Elois Bedford was probably Elvis’ first ‘girlfriend’ – the relationship ended after perhaps one year when Elvis handed Elois a note as she was about to board the school bus. It said he had gone to another girl.
Her name was Maria Magdalene Morgan.
Magdalene Morgan had had her eyes on the shy youngster for a longer time and she knew – just knew – that one day, sooner or later, they would become ‘an item’.
‘I guess my infatuation with Elvis started in that little (Assembly of God) church up in East Tupelo’, says Magdalene, known as Maggie in school because people, including Elvis, never got around to learning how to spell her name correctly. ‘He sang and picked the guitar. I sang and played piano’.
‘He was just my ideal guy. He was very pleasant, very polite. He didn’t talk a whole lot. Elvis was kind of embarrassed a lot. He did not like crowds. He would talk to me a lot if we were by ourselves, like when my mother and I would visit the Presley home, which we did often because Gladys was my mom’s best friend’.
Magdalene said she attended a couple of birthday parties for Elvis in his home.
‘They were at that little house on Old Saltillo Road. There would be Elvis and his family; me and my family. We were very poor. We managed to have the usual meal-beans, potatoes and meat. And then some birthday cake. Gladys made the cake and the frosting. And sometimes she made the ice cream in one of those old-time ice cream freezers. We had to take turns cranking.
He and I would sing. We would hold hands and talk. We would go for walks in the woods out behind his house and he would talk about what he wanted to be when he grew up. He always talked about wanting to be a singer and he would marry someone who would have to be a lot like his mama. This was when we were ten, eleven, on up in there. He was just my little guy, you know.
‘It was a good old party for people back then when people were poor and salaries weren’t very much’.
Though they were ‘sweethearts’ from the end of the filth grade until Elvis moved to Memphis in the beginning of the seventh grade, their kisses were few and far between.
‘Just twice in three years. No, make that three’, she beamed, as if the smacky lips had happened only yesterday. ‘I remember them all. The first time was just after he had carved that heart in the tree. The second time, we were sitting in the swing on his front porch one night while our parents were talking inside. He slowly eased his arm around me, like he didn’t know if this were the thing to do or not at this stage. And then he just sort of leaned over and kissed me. The third time, he sneaked a kiss in the back seat of the car while we were going to a (church) rally. I mean, that was real sneaky. Just a little quick kiss’.
Elvis’ habit of stammering while talking in public was evident even in elementary school days.
‘To me, Elvis always seemed nervous’, said Magdalene. ‘He never could sit still. He stuttered. Not to the point you couldn’t understand him. It was ‘Ah … ah …’ Like he did in later life, after he got famous. He was kind of fidgety, especially in crowds. He had a habit of tapping his pencil when he talked’.
She remembers the Presleys as a close-knit, loving family.
‘He idolized his parents and they idolized him’, she said. ‘He held a high respect for his mother and father. If they said ‘no’, that meant ‘no’. I know I’m prejudiced, but Elvis was just a well-mannered boy to be an only child. I’m an only child and I was spoiled rotten and I know it. Elvis was brought up like kids should be today, from the old school, with a lot of respect, no talking back, no sassing’.
‘He never proposed marriage to me. Nothing like that. We were much too young to be thinking things like that in those days. Oh, he would say ‘When we grow up, we are going to do this, do that’. At that time, if you just held hands it was very serious. And we did hold hands a lot. It was very serious (between us)’.
And then came the heartbreaker. The Presleys announced they were moving to Memphis.
‘When I heard they were moving to Memphis, I cried a good while’, said Magdalene. ‘I missed him. I kept missing him even after I got married and had children. I loved Elvis. I will always love Elvis. There will always be a spot in my heart and Elvis will always be there’.
After Elvis left town, their paths drifted apart. They would see each other again only once.
‘The last time I saw Elvis, I was working with my mother in the Depot Cafe in Tupelo’, said Magdalene, a touch of sorrow in her voice. ‘Everything about him had changed. His looks. His mannerisms. But deep down, he was still the same guy. When he walked into the cafe, I was taking a break. My mom brought him to my table and said, ‘Maggie, do you know who this is?’ ‘And I said, ‘Sure, It’s Elvis’.
‘He sat down at my table and we talked for a while, He went over some of the music he was getting ready to sing. Said he had been down on Beale Street in Memphis and had been singing with some black people. And he now had a guitar with all the strings on it. He was really excited about what was beginning to happen in his life’
In 1992, a marriage certificate, supposedly uniting Elvis and Magdalene, popped out of the woodwork.
On seeing the marriage license, Magdalene shouted, ‘My Lord! Where did this come from?! I never saw it before!’ Scanning it more closely, she noted, first, the signature was not in her handwriting; besides, her name was even misspelled. But Elvis, never got around to learning how to spell her name correctly. Then she noted the date on the license Just hours before Elvis and his parents were moving to Memphis. Perhaps this was his feelings about the girl he left behind. Given that thought, tears formed in the eyes of Magdalene Morgan.
By: Bill E. Burk
Source: Early Elvis : The Tupelo Years
Maria Magdalena Morgan died
February 15, 2012.
She was 78 years old.