March 25: Reporting to Ft. Chaffee, AK by bus, Elvis' famous hair is shorn off by an Army barber. The media follows close behind. The pop icon is assigned to Second Medium Tank Battalion, Second Armored Division, the "Hell On Wheels" division once led by General George S. Patton. Elvis, however, receives an assignment as a jeep driver. Within days, Colonel Tom Parker receives 5,000 pieces of mail addressed to the singer at Fort Chaffee.
March 29: Elvis arrives for boot camp at Ft. Hood, TX. He is stationed there for six months, and insists on performing KP and guard duty like any other soldier. With a bank account larger than most soldiers, he is able to afford his own housing. His family arrives and moves into an off-base trailer.
June 10: On his first weekend furlough, the singer manages to complete his recording contract for the year. This Nashville session will be his last until 1960. Meanwhile, Gladys collapses on the floor of her home and, on the urging of husband Vernon, goes to Memphis for tests.
June 14: Gladys is diagnosed with hepatitis and hospitalized at Memphis' Methodist Hospital. Elvis reluctantly returns to Ft. Hood for advanced tank training and is promoted to Corporal. The rest of his family moves into a four-bedroom house located at 906 Oak Hill Drive in nearby Killeen.
August 11: Elvis receives word that his beloved mother, Gladys, has been hospitalized with acute hepatitis.
August 12: Elvis is granted emergency "compassionate" leave and travels to Memphis' memorial hospital to be by his mother's side. He stays with her for the next two days, then returns to Graceland to rest.
August 14: At approximately 3:00 am, Gladys Presley dies at age 46 from a heart attack brought on by her hepatitis. Elvis is called immediately and rushes to her bedside, wailing loudly and praying over her lifeless body. Elvis refuses an autopsy. Gladys' body is transported to Graceland and lies in state there for two days, with her son simply staring at her, until Vernon insists she be buried.
August 15: Services for Gladys are held at the Memphis Funeral Home. Rev. James Hamill presides while gospel favorites the Blackwood Brothers perform her two favorite hymns, "Rock of Ages" and "Precious Memories." Elvis is reported to have been inconsolable, crying, "Everything I have is gone!" and insisting that his mother is not dead but merely sleeping. Later that day, her body is laid to rest at nearby Forest Hill Cemetery. Numb with grief, Elvis would carry her nightgown around for weeks afterward.
August 25: Elvis reports back to Ft. Hood and is reassigned to the Third Armored "Spearhead" Division, now as a tank driver. However, the hearing damage caused by the ammo soon forces a swift change in duty.
September 19: Presley is assigned to service in Germany and reports to Brooklyn by train to board the troop ship USS General Randall. A press conference is held to mark the occasion, and a military band plays both "Tutti Frutti" (which Elvis had indeed recorded) and "Hound Dog."
September 22: Presley is promoted to Private First Class and assigned to service in Germany, reporting to New York to board the troop ship USS General Randall. A press conference is held to mark the occasion, and a military band plays both "Tutti Frutti" (which Elvis had indeed recorded) and "Hound Dog."
October 1: Elvis arrives in Bremerhaven, West Germany and is startled to discover 2,000 screaming German fans waiting there for him. He will be stationed in the town of Friedburg for the next year and a half; on the spur of the moment, Elvis invites his family and friends to move into a two-story, four-bedroom residence in the nearby town of Bad Nauhiem. A press conference is held, after which Elvis is left alone to continue grieving.
Next... Elvis 1958 recording sessions
