Elvis Week: Fans from around world defy heat to honor the King at Candlelight Vigil

"Burnin' Love" took on a new, literal meaning Thursday as thousands of adoring Elvis Presley fans from around the world shrugged off heat index readings of 111 degrees to participate in the annual Candlelight Vigil at Graceland, the ritual memorial that celebrates the life and legacy of the King of Rock 'n' Roll on the eve of the anniversary of his Aug. 16, 1977, death at 42.

Fortunately, tattoos are indelible and thus impervious to even Memphis humidity. "I got seven of 'em," announced Von Lyons, 69, of Jeffersonville, Indiana, who was among the "honor guard" of fan club members who, armed with battery-powered candles, lined the long Graceland driveway like sentinels to guide the other fans as they processed, one after another, by the hundreds, through the distinctive musical-note gates, past the mansion, and to the "Meditation Garden," to pay their respects at the gravesites of Elvis, his parents, his daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, and other family members.

Lyons' arms are, essentially, murals of Elvis iconography and song lyrics. A pink Cadillac rumbles along her right forearm; "If I Can Dream" — her most recent tattoo, added last Christmas — is scripted across her left.

Her first tattoo, a realistic portrait of a smiling Elvis on her left shoulder, was paid for by her (now deceased) husband, 18 years ago.

"He asked me if I wanted a portrait of Elvis or a curio cabinet for Christmas, and I said, 'I'll take the portrait,' and he said, 'Let's go.'" Anyway, she said, she already had six curio cabinets filled with Presley bric-a-brac, so the house didn't really have room for another.

Although a resident of Indiana, Lyons is a member of the Blue Moon of Kentucky Elvis fan club, headed by Betty Jean Scoggins, 68, who has expanded the Presley vigil tradition beyond Graceland: She now organizes an annual vigil at the grave of Elvis' grandfather, Jesse D. Presley (1896-1973), a sometime Louisville resident ("he worked for Pepsi-Cola here," Scoggins said) who is buried in Louisville Memorial Gardens West.

Why a vigil? "Without Jesse D. Presley there would not have been Vernon Elvis Presley, and without Vernon Elvis Presley there wouldn't have been the bloodline that continued to the King of Rock 'n' Roll, Elvis Aaron Presley," Scoggins explained.

Elvis' paternal grandfather may be a somewhat overlooked figure, but not by Scoggins. In fact, Scoggins plans to spend eternity, so to speak, as Jesse D. Presley's neighbor. She and her late husband, Michael Brent Hardesty, who died in 2020, purchased the plot next to Jesse D. Presley. Hardesty was cremated, and his ashes are in an urn stored inside a "cremation bench" that has been installed on the plot. "It holds four urns, but we're only putting two, me and him," said Scoggins (who now uses her maiden name).

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Louisville was far from the minds of most participants in the Graceland Candlelight Vigil, however. For them, Memphis is a sort of mecca, and the trip here is expensive and long. Among those who lit a wax candle at the Graceland gate from the torch carrying fire from the "eternal flame" at Elvis' grave were hundreds of visitors from Japan, Brazil, the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries.

Cristian Parra, 43, led a contingent of Graceland visitors representing the Rey del Rock Elvis fan club of Santiago, Chile.

Some of the fans did not speak English, so they weren't entirely certain of the meaning of the lyrics of such hit songs as "Heartbreak Hotel," "Don't Be Cruel" and "Burnin' Love," Parra said. Nevertheless, "Elvis is our hero, in music," he said. "Elvis is very popular in my country, in Chile."

If the crowd was enthusiastic, it also was relatively sparse — at least by the standard of the Candlelight Vigil (which begins each year on Aug. 15 and continues into the wee hours of Aug. 16, the actual calendar date of Elvis' death).

The Shelby County Sheriff's Department estimated attendance at 10,000 (last year's estimate was 15,000), but that count may have been high. Veteran vigil attendees agreed the turnout the crowd was noticeably sparser than in most past years — perhaps because "47th anniversary" is not a particularly marketable milestone, and perhaps because some fans already are planning to be in Memphis in 2027, for the 50th anniversary of Elvis' death.

ln brief remarks at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday, just prior to the official start of the vigil, Elvis Presley Enterprises managing partner Joel Weinshanker teased plans for a series of "Road to 50" events that will mark "the best three years in Graceland and Elvis history."

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Meanwhile, Graceland staff passed out cups of water to the Elvis faithful outside the gate, sweating in what the National Weather Service had characterized as "dangerously hot conditions." The fans didn't seem to mind. Many — perhaps most — had been to Memphis in August before.

For example: Dennis Miller, 65, of Boston — who saw Elvis in his Cadillac (in 1976, as the car exited the Graceland gates) and in his coffin (when Elvis lay in state at Graceland on Aug. 17, 1977) — has toured Graceland 406 times since the mansion opened to the public in the summer of 1982, he said. (The total includes the daily tours he made from 1999 to 2001, when he worked as a Graceland tour guide.)

Asked to define Elvis' appeal, Miller said: "Everything. His music, his humanitarianism, his kindness. Today, he still brings people together."

He said Elvis could be witty, too. When he met Elvis briefly, on April 19, 1976, he said, he was among a small group of fans waiting outside the Graceland gates. When Elvis' Cadillac rolled out for the night, the car stopped, and the window rolled down, where Miller was standing.

"Elvis introduced himself. He said, 'I'm Elvis Presley.' And I said, 'Mr. Presley, with all due respect, I know who you are.'"

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Elvis Week 2024: Fans honor the King at Candlelight Vigil at Graceland