Elvis’ Mom Knew She Was Dying and Wanted Someone to Look After Her Son, Said His Bodyguard
In 1958, Elvis Presley’s mom died after a period of illness. Elvis was extremely close with his mother and struggled to accept the news of her death. According to Elvis’ bodyguard, Red West, though, Gladys Presley had seemed aware of her approaching death. He shared why he began to feel this way in the months before she died.
Elvis’ mom seemed to anticipate her death, claimed Elvis’ bodyguard
Less than a year before Gladys’ death, West visited her at Graceland. Elvis was away working on a movie, but West had known the family for years. He was happy to sit and chat with her.
“While I was there, she got on the telephone and called Elvis,” he said in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “He was glad to say hello, and when he found I had about two weeks leave, he invited me to come to Hollywood and spend some time with him. Great, I had never been to a studio before. I was to leave the next day. After the telephone call, Mrs. Presley and I sat and talked some more.”
Throughout their conversation, West had a nagging feeling that something was wrong.
“Man, I knew there was something wrong with her,” he said. “I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was just the way she talked.”
When looking back, West believed Gladys knew she was going to die soon. She wanted to make sure he would be there to protect her son.
“Man, that dear lady knew she was dying,” he said. “She never said anything like that, but the way she was talking, it was as if it was all over. She knew she didn’t have long. When I got up to say goodbye, she just sort of called me back, and she said what I had heard her say a hundred times: ‘Bob, look after my boy.’ When she said it this time it was different. There was a sort of, I don’t know, a sort of finality to the sound of her voice, like as if that was the last time she would ever say it to me. It was.”
Red West said he thought about Gladys Presley whenever he protected Elvis
For years, Gladys told West to look out for Elvis. Whenever he stepped in to protect the performer, he thought of her.
“She seemed to like me a lot, although I don’t think she ever knew about the fights and stuff. That would have worried her sick,” West said. “But somewhere in the back of her mind she knew I sort of ran interference for him, and whenever we left the Presley house she would always say to me, ‘Now, Red, look after my boy, just look after my boy.’ They were words I was never to forget.”
He said that because he made a promise to Gladys, he would have done anything to protect Elvis.
Elvis was devastated by his mom’s death
Elvis and his mother were very close, so her death came as a painful shock to him. West believed he felt the loss more deeply than the average person.
“Everybody breaks up when he loses a mother or a father. With Elvis I think it was a lot deeper,” West said. “It was a heck of a shock to lose her when she was so young. Elvis had planned so much for her. He was going to take her to Germany with him, they were going to tour Europe together. She was going to be the best-looked-after mother in the world. And then this.”
West believed Elvis’ life might have turned out much differently if his mother had lived. She served as a moral compass for him during her lifetime.
“I just can’t help feel that if she had lived, Elvis wouldn’t have gotten into some of the habits he did,” he said. “There was always that thought in the back of his mind: ‘What would Mama say if she knew I was doing this?’”
