Day 39 - Memphis, TN

Memphis, TN  – A visit to Memphis wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the home of Elvis Presley.  We toured Graceland, the 13.8-acre property Elvis bought as a young guy back in 1957. The grounds are beautiful with a long driveway leading up to a pretty but relatively modest home at the top of a small hill. Obviously I know some of Elvis Presley’s big hits, but because of my age, I didn’t know a lot about his life.  It was really interesting to learn about him and his family.  For example, he met Priscilla while he was in the service in Germany.  She was something like 14 years old.   Somehow he was able to convince Pricilla’s dad to let her move to Memphis as a young teenager.  After living together for years, they finally married when she turned 21.  They were only married for 6-7 years, which was shocking to me.  I knew Elvis was a mega music icon, but I had no idea he was in so many films.  He was in 31 films in a short period of time. 

The tour did not stop at his home, we also go to see his car collection. I cared more about the car collection than the house. haha.  We were also able to tour his planes, one named Lisa Marie, after his daughter.  Elvis took hundreds of flights on this jetliner even though he only had the plane for a short time.  That demonstrated to me what an exhausting life he must have led.  He was always performing somewhere without a break. His schedule among other things surely played a role in his death. 

This afternoon we headed to the Lorraine Motel to visit the National Civil Rights Museum.  Lorraine Motel is the location where Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated. On March 29, 1968, King went to Memphis in support of the black sanitary public works employees, who had been on strike since March 12 for higher wages and better treatment.  During that trip his life was taken.

The museum first walks you through civil rights history from the founding of the nation.  At the end of the tour we were able to view rooms 306 and 307 where MLK and his associates stayed as well as the spot where he was standing when he was shot.  After JFK’s assassination, MLK said to his wife, “that is going to happen to me.”  Sadly, it did happen to him.  This man dedicated his entire life to change and was able to accomplish so much. He was willing to give his life, if necessary, to stand for equality and liberty.  We then went across the street to the specific location from which the assassin, James Earl Ray, took the deadly shot. Mountains of evidence are on display as well as a specific timeline of his movement.