Few, if any, figures in rock and roll history are as timeless, or controversial,
as Elvis Presley. Both a rebel and a heartthrob, Elvis changed the way the world thought about
music, pop culture, and celebrity. Here's what the last 12 months of Elvis' life were like.
The last person to see Elvis Presley alive, and the person who heard his last words,
was Ginger Alden, the singer's fiancee. Alden was just 20 years old at the time,
half the age of her partner, per the Sydney Morning Herald. Alden has given two slightly
conflicting reports about the last words ever spoken by the King of Rock and Roll,
but neither quote is of much significance. Elvis' last words might have been,
"I'm going to the bathroom to read."
Or, in response to Alden's admonition for him to not fall asleep in the lavatory,
Elvis reportedly replied, "I won't."
"The last thing Elvis said to me, I
told him not to fall asleep in the bathroom and he said, 'I won't.'"
Alden had reason to be concerned, as her fiance had insomnia, which he tried to overcome through
strong sedatives, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. It was early in the morning of August 16,
1977 when Elvis slipped out of the bedroom and headed for the bathroom,
and Alden went back to sleep. She would remain asleep until the early afternoon,
when she found her partner cold on the bathroom floor.
Fortunately for Presley's legacy, he left behind 18 number 1 hit songs on the Billboard Charts,
and he's better remembered for his music than for his final words.
The book Elvis Presley took along with him to the bathroom on the last morning
of his life was Frank Adams' "A Scientific Search for the Face of Jesus," which had
been published five years prior. The book is focused on the Shroud of Turin, the piece of
fabric purported to have been laid across the face and body of Jesus after his crucifixion.
Most modern scholars, scientists, and forensic experts now doubt the authenticity of the Shroud
of Turin. Carbon dating shows it is likely from sometime between 1260 and 1390 AD,
well after the purported lifetime of Christ,
but the shroud remains an object of wonder today just as it was in the 1970s.
Presley had maintained a Christian faith throughout his life,
apparently being twice baptized while alive, and once posthumously, according to USA Today. He was
also keenly interested in religion in general, often practicing meditation, and wearing both a
cross and a Star of David at times, as Elvis had Jewish ancestry on his mother's side. According to
USA Today, not long before his death, he may even have been considering a conversion to Mormonism.
Around 5 a.m. on the morning of August 16, 1977, Elvis Presley and fiancee Ginger Alden went to
bed together, after spending much of the night awake despite Elvis trying to nod off with the
aid of various prescription drugs, according to the Express. At 7 a.m., Elvis apparently took
another round of pills, desperate to get some rest given that he was slated to fly to Maine
that evening, before a concert the next day, and then continue on a tour around the nation.
Still unable to sleep, Elvis left his bedroom, saying his last words to Alden at around 9:30 a.m.
Alden fell back asleep and would remain slumbering until shortly before 1:30 p.m.
Awaking to find herself alone in bed, Alden went to look for her fiance.
Approximately four hours had elapsed since the last time anyone had seen Presley alive,
and it's entirely possible that he had slipped into unconsciousness in the middle of the morning,
thus spending the last few hours of his life alone and incapacitated.
Ginger Alden, Presley's young model fiancee, found Elvis on the bathroom
floor that afternoon in August. According to Memphis Magazine,
"She went to the bathroom door and called his name. When there was no answer,
she entered and found him lying face down on the bathroom carpet."
There are conflicting accounts as to how Alden found her partner. Memphis Magazine shares that
Presley had been sitting in a lounging chair in the bathroom, and that he had evidently lost
consciousness and slipped out of the seat and onto the floor of the room. The more indelicate
version of the story, and the one more commonly repeated, is that Alden found Elvis on the floor
of the bathroom, him having slipped off the toilet after losing consciousness.
It's well known that Presley had constipation issues due to a terrible diet, consisting
largely of unhealthy foods, and his heavy use of medications, as described by the Mirror.
"But then again, in my mind, there are a lot of unanswered questions."
In the moments after Ginger Alden found Elvis Presley lying on the floor, she tried to revive
her partner. Alden later described how she touched Presley's skin and found it cold,
though he may have still been alive. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Alden said,
"I slapped him a few times and it was like he breathed once when I
turned his head. [...] I couldn't move him."
Alden summoned Joseph Esposito, a friend of Presley's from his days in the United
States Army who had come to serve the singer as both a personal and professional manager.
Esposito attempted to revive Presley with rudimentary first aid while awaiting an ambulance.
Presley was then rushed to the nearby hospital, but it was already too late.
"His road manager tried to revive him. He failed. The hospital tried to revive him. It failed."
Elvis Presley was officially pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m. on August 16, 1977.
He had been taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital, a few miles from his Graceland
mansion, and it was there that the official pronouncement was made.
However, it's likely that he died much earlier, perhaps even several hours before.
By 4 p.m. that day, word had gotten out to the public that the King of Rock and Roll had expired,
and the news quickly spread across the nation and the globe.
According to Country Music Nation, within hours of the death announcement,
"Thousands of fans gathered outside of Elvis' Graceland mansion [...] Some traveled hundreds
of miles to be there, feeling compelled to be at the place where Elvis spent his final moments."
At Graceland, around the nation, and across the world, people expressed shock, sorrow,
and in many cases disbelief. Theories that the news was a hoax, and that Elvis had
not actually died, persisted for decades, and some fans even believe he is still alive today.
Conspiracy theories include the idea that the singer faked his own death to
escape public attention, and the notion that it was a coverup to help the King
of Rock and Roll escape the mafia, and that he went into witness protection.
On the day of Presley's death, the mayor of Memphis ordered flags in the city to be flown
at half staff, and by the next day, the news was making headlines all around the world. Even
though Presley was far past the peak of his fame when he died in 1977, he was still very much an
icon. His death dominated the news cycle for days after his passing. Soon enough much of the world
moved on to other things, but many diehard fans would mourn their lost hero for years to come.
"I miss that we didn't get to see where he was going to go,
and, you know, hear more of his music."
At the time of his death, the famously handsome Elvis Presley was overweight,
plagued by insomnia, and regularly taking a cocktail of pills. He was
reportedly consuming thousands of calories per day, and living off a diet of burgers
and a sandwich of his own invention that included bacon and bananas, according to ABC Science.
Despite being just 42 at the time of his death, he had high blood pressure,
and had been hospitalized for intestinal blockage, according to the Washington Post.
The multiple drugs that Presley often took also wreaked havoc on his mental
health. According to the Express, in the summer of 1977, Presley called the White House and managed
to get recently elected President Jimmy Carter on the phone. Carter later said of the call,
"He was totally stoned and didn't know what he was saying.
His sentences were almost incoherent. [...] ​​I talked to him for a long time [...] to
ease Presley out of his paranoid delusions. [...] Calming his fears that he was being
'shadowed' by sinister forces and that his friend was being framed."
Presley would reportedly call the White House many more times in the weeks before his death,
but was never again put through to the Commander in Chief.
The official cause of the death of Elvis Presley on August 16, 1977 was heart failure. But the
cardiac incident that led to the King's death was reportedly no random fluke,
but rather a direct result of his heavy use, and serious abuse,
of a myriad of medications, chiefly sedatives, barbiturates, and opiates. Per Town & Country,
"When the toxicology report of the performer's blood came back from analysis several weeks
after his death, it reportedly contained high dosages of, among other things,
the opiates Dilaudid, Percodan, and Demerol, as well as Quaaludes and codeine."
"They reported traces of ten separate drugs."
However, shortly after his death,
Tennessee's Chief Medical Examiner Jerry Francisco said of Presley,
"Had these drugs not been there, he still would have died."
Presley had been misusing pills for years, and more heavily so in the last year and a half of
his life. It was reported by People that Elvis' personal physician, Dr. George Nichopoulos,
known simply as "Dr. Nick," had reportedly provided his patient with as many as 12,000
pills in the 18 months before Presley died. The doctor later claimed that the pills were intended
to be shared among Presley's entire entourage, but it's likely he knew exactly where they would go.
Several years later, the doctor would have his medical license temporarily suspended,
and he faced 11 felony counts of overprescribing drugs in 1981, but was acquitted. Dr. Nick was
finally permanently suspended from practice by the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners in 1995,
nearly 20 years after the death of his most famous patient.
The body of Elvis Presley is buried at Graceland, his beloved home in Memphis,
Tennessee. His grave is flanked by the burial sites of his grandmother,
Minnie Mae Presley, who died in May 1980, his father, Vernon Elvis Presley, who died less than
two years after his son, passing in June 1979, and his mother, Gladys Presley, who died in 1958.
The graves are in the Meditation Garden, and according to the official Graceland website,
"Millions of fans from around the world have come to Graceland to pay their respects to Elvis."
Elvis Presley's funeral took place on August 18, 1977, two days after his death. Though the
actual ceremony was not a lavish affair and was attended by a small, select group of mourners,
thousands of Elvis fans converged on Memphis in the 48 hours after his passing.
The crowds were so large that, according to Live About,
"President Carter ordered 300 National Guard troops to the area to maintain order."
Despite being one of the most famous and successful musicians of all time,
Elvis Presley was not all that wealthy at the time of his death.
According to the Express, Presley had a net worth of around $5 million at the
time of his death, which would equate to approximately $21 million today.
How is it that the man with 18 number 1 hit singles and multiple beloved movies, who toured
the nation and was known around the world, was worth so relatively little when he died?
Quite simply, it's because Presley spent so much money. From furnishing his Graceland mansion
in lavish style to owning two private jets to keeping a huge staff on salary
to his own massive appetites for foods and drugs, Elvis had a lifestyle that cost a lot of money.
He also spent freely on friends and family, and had agreed to provide his ex-wife,
Priscilla Presley, with 5% of his significant publishing rights, the Express reported.
However, his estate is worth a huge amount today. In a 2020, Cheat Sheet reported,
"Elvis' estate is still so profitable four decades after his death that he is the fifth
highest-paid dead celebrity of 2020. And as it turns out,
his estate made more money this year than the singer had the year he died."
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please call the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Administration's 24/7 National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP. That's 1-800-662-4357.