked him not to take any more, saying he didn’t need them, that she’d sing him to sleep, do anything to see him feeling better. “All right,” he agreed. “Will you just stay and hold my hand?” Every time she thought he was asleep, he’d wake up and grab her arm and say, “Don’t go.”
She saw him a few more times, but it was all just too unnerving, especially when he asked her to move in. “Elvis, I’m sorry. I care, but I can’t just move in here,” she said. “I care, too, babe,” he answered. “That’s the problem.” He was nearly in tears when she left the last time, and though she returned to take him a thank-you card, he wasn’t there.
At the same time he saw Melissa, he began romancing JoCathy Brownlee, a bubbly, outgoing junior high health and physical education teacher. They met on August 2, 1975, when Elvis attended a Grizzlies game at the Mid-South Coliseum, where JoCathy worked part-time as a hostess in the press box. She spent the evening getting him whatever he wanted—pizza, Coke—and he picked up on her nickname, J. C., frequently calling her over where he sat with Linda, with whom JoCathy had gone to Memphis State.
Her friend Barbara Klein told her that night that Elvis had been watching her reflection in the glass, and in a way it all made sense. Like Mindi, JoCathy had a strong feeling Elvis would be in her life somehow, dating back to when she was a child in Indianola, Mississippi, and her father would drive her past Graceland on their trips to Memphis.
When she first moved to town, she lived in Whitehaven, where a family whose property backed up to Graceland would let her stand on their fence to see him when he was out riding his horse. Then she briefly met him at the Memphian in 1974, and had even dated Charlie for a spell, visiting him in his basement digs at Graceland. In fact, she was so into Elvis that she was taking her mother to see him in Vegas in just a few weeks.
When Elvis got up to leave the game on that summer night, JoCathy was not shy about telling him good-bye. She took a look at the scarf he wore with his blue leisure suit, thought of the signature scarves he draped around the necks of his fans, and joked, “Is that a real Elvis scarf?”
“Well, honey,” he said, “not really.” And with that, he took it off, put it around her neck, pulled her close, and kissed her. “It was right in front of Linda, and I was just like, ‘Oh, my God!’ ”
That was a Saturday, and on Monday, Sonny called Barbara and asked how to get in touch with her friend—Elvis wanted to give her a hundred dollars for being so nice in the press box. He also wanted a date.
“Believe it or not,” she says, “I had this sick, sick, feeling.” As it happened, she had a new boyfriend, and it was love at first sight. She did nothing, then, trying to make up her mind, when Dr. Nick tracked her down on Thursday at Barbara’s house to tell her Elvis was trying to reach her. By coincidence, JoCathy lived in a duplex owned by Miss Patty, Anita Wood’s former landlady. “When I got home, the phone was ringing, and this voice said, ‘J. C.? E. P.’ ”
He wanted her to come to the house and meet Lisa Marie, and then go to the Crosstown that very night. Then when they returned, he changed into his black Munsingwear pajamas with the red piping that Aunt Delta had bought him at Sears. JoCathy already felt as if she knew him—they were both from Mississippi and close to their mothers—so she didn’t think, “Oh, oh, he’s going to attack me.” But she did think it was odd when he made several phone calls while he was showing her a book on numerology, and then sent her downstairs to look up the word