Elvis lives on in memories of his fans

The Enterprise has, for more than a week now, been soliciting readers for their memories of Elvis Presley, who died Aug. 16, 1977, almost 30 years ago.

We even have a special phone line set up for fans who’d like to call in with their own rendition of their favorite Elvis hit.

Mine, for the record, is the little known, ”Young and Beautiful,” from the 1959 RCA album, “A Date With Elvis,” which, in 1959, was probably every teen-age girl’s dream.

Elvis was trying to make a living singing when I was an infant. He made the 1959 album before I was in kindergarten and his popularity peaked (at least during his lifetime) before I was in high school.

I had been out of college little more than a year and was working as a cop reporter at a small newspaper when he died, so I also recognized the news value of that story.

But to those of us who grew up with his omnipresent music and predictably amusing movies, his life was as much of a story as his death. To us, he will always rank as an entertainment icon.

The young reporters in the newsroom, many of whom weren’t born when Elvis was alive, look at me as though I am an archeological relic when I tell them I once actually saw Elvis perform live.

The year was 1970 and Elvis was among performers at the legendary Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, held in the equally legendary Astrodome.

My older sister and I had nosebleed seats – and binoculars – so we could see him well. The acoustics of the Astrodome being what they were – made for sporting events, not concerts – I always joked that we saw him once and heard him several times.

And, yes, at the end of his show, the dome went dark briefly. When the lights came back up, they said, exactly what you would expect: “Elvis has left the building.”