Elvis , 31 years after

As my hometown of Memphis prepares to celebrate the life of Elvis Presely 31 years after his death in August 1977, here are my thoughts:

A lot of us who grew up in Memphis in the the 50's and 60's felt a kinship with Elvis. I lived just a couple of blocks from Humes High School where he attended, and several of my aunts and uncles went to school with him. I for one, always thought of him as a member of my family, never had a "school girl crush" on him, but greatly admired his talent and humanity.

As the years went by, and I moved away from Memphis, I gained a different perspective on Elvis and his life, having read numerous books about him, (some put him in a good life, some not). In the end, he was just a flawed human being like the rest of us, who was blessed with a tremendous talent which, thankfully, he was able to share with the world.

I believe those closest to him, Priscilla, and the "Memphis Mafia", especially, truly loved him, but Elvis, being the extremely strong personality he was, had to do it "his way" and ended up suffering the consequences for his choices.

That does not take away from the fact that he left us with a legacy unmatched by any entertainer before or since his relatively short period of time on this earth.