125-557: Graceland is a mansion on a 13.8-acre (5.6-hectare) estate in Memphis, Tennessee , United States, once owned by American singer Elvis Presley . Presley is buried there, as are his parents, paternal grandmother, grandson, and daughter. Graceland is located at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard in the Whitehaven, Memphis neighborhood, about nine miles (14 kilometres) south of central Memphis and fewer than four miles (6.4 km) north of
250-611: A "blueprint" for future incidents of police brutality nationwide. The incident also resulted in the disbanding of the city's "SCORPION" unit, which had been mandated with directly combating the most violent crimes in the city. All the officers charged with involvement in Nichols's death were members of the unit. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 324.0 square miles (839.2 km ), of which 315.1 square miles (816.0 km )
375-521: A 900-pound (410 kg), copper-lined coffin just inside the foyer; more than 3,500 of his mourning fans passed by to pay their respects. A private funeral with 200 mourners was held on August 18, 1977, in the house, with the casket placed in front of the stained glass doorway of the music room. Graceland continued to be occupied by members of the family until the death of Presley's aunt Delta in 1993, who had moved in at Elvis's invitation after her husband's death. Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, inherited
500-457: A CEO, Jack Soden, to turn Graceland into a moneymaker. Graceland was opened to the public on June 7, 1982. Priscilla's gamble paid off; after only a month of opening Graceland's doors the estate made back all the money it had invested. Priscilla Presley became the chairwoman and president of Elvis Presley Enterprises , or EPE, stating at that time she would do so until Lisa Marie reached 21 years of age. The enterprise's fortunes soared and eventually
625-521: A Memphis socialite. Together with her husband, Thomas Moore, Ruth Moore commissioned construction of a 10,266-square-foot (953.7 m) Colonial Revival style mansion in 1939. The house was designed by architects Furbringer and Ehrman. After Elvis Presley began his musical career, he purchased a $ 40,000 home for himself and his family at 1034 Audubon Drive in Memphis in 1956. As his success and fame grew, especially after his appearances on television,
750-416: A document signed by Lisa Marie Presley” and that “I do not know why my signature appears on this document.” Findley was also confirmed to have had history of similar criminal cases in the state of Oklahoma, which led to numerous arrests and her serving prison time in both Oklahoma and a Texas federal prison. Constructed at the top of a hill and surrounded by rolling pastures and a grove of oak trees, Graceland
875-545: A document which named Elvis's ex-wife, Priscilla Presley , as trustee. Following Lisa Marie's death on January 12, 2023, her eldest daughter, Riley Keough , became the sole trustee and owner. In May 2024, a company called Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC claimed that Lisa Marie Presley failed to pay back a $ 3.8 million loan it had given her. A Tennessee court ruled that the mysterious company likely committed fraud through forged documents, and that neither Priscilla nor Riley authorized such foreclosure. Graceland Farms
1000-497: A flash'. And the last room in the mansion opposite of the TV room is the billiard room; an avid billiards player, Elvis bought the pool table in 1960 and had the walls and ceiling covered with 350–400 yards of pleated cotton fabric after the two basement rooms were remodeled in 1974. The pool balls are arranged just the way they were in the musician's final days, along with a sign that says "PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH, THANK YOU." And in one corner of
1125-630: A focal point of Spanish activity until, as Holmes summarizes: [T]he Treaty of San Lorenzo or Pinckney's Treaty of 1795 [implemented in March 1797], [had as its result that] all of the careful, diplomatic work by Spanish officials in Louisiana and West Florida , which has succeeded for a decade in controlling the Indians [e.g., the Choctaws ], was undone. The United States gained the right to navigate
1250-571: A historic music scene . With blues clubs on Beale Street originating the unique Memphis blues sound, the city has been nicknamed the "Home of the Blues". Its music has continued to be shaped by a multicultural mix of influences: country , rock and roll , soul , and hip-hop . The city is home to a major professional sports team , the Grizzlies of the NBA . Other attractions include Graceland ,
1375-563: A large territory in the Southeast. French explorers led by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle , and Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto encountered the historic Chickasaw in this area in the 16th century. J. D. L. Holmes, writing in Hudson's Four Centuries of Southern Indians (2007), notes that this site was a third strategic point in the late 18th century through which European powers could control United States encroachment beyond
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#17327916051561500-530: A list of celebrities who had visited in the first years following Elvis's death. This practice was not formalized for a decade. Muhammad Ali , who was a friend of Elvis, was an early celebrity visitor in 1978, as was singer Paul Simon . He toured Graceland in the early 80s and afterward wrote a song of the same name ; it was the title track of his Grammy-winning album Graceland . During the Joshua Tree Tour in 1987, U2 toured Graceland. The footage
1625-489: A nearby house on Hermitage until they finally settled into a house on Dolan Drive which ran alongside Elvis's estate. According to Mark Crispin Miller , Graceland became for Presley "the home of the organization that was himself, was tended by a large vague clan of Presleys and deputy Presleys, each squandering the vast gratuities which Elvis used to keep his whole world smiling." The author adds that Presley's father Vernon "had
1750-580: A new car museum, Presley Motors, which houses Elvis's Pink Cadillac . The complex features new exhibits and museums, as well as a studio for Sirius Satellite Radio 's all-Elvis Presley channel. The service's subscribers all over North America can hear Presley's music from Graceland around the clock. Not far away on display are his two aircraft including Lisa Marie (a Convair 880 jetliner) and Hound Dog II (a Lockheed JetStar business jet). The jets are owned by Graceland and are on permanent static display. In early August 2005, Lisa Marie Presley sold 85% of
1875-584: A newlywed couple as its 20 millionth visitor. In June 2022, actors Austin Butler and Tom Hanks visited the mansion and were interviewed virtually by the Good Morning America news program from the Jungle Room to talk about their biographical film Elvis . Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee . It is the county seat of Shelby County , in
2000-399: A notch or two higher than Elvis on the class scale." After purchasing the property Presley spent in excess of $ 500,000 carrying out extensive modifications to suit his needs including a pink Alabama fieldstone wall surrounding the grounds that has several years' worth of graffiti (signatures and messages) from visitors, who simply refer to it as "the wall". Designed and built by Abe Sauer is
2125-502: A religious man devoted to the Gospel and its music. At the meditation garden, containing Elvis's grave, some visitors pray, kneel, or quietly sing one of Elvis's favorite hymns. The brick wall that encloses the mansion's grounds is covered with graffiti that express an admiration for Presley as well as petitions for help and thanks for favors granted. The Graceland grounds include a new exhibit complex, Elvis Presley's Memphis, which includes
2250-534: A shooting range and a fully functional stable of horses. One of Presley's better known modifications was the addition of the Meditation Garden, designed and built by architect Bernard Grenadier. It was used by the musician to reflect on any problems or situations that arose during his life. It is also where his entire family is buried: himself (1935–1977), his parents Gladys (1912–1958) and Vernon (1916–1979), and grandmother Minnie Mae Hood (1890–1980) while
2375-622: A sitting US president and a serving head of a foreign government. On August 6, 2010, Prince Albert II , Head of State of the Principality of Monaco, and his fiancée (now Princess of Monaco) Charlene Wittstock , toured Graceland while vacationing in the US. On May 26, 2013, Paul McCartney of The Beatles visited Graceland. Prince William and Prince Harry , while in Memphis for a friend's wedding, visited Graceland on May 2, 2014. The home has also been visited by former US President Jimmy Carter ;
2500-691: A small stone memorializes his twin brother Jesse Garon, who died at birth thirty minutes before Elvis was born on January 8, 1935. In late 2020, Lisa Marie's son Benjamin Keough was laid to rest on the opposite end of the Meditation Garden after his death from suicide in July of that year. Lisa Marie Presley died from sudden cardiac arrest in January 2023 and is buried next to her son. After Elvis Presley's death in 1977, Vernon Presley served as executor of his estate. Upon his death in 1979, he chose Priscilla to serve as
2625-417: A studio setting. During the mid-1960s expansion of the house, Presley constructed a large wing on the south side of the main house that was a sidewalk, between the music room in the original one-story wing and the swimming pool area, that connected to the house by a small enclosed gallery. The new wing initially housed a slot car track and to store his many items of appreciation, but was later remodeled to what
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#17327916051562750-808: A substantial bluff rising from the Mississippi River, the site of Memphis has been a natural location for human settlement by varying indigenous cultures over thousands of years. In the first millennium A.D. people of the Mississippian culture were prominent; the culture influenced a network of communities throughout the Mississippi River Valley and its tributaries. The hierarchical societies built complexes with large earthwork ceremonial and burial mounds as expressions of their sophisticated culture. The Chickasaw people, believed to be their descendants, later inhabited this site and
2875-400: A swimming pool in his bedroom", that there "was a jukebox next to the swimming pool, containing Elvis's favorite records", and that, he "would spend hours in his bedroom, watching his property on a closed-circuit television". According to Presley's cousin, Billy Smith, Presley slept at Graceland with Smith and his wife Jo many times: "we were all three there talking for hours about everything in
3000-619: A yellow fever outbreak, 20,000 residents fled the city. The ensuing panic left the poverty-stricken, the working classes, and the African-American community at the most risk from the epidemic. Those who remained relied on volunteers from religious and physician organizations to tend to the sick. By the end of the year, more than 5,000 were confirmed dead in Memphis. The New Orleans health board listed "not less than 4,600" dead. The Mississippi Valley recorded 120,000 cases of yellow fever, with 20,000 deaths. The $ 15 million in losses caused by
3125-421: Is FedEx , which maintains its global air hub at Memphis International Airport . In 2021, Memphis was the world's second-busiest cargo airport. The International Port of Memphis also hosts the fifth-busiest inland water port in the U.S. The Globalization and World Cities Research Network considers Memphis a "Sufficiency" level global city as of 2020. Memphis is a center for media and entertainment, notably
3250-473: Is also at the site. In 2019, the owners of Graceland threatened to leave Memphis unless the city provided tax incentives . The Memphis City Council subsequently voted on a deal to help fund a $ 100 million expansion of Graceland. The property was slated for a foreclosure sale in May 2024. A company alleged that Lisa Marie Presley put the home up as security on a $ 3.8 million loan in 2018. Riley Keough claimed
3375-571: Is being held in trust for her daughters Riley Keough and Harper and Finley Lockwood, retain 100% sole personal ownership of Graceland Mansion itself and its over 13-acre original grounds as well as Elvis Presley's personal effects – including costumes, wardrobe, awards, furniture, cars, etc. Prior to her death in 2023, Lisa Marie Presley had made the mansion property and her father's personal effects permanently available for tours of Graceland and for use in all of EPE's operations. According to Elvis Presley's Enterprises, staff at Graceland informally kept
3500-567: Is land and 9.0 square miles (23.2 km ), or 2.76%, is water. Downtown Memphis rises from a bluff along the Mississippi River . The city and metro area spread out through suburbanization, and encompass southwest Tennessee, northern Mississippi , and eastern Arkansas . Several large parks were founded in the city in the early 20th century, notably Overton Park in Midtown and the 4,500-acre (18 km ) Shelby Farms . The city
3625-568: Is now known as the Trophy Building, which now features an exhibit about the Presley family, and includes Priscilla's wedding dress, Elvis's wedding tuxedo, Lisa Marie's toy chest and baby clothes and more. The Entrance Hall contains a white staircase leading to the house's second floor with a wall of mirrors. However, the second floor is not open to visitors, out of respect for the Presley family, and partially to avoid any improper focus on
3750-462: Is the Music Room, framed by vivid large peacocks set in stained glass and contains a black baby grand piano and a 1950s style TV. And the third adjacent room is a bedroom that was occupied by Elvis's parents. The walls, carpet, dresser, and queen size bed are bright white with the bed draped in a velvet-looking dark purple bedspread along with an en-suite full bathroom done in pink. To the left of
3875-610: Is the majority owner of EPE. Lisa Marie Presley's estate retains a 15% ownership in the company. In August 2018, Gladys Presley's headstone, which contained the Jewish star of David on one side and a cross on the other and was designed by Elvis himself, which become publicly displayed when it placed in Graceland's Mediation Garden after being stored for many years in the Graceland Archive. Lisa Marie Presley's estate, which
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4000-569: The American Civil Rights Movement . Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 after activities supporting a strike by the city's maintenance workers. The National Civil Rights Museum was established there and is a Smithsonian affiliate institution. Since the civil rights era, Memphis has become one of the nation's leading commercial centers in transportation and logistics . The largest employer
4125-618: The Memphis Pyramid , Sun Studio , the Blues Hall of Fame and Stax Museum of American Soul Music . Memphis-style barbecue has achieved international prominence, and the city hosts the annual World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest , which attracts more than 100,000 visitors each year. Higher-level educational institutions include the University of Memphis , Christian Brothers University and Rhodes College . Occupying
4250-701: The Mississippi border. It was opened to the public as a house museum on June 7, 1982, and attracts more than 650,000 visitors annually. Graceland was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991, becoming the first site recognized for significance related to rock music. It was declared a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006, also a first for such a site. Elvis' father, Vernon, first inherited Graceland after Elvis' death on August 16, 1977. Lisa Marie Presley inherited Graceland after she turned 25 years old, according to
4375-771: The Mississippi River and won control over the Yazoo Strip north of the thirty-first parallel. The Spanish dismantled the fort, shipping its lumber and iron to their locations in Arkansas. In 1796, the site became the westernmost point of the newly admitted state of Tennessee, in what was then called the Southwest United States. The area was still largely occupied and controlled by the Chickasaw nation. Captain Isaac Guion led an American force down
4500-641: The Treaty of Tuscaloosa , signed in October 1818 and ratified by Congress on January 7, 1819, the Chickasaw ceded their territory in Western Tennessee to the United States . The city of Memphis was founded less than five months after the U.S. takeover of the territory, on May 22, 1819 (incorporated December 19, 1826), by John Overton , James Winchester and Andrew Jackson . They named it after
4625-634: The Twin Cities on the Mississippi River. The Memphis metropolitan area includes West Tennessee and the greater Mid-South region , which includes portions of neighboring Arkansas , Mississippi and the Missouri Bootheel . One of the more historic and culturally significant cities of the Southern United States , Memphis has a wide variety of landscapes and distinct neighborhoods . The first European explorer to visit
4750-628: The ancient capital of Egypt on the Nile River . From the city's foundation onwards, African Americans formed large proportion of Memphis' population. Prior to the abolition of slavery in the United States , most Black people in Memphis were enslaved, being used as forced labor by white enslavers along the river or on outlying cotton plantations in the Mississippi Delta . The city's demographics changed dramatically in
4875-572: The 1850s and 1860s, due to waves of immigration and domestic migration. Due to increased immigration since the 1840s and the Great Famine , Irish Americans made up 9.9% of the population in 1850, but 23.2% by 1860, when the total population was 22,623. Tennessee seceded from the Union in June 1861, and Memphis briefly became a Confederate stronghold. Union ironclad gunboats captured it in
5000-453: The 1880s Memphis led the nation in sanitary reform and improvements. Perhaps the most significant effect of yellow fever on Memphis was in demographic changes. Nearly all of Memphis's upper and middle classes vanished, depriving the city of its general leadership and class structure that dictated everyday life, similar to that in other large Southern cities, such as New Orleans , Charleston, South Carolina , and Atlanta, Georgia . In Memphis,
5125-585: The 1960s, the city was at the center of the Civil Rights Movement , as its large African-American population had been affected by state segregation practices and disenfranchisement in the early 20th century. African-American residents drew from the civil rights movement to improve their lives. In 1968, the Memphis sanitation strike began for living wages and better working conditions; the workers were overwhelmingly African American. They marched to gain public awareness and support for their plight:
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5250-538: The 20th century, with four lynchings between 1900 and the lynching of Thomas Williams in 1928. A Tennessee Powder Company built an explosives powder plant to make TNT and gunpowder on a 6,000-acre site in Millington in 1940. The plant was built to make smokeless gunpowder for the British Armed Forces during World War II . In May 1941, DuPont (1802–2017) took over the plant, changed the name to
5375-740: The Appalachians and their interference with Indian matters—after Fort Nogales (present-day Vicksburg ) and Fort Confederación (present-day Epes, Alabama ): "Chickasaw Bluffs, located on the Mississippi River at the present-day location of Memphis. Spain and the United States vied for control of this site, which was a favorite of the Chickasaws." In 1795 the Spanish Governor-General of Louisiana , Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet , sent his lieutenant governor, Manuel Gayoso de Lemos , to negotiate and secure consent from
5500-470: The Candlelight Vigil. No official figure seems to have been released, maybe because, for the first time, attendees had to pay at least the lowest tour fare, $ 28.75, to cover the extra security costs due to a larger than usual crowd. For many of the hundreds of thousands of people who visit Graceland each year, the visit takes on a quasi-religious perspective. They may plan for years to journey to
5625-624: The Chickasaw Ordnance Works, and produced powder for the United States Armed Forces . There were 8,000 employees. The plant was dismantled after the war in 1946. From the 1910s to the 1950s, Memphis was a place of machine politics under the direction of E. H. "Boss" Crump . He gained a state law in 1911 to establish a small commission to manage the city. The city retained a form of commission government until 1967 and patronage flourished under Crump. Per
5750-638: The Entrance Hall, mirroring the Living Room, is the Dining Room, headlined by a massive crystal chandelier. It features six plush chairs in golden metal frames set around a marble table, all of which are placed on black marble flooring in the center with carpet around the perimeter. Connected to the Dining Room is the Kitchen, which was used by Elvis's aunt Delta until her death in 1993 before it
5875-514: The Entrance Hall, through an elliptical-arched opening with classical details, is the Living Room. The Living Room contains a 15-foot-long (4.6 m) white couch against the wall overlooking the front yard. To the left are two white sofas, a china cabinet and a fireplace with a mirrored wall. The painting that hangs in the room was Elvis's last Christmas present from his father, Vernon, and also displayed are photographs of Elvis's parents Vernon and Gladys, Elvis and Lisa Marie. Behind an adjoined doorway
6000-690: The French Quarter of New Orleans. Lulu White or the Countess Willie Piazza might have contrived this plushy parlor for the entertainment of Gyp the Blood . The room is a gaudy mélange of red velour and gilded tassels, Louis XV furniture and porcelain bric-a-brac..." And he dismisses the interior as "bizarre," "garish" and "phony," adding that "King Elvis's obsession with royal red reaches an intensity that makes you gag." In similar terms, Greil Marcus writes that people who visited
6125-585: The Ohio River to claim the land, arriving on July 20, 1797. By this time, the Spanish had departed. The fort's ruins went unnoticed 20 years later when Memphis was laid out as a city after the United States government paid the Chickasaw for land. At the beginning of the century, as recognized by the United States in 1786 Treaty of Hopewell , the land still belonged to the Chickasaw Nation . In
6250-603: The Soviet Union, "to see how in America a fellow can start out with nothing and, you know, make good." After Gladys died in 1958 aged 46, Presley's father Vernon married Dee Stanley in 1960, and the couple lived at Graceland for a time. There was some discord between Presley and his stepmother Dee at Graceland, however. Elaine Dundy , who wrote about Presley and his mother, said that Vernon had settled down with Dee where Gladys had once reigned, while Dee herself – when Elvis
6375-622: The Sylvers , Jay Reatard , Zach Myers , and Aretha Franklin . On December 23, 1988, a tanker truck hauling liquefied propane crashed at the I-40/I-240 interchange in Midtown and exploded , starting multiple vehicle and structural fires. Nine people were killed and ten were injured. It was one of Tennessee's deadliest motor vehicle accidents and eventually led to the reconstruction of the interchange where it occurred. On June 2, 2021,
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#17327916051566500-401: The altercations, which were described as "heinous" and showed "a total lack of regard for human life", according to Memphis police chief Cerelyn "CJ" Davis. The officers were fired and charged with second-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, and other crimes. The relatively rapid dismissal and prosecution of the offending officers were favorably perceived by Nichols's family, and Davis called it
6625-679: The area annexed was slightly smaller than first proposed. In 1893 the city was rechartered with home rule , which restored its ability to enact taxes. The state legislature established a cap rate. Although the commission government was retained and enlarged to five commissioners, Democratic politicians regained control from the business elite. The commission form of government was believed effective in getting things done, but because all positions were elected at-large , requiring them to gain majority votes, this practice reduced representation by candidates representing significant minority political interests. In terms of its economy, Memphis developed as
6750-463: The area of present-day Memphis was Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto in 1541. The high Chickasaw Bluffs protecting the location from the waters of the Mississippi was contested by European settlers as Memphis developed. By 1819, when modern Memphis was founded, it was part of the United States territory. John Overton , James Winchester , and Andrew Jackson founded the city. Based on
6875-532: The back is Mogambo with a hint of Blue Hawaii . Living in Graceland was like living on a Hollywood backlot, where patches of tropical scenery alternated with the blackened ruins of antebellum Atlanta . It was like living in a Memphis movie theater... Diehard fans are sometimes disappointed by the formal rooms along the highway side of Graceland. They’re beautiful, in a chilly blue-and-white way, but remote and overarranged." The Jungle Room's "overt bad taste" lets nonbelievers "recoil in horror and imagine themselves
7000-404: The basement is the TV room, where Elvis often watched three television sets at once, and was within close reach of a wet bar . The three TV sets are built into the room's south wall and there's a stereo, and cabinets for Elvis's record collection. Painted on the west wall is The King's 1970s logo of a lightning bolt and cloud with the initials TCB, both of which represent 'taking care of business in
7125-437: The bathroom which was the site of his death. Still, it features Elvis's bedroom at the southwest corner that connects to his dressing room and bathroom in the northwest. His daughter Lisa Marie's bedroom is in the northeast corner, and in the southeast is a bedroom that served as a private personal office for the musician. The floor has been untouched since the day Elvis died and is rarely seen by non-family members. Downstairs in
7250-544: The black settlement was left in ruins. Two whites were killed in the riot. Many blacks permanently fled Memphis afterward, especially as the Freedmen's Bureau continued to have difficulty in protecting them. Their population fell to about 15,000 by 1870, 37.4% of the total population of 40,226. Historian Barrington Walker suggests that the Irish rioted against blacks because of their relatively recent arrival as immigrants and
7375-486: The business side of her father's estate. She kept the Graceland property itself, as well as the bulk of the possessions found therein, and she turned over the management of Graceland to CKX, Inc. , an entertainment company (on whose board of directors Priscilla Presley sat) that also owns 19 Entertainment , creator of the American Idol TV show. Graceland Holdings LLC, led by managing partner Joel Weinshanker,
7500-741: The city has a majority African-American population. Memphis is well known for its cultural contributions to the identity of the American South . Many renowned musicians grew up in and around Memphis and moved to Chicago and other areas from the Mississippi Delta , carrying their music with them to influence other cities and listeners over radio airwaves. Former and current Memphis residents include musicians Elvis Presley , Jerry Lee Lewis , Muddy Waters , Carl Perkins , Johnny Cash , Robert Johnson , W. C. Handy , Bobby Whitlock , B.B. King , Howlin' Wolf , Isaac Hayes , Booker T. Jones , Eric Gales , Al Green , Alex Chilton , Three 6 Mafia ,
7625-496: The city population. The Union Army's presence attracted many fugitive slaves who had escaped from surrounding rural plantations. So many sought protection behind Union lines that the Army set up contraband camps to accommodate them. Memphis's black population increased from 3,000 in 1860, when the total population was 22,623, to nearly 20,000 in 1865, with most settling south of the city limits. The rapid demographic changes added to
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#17327916051567750-482: The city were the lower classes, such as German and Irish immigrant workers and African Americans. None had the means to flee the city, as did the middle and upper-class whites of Memphis, and thus they were subjected to a city of death. Immediately following the Board of Health's declaration, a Citizen's Relief Committee was formed by Charles G. Fisher. It organized the city into refugee camps. The committee's main priority
7875-493: The city. A massive panic ensued. The same trains and steamboats that had brought thousands into Memphis, in five days carried away more than 25,000 refugees, more than half of the city's population. On August 23, the Board of Health finally declared a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, and the city collapsed, hemorrhaging its population. In July of that year, the city had a population of 47,000; by September, 19,000 remained, and 17,000 of them had yellow fever. The only people left in
8000-551: The country to come home. Though yellow fever cases were recorded in the pages of Elmwood Cemetery's burial record as late as February 29, 1874, the epidemic seemed quieted. The Board of Health declared the epidemic at an end after it had caused over 20,000 deaths and financial losses of nearly $ 200 million. On November 27, a general citizen's meeting was called at the Greenlaw Opera House to offer thanks to those who had stayed behind to serve, of whom many had died. Over
8125-614: The danger of their work, and the struggles to support families with their low pay. Their drive for better pay had been met with resistance by the city government. Martin Luther King Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference , known for his leadership in the non-violent movement, came to lend his support to the workers' cause. King stayed at the Lorraine Motel in the city, and was assassinated by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968,
8250-450: The dark brown upright piano upon which Elvis played for what were to be his last songs, Willie Nelson 's " Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain " and " Unchained Melody ". However, reports conflict about which one was the last song. The sitting area has a floor-to-ceiling shatterproof window designed to watch the many racquetball games that took place there when Elvis was alive. In the early hours of
8375-406: The day after giving his I've Been to the Mountaintop speech at the Mason Temple . After learning of King's murder, many African Americans in the city rioted, looting and destroying businesses and other facilities, some by arson. The governor ordered Tennessee National Guardsmen into the city within hours, where small, roving bands of rioters continued to be active. Fearing the violence, more of
8500-431: The disease carried by river passengers traveling by ships along the waterways. During the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878, more than 5,000 people were listed in the official register of deaths between July 26 and November 27. The vast majority died of yellow fever, making the epidemic in the city of 40,000 one of the most traumatic and severe in urban U.S. history. Within four days of the Memphis Board of Health's declaration of
8625-416: The documents underlying the foreclosure are fraudulent and sued to stop the sale. Elvis Presley Enterprises, which manages the rest of the Presley estate, concurred with Keough's claims. In a hearing on May 22, JoeDae Jenkins of the Shelby County Chancery Court declared the lender's claims as invalid. No representative for the lender appeared at the hearing. The lender subsequently dropped plans to go ahead with
8750-423: The election of all the at-large positions. Memphis did not become a home rule city until 1963, although the state legislature had amended the constitution in 1953 to provide home rule for cities and counties. Before that, the city had to get state bills approved in order to change its charter and other policies and programs. Since 1963, it can change the charter by popular approval of the electorate. During
8875-445: The epidemic bankrupted Memphis, and as a result, its charter was revoked by the state legislature. By 1870, Memphis's population of 40,000 was almost double that of Nashville and Atlanta, and it was the second-largest city in the South after New Orleans. Its population continued to grow after 1870, even when the Panic of 1873 hit the US hard, particularly in the South. The Panic of 1873 resulted in expanding Memphis's underclasses amid
9000-536: The epidemic reported seeing as many as 100 to 150 patients daily. The Episcopal Community of St. Mary at St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral played an important role during the epidemic in caring for the lower classes. Already supporting a girls' school and church orphanage, the Sisters of St. Mary also sought to provide care for the Canfield Asylum, a home for black children. Each day, they alternated caring for
9125-404: The estate executor for Elvis's only child, Lisa Marie, who was only 11. Graceland itself cost $ 500,000 a year in upkeep, and expenses had dwindled Elvis's and Priscilla's daughter Lisa Marie's inheritance to only $ 1 million. Taxes were due on the property; those and other expenses due came to over $ 500,000. Faced with having to sell Graceland, Priscilla examined other famous houses/museums, and hired
9250-445: The estate in 1993 when she turned 25. Presley's grave, along with those of his parents Gladys and Vernon Presley, his grandmother Minnie Mae Presley, Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, and his grandson Benjamin Keough are located in the Meditation Garden next to the mansion. They can be visited during the mansion tours or for free before the mansion tours begin. A memorial gravestone for Presley's stillborn twin brother, Jesse Garon,
9375-409: The foreclosure without addressing Chancellor Jenkins' allegations. NBC News tried to find Naussany Investments & Private Lending and its representative, Gregory E. Naussany, in public records but was unable. A real estate professor at the University of Memphis has said, "[I]f this had been someone else's inheritance, someone else's home, it would just be another example [of real estate fraud] that
9500-682: The franchise until after the passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s.) Historian L. B. Wrenn suggests the heightened political hostility of the Democratic contest and related social tensions contributed to a white mob lynching three black grocers in Memphis in 1892 . Journalist Ida B. Wells of Memphis investigated the lynchings, as one of the men killed was a friend of hers. She demonstrated that these and other lynchings were more often due to economic and social competition than any criminal offenses by black men. Her findings were considered so controversial and aroused so much anger that she
9625-683: The freedmen. Unlike the disturbances in some other cities, ex-Confederate veterans were generally not part of the attacks against blacks in Memphis. As a result of the riots in Memphis, and a similar one in New Orleans, Louisiana in September, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act and the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution . In the 1870s, a series of yellow fever epidemics devastated Memphis, with
9750-410: The front facade. The doorway has a broken arched pediment, full entablature, and engaged columns while its transom and sidelights contain elaborate and colorful stained glass. And above the main entrance is another rectangular window, completed with a shallow iron balcony. Graceland is 17,552 square feet (1,630.6 m) and has a total of 23 rooms, including eight bedrooms and bathrooms. To the right of
9875-401: The front porch, striking our best rock 'n' roll poses and snapping pictures with the little camera. We peeked in the not-yet-curtained windows and got a kick out of the pastel colored walls in the front rooms with shades of bright reds and purples that Elvis most certainly had picked out." Presley was fond of claiming that the US government had mooted a visit to Graceland by Nikita Khrushchev of
10000-424: The home of the 'King' of rock and roll. On site, headphones narrate the salient events of Elvis's life and introduce the relics that adorn the rooms and corridors. The rhetorical mode is hagiographic , celebrating the life of an extraordinary man, emphasizing his generosity, his kindness and good fellowship, how he was at once a poor boy who made good, an extraordinary musical talent, a sinner and substance abuser, and
10125-450: The inside of Graceland—"people who to a real degree shared Elvis Presley’s class background, and whose lives were formed by his music—have returned with one word to describe what they saw: ‘Tacky.’ Tacky, garish, tasteless—words others translated as white trash." According to Karal Ann Marling , Graceland is "a Technicolor illusion. The façade is Gone With the Wind all the way. The den in
10250-493: The late Duchess of Devonshire, the sitting ambassadors of India, France, China, Korea and Israel to the United States; as well as several US governors, members of the US Congress, and at least two Nobel Prize winners, namely singer-songwriter Bob Dylan , a Literature Prize laureate, and the former President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias , a Peace Prize honoree, who visited it on October 10, 2001. In May 2016, Graceland welcomed
10375-425: The legal claim which alleged Lisa Marie Presley owed them $ 2.8 million in a California probate court in September 2023, eight months after her death. The Times would also concede that it was difficult to find evidence that Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC was even an existing company. On August 16, 2024, Missouri woman Lisa Jeanine Findley, who is also known by Lisa Holden and many other aliases,
10500-508: The local Chickasaw so that a Spanish fort could be erected on the bluff; Fort San Fernando De Las Barrancas was the result. Holmes notes that consent was reached despite opposition from "disappointed Americans and a pro-American faction of the Chickasaws" when the "pro-Spanish faction signed the Chickasaw Bluffs Cession and Spain provided the Chickasaws with a trading post". Fort San Fernando de las Barrancas remained
10625-490: The middle-class began to leave the city for the suburbs. In 1970, the Census Bureau reported Memphis's population as 60.8% white and 38.9% black. Suburbanization was attracting wealthier residents to newer housing outside the city. After the riots and court-ordered busing in 1973 to achieve desegregation of public schools, "about 40,000 of the system's 71,000 white students abandon[ed] the system in four years." Today,
10750-546: The morning on which Elvis died, he played a game of racquetball with his girlfriend Ginger Alden, his first cousin Billy Smith and Billy's wife Jo before ending the game with the song on the piano before walking into the main house to wash his hair and go to bed. Today the two story court has been restored to the way it was when Elvis used the building. Elsewhere on the estate is a small white building that served as an office for Vernon, along with an old smokehouse that housed
10875-472: The naval Battle of Memphis on June 6, 1862, and the city and state were occupied by the Union Army for the duration of the war. Union commanders allowed the city to maintain its civil government during most of this period but excluded Confederate States Army veterans from office. This shifted political dynamics in the city as the war went on. The war years contributed to additional dramatic changes in
11000-402: The next year property tax revenues collapsed, and the city could not make payments on its municipal debts. As a result, Memphis temporarily lost its city charter and was reclassified by the state legislature as a Taxing District from 1878 to 1893. But a new era of sanitation was developed in the city, a new municipal government in 1879 helped form the first regional health organization, and during
11125-410: The north side's exterior wall, the second rising through the south side's roof ridge. The central block's front and side facades are veneered with tan Tishomingo limestone from Mississippi and its rear wall is stuccoed, as are the one-story wings. The front facade fenestration on the first floor includes 9x9 double-hung windows set in arched openings with wooden panels above, and 6x6 double-hung windows on
11250-404: The number of fans who would congregate outside the house increased. Presley's neighbors, although happy to have a celebrity living nearby, concluded that the constant gathering of fans and journalists was a nuisance. In early 1957, Presley gave his parents, Vernon and Gladys Presley, a budget of $ 100,000 and asked them to find a "farmhouse"-like property to purchase, with buffer space around it. At
11375-456: The orphans at St. Mary's, delivering children to the Canfield Asylum, and taking soup and medicine on house calls to patients. Between September 9 and October 4, Sister Constance and three other nuns fell victim to the epidemic and died. They later became known as the Martyrs of Memphis. At long last, on October 28, a killing frost struck. The city sent out word to Memphians scattered all over
11500-488: The pool table, there's a rip in the green felt, which was caused by one of Elvis's friends in a failed attempt of a trick shot. Critics such as Albert Goldman write: "Though it cost a lot of money to fill up Graceland with the things that appealed to Elvis Presley, nothing in the house is worth a dime." In chapter 1 of his book, Elvis (1981), the author describes Graceland as looking like a brothel: "it appears to have been lifted from some turn-of-the-century bordello down in
11625-509: The poorer whites and blacks fundamentally made up the city and played the greatest role in rebuilding it. The epidemic had resulted in Memphis being a less cosmopolitan place, with an economy that served the cotton trade and a population drawn increasingly from poor white and black Southerners. The 1890 election was strongly contested, resulting in white opponents of the D. P. Hadden faction working to deprive them of votes by disenfranchising blacks . The state had enacted several laws, including
11750-416: The poverty and hardship it wrought, giving further credence to Memphis as a rough, shiftless city. Leading up to the outbreak in 1878, it had suffered two yellow fever epidemics, cholera , and malaria , giving it a reputation as sickly and filthy. It was unheard of for a city with a population as large as Memphis's not to have any waterworks; the city still relied for supplies entirely on collecting water from
11875-614: The prosecuting court, the Western District of Tennessee. The U.S. government moved for detention, and Findley was ordered to be removed to the Western District of Tennessee. She remains in custody. According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Public Affairs, Findley "posed as three different individuals" affiliated with the "fictitious private lender" in order to falsely accuse the late Lisa Marie of borrowing $ 3.8 million from Naussany Investments in 2018. Findley also "allegedly fabricated loan documents" on which she "forged
12000-620: The public never hears about." A ring of identity thieves based in Nigeria has claimed to be behind the scheme. Speaking to the New York Times via email which was written in Luganda , a ring leader of this group stated that the organization which he belonged to had a network of “worms” placed throughout the United States and would, among other things, prey on the dead. Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC would, in fact, file
12125-478: The publisher's summary of L.B. Wrenn's study of the period, "This centralization of political power in a small commission aided the efficient transaction of municipal business, but the public policies that resulted from it tended to benefit upper-class Memphians while neglecting the less affluent residents and neighborhoods." The city installed a revolutionary sewer system and upgraded sanitation and drainage to prevent another epidemic. Pure water from an artesian well
12250-408: The remains of Confederate General and Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest were removed from a Memphis park. On January 7, 2023, after a routine traffic stop, five African American police officers brutally beat a 29-year-old African American man, Tyre Nichols . Nichols died from his injuries in the hospital three days later. Officer body cam footage and local surveillance cameras captured
12375-403: The requirement of poll taxes , that made it more difficult for them to register to vote and served to disenfranchise many blacks. Although political party factions in the future sometimes paid poll taxes to enable blacks to vote, African Americans lost their last positions on the city council in this election and were forced out of the police force. (They did not recover the ability to exercise
12500-424: The river and rain cisterns, and had no way to remove sewage. The combination of a swelling population, especially of lower and working classes, and abysmal health and sanitary conditions made Memphis ripe for a serious epidemic. Kate Bionda, an owner of an Italian "snack house", died of a fever on August 13, 1878. Hers was officially reported by the Board of Health, on August 14, as the first case of yellow fever in
12625-481: The same configurations of space as he had at home – the Graceland mansion. His furniture would arrive, and he could unwind after his performances in surroundings which were completely familiar and comforting." 'The Jungle Room' was described as being "an example of particularly lurid kitsch." On August 16, 1977, Presley died aged 42 in his bathroom at Graceland. According to the biographer Peter Guralnick , he "had thrown up after being stricken, apparently while seated on
12750-561: The second floor. Flanked by two marble lions, four stone steps ascend from the driveway to the two-story central projecting pedimented portico. The pediment has dentils and a small, leaded oval window in the center while the portico contains four Corinthian columns with capitals modeled after architect James Stuart 's conjectural porticos for the " Tower of the Winds " in Athens , Greece. The portico's cornered columns are matched by pilasters on
12875-680: The signatures of Elvis Presley’s daughter and a Florida State notary public. Findley then allegedly filed a false creditor’s claim with the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles, and a fake deed of trust with the Shelby County Register’s Office in Memphis" and was, in fact, the one who "allegedly published a fraudulent foreclosure notice." Despite Findley's direct role, a Graceland official claimed to celebrity news site The Blast that Graceland did not believe Findley
13000-577: The southwesternmost part of the state, and is situated along the Mississippi River . With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census , Memphis is the second-most populous city in Tennessee after Nashville . Memphis is the fifth-most populous city in the Southeast , the nation's 28th-most populous overall, as well as the largest city bordering the Mississippi River and third largest metropolitan statistical area behind Greater St. Louis and
13125-652: The stress of war and occupation and uncertainty about who was in charge, increasing tensions between the city's ethnic Irish policemen and black Union soldiers after the war. In three days of rioting in early May 1866, the Memphis Riots erupted, in which white mobs made up of policemen, firemen, and other mostly ethnic Irish Americans attacked and killed 46 blacks, wounding 75 and injuring 100; raped several women; and destroyed nearly 100 houses while severely damaging churches and schools in South Memphis. Much of
13250-440: The time, Graceland was located in southern Shelby County, several miles south of Memphis's main urban area. In later years, Memphis expanded with residential developments, resulting in Graceland being surrounded by other properties. Presley purchased Graceland on March 19, 1957, for a price of $ 102,500. Later that year, Presley invited Richard Williams and singer Buzz Cason to the house. Cason said: "We proceeded to clown around on
13375-598: The toilet. It looked to the medical investigator as if he had 'stumbled or crawled several feet before he died.'" Guralnick adds that "drug use was heavily implicated in this unanticipated death of a middle-aged man with no known history of heart disease." The official cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia, although later toxicology reports strongly suggested that polypharmacy was the primary cause of death; "fourteen drugs were found in Elvis's system, with several drugs such as codeine in significant quantities. Presley lay in repose in
13500-407: The tropical film " Blue Hawaii " (1961), the musician wanted to bring some memorabilia from The Aloha State to his mansion, which gives visitors the same feeling. In 1976, the Jungle Room was converted into a recording studio, where he recorded the bulk of his final two albums, From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976) and Moody Blue (1977); these were his final known recordings in
13625-399: The trust grew to be worth over $ 100 million. An annual procession through the estate and past Elvis's grave is held on the anniversary of his death. Known as Elvis Week, it includes a full schedule of speakers and events, including the only Elvis Mass at St. Paul's Church, the highlight for many Elvis fans of all faiths. The 20th Anniversary in 1997 had several hundred media groups from around
13750-462: The uncertain nature of their own claim to "whiteness"; they were trying to distinguish themselves from blacks in the underclass. The main fighting participants were ethnic Irish, decommissioned black Union soldiers, and newly emancipated African-American freedmen . Walker suggests that most of the mob was not in direct economic conflict with the blacks, as by then the Irish had attained better jobs, but were establishing social and political dominance over
13875-532: The wealth of cotton plantations and river traffic along the Mississippi, Memphis grew into one of the largest cities of the Antebellum South . After the Civil War and the end of slavery , the city continued to grow into the 20th century. It became among the largest world markets for cotton and hardwood . Home to Tennessee's largest African-American population, Memphis played a prominent role in
14000-486: The world that were present resulting in the event gaining its greatest media publicity. One of the largest gatherings assembled on the 25th anniversary in 2002 with one estimate of 40,000 people in attendance, despite the heavy rain. On the 38th anniversary of Elvis's death, an estimated 30,000 people attended the Candlelight Vigil during the night of August 15–16, 2015. On the 40th anniversary of Elvis's death, on August 15–16, 2017, at least 50,000 fans were expected to attend
14125-798: The world! Sometimes he would have a bad dream and come looking for me to talk to, and he would actually fall asleep in our bed with us." Priscilla Presley lived at Graceland for five years before she and Elvis married in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 1, 1967. Their daughter Lisa Marie Presley was born on February 1, 1968, and lived the first years of her life on the estate. After her parents divorced in 1972, her mother moved with Lisa to California. Every year around Christmas, Lisa Marie Presley and all her family would go to Graceland to celebrate Christmas together. Lisa Marie often returned to Graceland for visits. When Elvis toured, staying in hotels, "the rooms would be remodeled in advance of his arrival, so as to make
14250-547: The world's largest spot cotton market and the world's largest hardwood lumber market, both commodity products of the Mississippi Delta. Into the 1950s, it was also the world's largest mule market. These animals were still used extensively for agriculture. Attracting workers from Southern rural areas as well as new European immigrants, from 1900 to 1950 the city increased nearly fourfold in population, from 102,350 to 396,000 residents. Racist violence continued into
14375-434: The wrought-iron front gate shaped like a book of sheet music, along with green colored musical notes and two mirrored silhouettes of Elvis playing his guitar. Sauer also installed a kidney shaped swimming pool and a racquetball court, which is reminiscent of an old country club, furnished in dark leather and a functional bar. There is a sunken sitting area with the ever-present stereo system found throughout Graceland, as well as
14500-541: Was arrested. The U.S. Department of Justice charged Findley with identity theft and mail fraud connected to the attempt to extort the Elvis Presley family into selling Graceland. Findley would make an appearance in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri on August 16, 2024 in a hearing that lasted seven minutes. During her arraignment, Findley waived her right to a preliminary hearing or detention hearing and agreed to have those hearings take place in
14625-432: Was away – had taken over the role of mistress of Graceland so thoroughly as to rearrange the furniture and replace the very curtains that Gladys had approved of." This was too much for Presley, who still loved his late mother deeply. One afternoon, "a van arrived ... and all Dee's household's goods, clothes, 'improvements,' and her own menagerie of pets, were loaded on ... while Vernon, Dee and her three children went by car to
14750-531: Was designed by the Memphis architectural firm, Furbringer and Erhmanis. It's a two-story, five-bay residence in the Colonial Revival style, with a side-facing gabled roof covered in asphalt shingles, a central two-story projecting pedimented portico, and two one-story wings on the north and south sides. Attached to the wing is an additional one-story stuccoed wing, which was originally a garage that houses up to four cars. The mansion has two chimneys; one on
14875-439: Was discovered in the 1880s, securing the city's water supply. The commissioners developed an extensive network of parks and public works as part of the national City Beautiful movement , but did not encourage heavy industry, which might have provided substantial employment for the working-class population. The lack of representation in city government resulted in the poor and minorities being underrepresented. The majority controlled
15000-415: Was filmed for the film Rattle & Hum . During the visit, drummer, Larry Mullen Jr., sat on Elvis Presley's motorcycle -- against the rules for Graceland visitors. On June 30, 2006, then US President George W. Bush hosted Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for a tour of the mansion. It was one of the few private residences on United States soil to have been the site of an official joint-visit by
15125-421: Was forced to move away from the city. But she continued to investigate and publish the abuses of lynching . Businessmen were eager to increase the city population after the losses of 1878–79, and supported the annexation of new areas; this measure was passed in 1890 before the census. The annexation measure was finally approved by the state legislature through a compromise achieved with real estate magnates, and
15250-423: Was opened to the public two years later. The original one-story wing on the north end of the residence includes a mechanical room, bedroom, and bath. In the mid-1960s, Presley enlarged the house to create a den known as the Jungle Room which features an indoor waterfall of cut field stone on the north wall. The room also contains items both related to and imported from the state of Hawaii because, after starring in
15375-496: Was originally owned by Stephen C. Toof, founder of S.C. Toof & Co. , the oldest commercial printing firm in Memphis. He worked previously as the pressroom foreman of the Memphis newspaper, the Memphis Daily Appeal . The site (before the mansion was built in 1939) was named after Toof's daughter, Grace. She inherited the property from her father in 1894. After her death, the property passed to her niece Ruth Moore,
15500-636: Was the scam's mastermind, stating that "We think this is the first domino to fall, not the last. We do not believe this is the mastermind behind the scam." Prosecutors have also stated that the person responsible for the scheme was an identity thief based in Nigeria. At the time of Findley's arrest, it was acknowledged that Kimberly L. Philbrick, the Florida notary whose name Findley forged, had, in fact, sided with Riley Keough in her lawsuit against Naussany Investments. In an affidavit, Philbrick stated that “I have never met Lisa Marie Presley, nor have I ever notarized
15625-534: Was to separate the poor from the city and isolate them in refugee camps. The Howard Association, formed specifically for yellow fever epidemics in New Orleans and Memphis, organized nurses and doctors in Memphis and throughout the country. They stayed at the Peabody Hotel , the only hotel to keep its doors open during the epidemic. From there they were assigned to their respective districts. Physicians of
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