Read Inside Graceland: Elvis' Maid Remembers for Free Online

sometimes seemed as if she waited on us almost as often as we waited on her. It was like a family atmosphere all the time.
    Then, after breakfast and several cups of coffee, interspersed with watching the television sitting on the counter across from where we sat, (which you can still see on the tour today), she would be off to take care of the daily activities involved in running the house.
    A little later in the morning, usually around ten, Dodger would wander into the kitchen from her bedroom, always looking beautiful. She was always dressed immaculately, wearing one of her beautiful dresses with trademark apron and matching handkerchief. She prided herself on always being dressed like the typical proud southern lady.
    Her presence would bring about round two of the breakfast club. We would fix her a plate of biscuits, along with a bowl of redeye gravy to pour over the biscuits, and coffee to drink. We would then sit and drink more coffee with her. I often thought we were keeping the coffee industry in business in Memphis.
    It was during those times, sitting around that white counter drinking coffee, that she shared so many memories of the Presley family.
    She told me one time, “It was a sin that Elvis’ twin brother didn’t live. It was the doctor’s fault. He did not have sense enough to know that there were two babies instead of one. I told Vernon that doctor was no good, but Vernon was young and didn’t understand about things like that. I would have run that doctor out of town, personally, but Vernon wouldn’t let me do that.”
    She told us stories of Elvis growing up. He may have become a superstar later on, but he had grown up just like any other poor child born during the depression in Tupelo, Mississippi.
    She told us how Vernon and Gladys had not been able to afford medicine when Elvis got sick. When he got stomachaches, for example, they gave him hard peppermint candy that had been soaked overnight in moonshine, to help settle his stomach. Probably not what the doctor would have ordered, but apparently it worked.
    Dodger told us that when Elvis was small, she lived practically next door to them in Tupelo. She said, “He was so cute. He used to get mad at Gladys for whatever reason and would walk over to my house. I always knew he was upset because he would be carrying some of his clothes in a paper bag. He’d tell me he was ‘running away.’
    When Gladys would find out he was with me I would tell her to just leave him with me and I’d bring him home after he settled down.
    I remember, when Elvis was little, he would play with some of the neighborhood children. Right in front of their house was a ditch that frequently had water in it. One day, Elvis, on a dare, sat in the ditch and got his clothes soaking wet. I was looking after him that day and I paddled him pretty good when he came inside. He cried, and promised not to ever do it again. Because he looked so pitiful, I ended up crying myself.
    Another time I saw Gladys spanking him. When I asked what he’d done to deserve the spanking, she told me he’d called his daddy ‘Vernon’, instead of ‘daddy’. I couldn’t stand to see him being whipped, so I begged Gladys not to spank him anymore. I don’t think Elvis called his daddy ‘Vernon’ again until he got older.”
    Dodger said that when Elvis was a baby he would sleep half the day if no one woke him. I often wondered if that played a part in his sleeping habits later on.
    She told us that Elvis had been afraid of his grandfather, Jessie Presley, because he drank so much. She explained that he would come home late at night after he’d been drinking and Elvis would always try and hide to stay away from him. She said that was probably why Elvis never liked being around drunk people. (It didn’t matter if you were family or not, Elvis felt very uncomfortable around them. He came close to kicking Aunt Delta out of Graceland because of several drunken outbursts by her in front of Elvis and