Mrs. Myers, 53, of 702 Gondert Ave., was one of many Dayton-area residents who shed tears on hearing of Elvis Presley’s death Tuesday night.
Twenty years ago, Elvis took time while appearing in Dayton to visit Mrs. Myers’ daughter Priscilla, who was 15, and dying from cystic fibrosis. He had his picture taken with the youth in his dressing room back stage.
“He told her to never give up. He kissed her on the forehead and it was the most important moment in her life. It made her last few weeks in this world special for her.”
Mrs. Myers keeps the photo of Elvis and her daughter on a living room table. “I wonder how many people are looking at his photograph tonight, and weeping and feeling as sad as I do,” she said.
Elvis Presley fans in Dayton expressed disbelief, shock and sadness. Many headed toward Memphis, to be near Graceland, Presley’s mansion, where he died at the age of 42.
With tears in her voice, Bonnie Nisonger, 30, of 407 Lincoln Ave., Troy, put her feelings this way: “What gets to my heart the worst, is the thought that he died … all alone.”
Nisonger is trying to get a group of her friends together to travel in a van to Memphis, as many area Elvis fans already have.
“I felt I should be close to Graceland,” she said. “I can remember him when he first appeared on the Ed Sullivan show and I have been a fan since. He’s just the king. Oh, God. This has upset the world.”
Bill White, 27, of 318 Cherry Dr., a management analyst for the Montgomery County Commission and an Elvis fan first class, said he would like to have a “small gathering of friends this weekend to honor our idol.”
White said, “I just feel like I have lost a great personal friend. If I can, I would like to go to Memphis. I feel I want to be close, one more time, to where he is.”
He said he has collected, like many fans in Dayton, much Elvis music and memorabilia over the years. “A lot of men were his fans. He knew no barriers – sex, age, white, black, wheelchairs and crutches. Elvis gave of himself so unselfishly to his fans and friends. I get at least two letters a day from other Elvis fans. I just have love, respect and unswerving devotion to what he stood for and what he was. This man will sadly miss him.”
Mary Magee, 41, of 2540 Viewer Ave., has long been president of the Dayton area Elvis fan club which has some 100 members. Her telephone did not stop ringing after the death of the singing idol was announced Monday.
She and her husband, Jerry, 39, also a fan, had planned to go to Lexington, Ky., for a concert Elvis had planned there next Tuesday.
“I am still kind of numb,” Mrs. Magee said. “How can you easily accept such a loss, as personal as emotional as if someone in your family died? We are sending flowers, but we are not sure we should go to Memphis, since it will probably be running over with people.”
Jerry Magee said, “I became a really big fan in in Bloomington, Ind., a year ago April. I was at my car and he walked out, and he spoke to me. It did something to me. I mean, it shook me up. It was just charisma or something.”
Kenneth White, 24, of 4400 Daleview Ave., a loyal Elvis fan who has been to most of the crooner’s Midwest concerts, said he may go to Memphis this weekend. “Well, I am just in shock,” he said. “I can’t grasp that it is true. So many will miss the great man.”
Loretta Badjo, 34, of 3125 Braddock St., Kettering, heard that he idol, Elvis, had died while driving home Monday night. As she pulled into the parking area of her home, the Elvis classic, “Love Me Tender” was played on WHIO.
“I couldn’t move. There were just tears. I sat in the car and cried.”
Mrs. Badjo, her husband, Joseph, and their daughters, 8 and 6, are all Elvis fans, and had reservations at the Elvis Presley Boulevard Inn, in Memphis, where they hoped to spend some time next week.
“We will still go, only we may head there now,” she said. “I have never been to Memphis, to Elvis’ home. I just have always had this idea I wanted to go where he lived.”
She said she has been a fan since 1957. “There was just something about him …. His boyish charm and shy ways,” she said.
“He projected as a deep human being. It is just a shame he has to go now, so young.”
Mrs. Badjo said she hopes Elvis fans “will make these next few days dignified ones. So many, I know, are hysterical, but I think and I pray the fans will act with dignity, for his sake.
“The Elvis image will never die,” she said. “Elvis fans will always be there. And the good feeling that the man spread will never die.”
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