The Gift Elvis Presley Gave Priscilla to Show She Belonged to Him
When Priscila Beaulieu began dating Elvis Presley, she was acutely aware that their time together had an expiration date. Her family was in Germany because of her father’s work in the military. Elvis was also stationed in Germany, but he was due to go back to the United States long before Priscilla and her family. When they parted ways at the airport, Elvis gave Priscilla a gift to show people she was his, even when they were apart.
Elvis Presley gave Priscilla a gift when they separated
When Elvis left Germany, Priscilla accompanied him on the way to the airport. On the drive over, he made her promise she would write to him and that she would stay out of other relationships.
“I want you to promise me you’ll stay the way you are,” he told her, per her book Elvis and Me. “Untouched as I left you.”
While he wouldn’t be in the country, he wanted to make it clear to everyone there that Priscilla was off-limits in his eyes. He gave her a gift to get the message across.
“Then, handing me his combat jacket and the sergeant’s stripes he’d recently been awarded, he said, ‘I want you to have these. It shows you belong to me,’” she wrote. “After that, he held me tight.”
Elvis Presley told Priscilla not to cry at his departure
Priscilla had been dreading Elvis’ departure for weeks and was despondent on the drive to the airport. He told her to keep her sadness out of her expression, though.
“I’ll look for you from the top of the ramp,” he told her. “I don’t want to see a sad face. Give me a little smile. I’ll take that with me.”
When they arrived at the airport, Priscilla fought her way through the crowd of Elvis’ fans to see him board his plane.
“I was swept away by hundreds of fans, pushing and pulling, trying to get to him,” she wrote. “I cried, ‘Elvis!’ but he never heard me. He ran up the boarding steps. Then he turned and waved to the crowd, his eyes searching for me. I waved frantically, as did hundreds of other fans, yet he found me, and for one more brief moment, our eyes locked. Then he disappeared. Just like that.”
She was heartbroken when he left Germany
While Elvis told Priscilla not to start “moping” around when he left, his departure devastated her.
“For the next two days, I locked myself in my room, unable to eat, unable to sleep,” she wrote. “Finally, my mother said, ‘This isn’t going to help. Moping around her isn’t going to bring him back. He’s gone. He’ll be getting into his new life, and so should you.’”
While Priscilla and Elvis eventually reunited and wed, she said they often went months without speaking after his departure from Germany. She was left wondering how, or if, she fit into his life.
