Elvis and Ginger: Elvis Presley's Fiancée and Last Love Finally Tells Her Story (39 page)

A picture taken of me around age two and a half. Who would’ve known Elvis Presley would one day enter my life and give me the nickname Little Two?

Photo courtesy of Ginger Alden

My first-grade picture that Elvis requested and kept in a frame on his bedside table at Graceland alongside another photo of me. My permed hairdo I could have lived without!

Photo courtesy of Ginger Alden

Elvis listening intently to my father speaking, shortly after they first met at Kennedy Veterans Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 24, 1958. Little did the two of them know that they would be in each other’s lives again eighteen years later.

Photo courtesy of Ginger Alden

My mother proudly serving her country. The photo was taken when she first entered the army in 1943.

Photo courtesy of Ginger Alden

My sister Rosemary, Dad, Mom, my sister Terry, and me during the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in September of 1976. We couldn’t have been any more proud of Terry!

Photo courtesy of Ginger Alden

My brother, Mike, inside Elvis’s JetStar, heading to Las Vegas on what was my family’s first trip to see one of Elvis’s shows.

Photo courtesy of Jo Alden

Elvis’s personal identification bracelet that he wore for many years and surprisingly gifted me with on our first flight together to Las Vegas.

Photo courtesy of Ginger Alden

Elvis’s wonderful sense of humor shows in a couple of personal checks made out to me. My father had given Elvis a dime so he could make a phone call when he entered the army. I couldn’t help but smile remembering my dad’s story when Elvis gave me the Christmas check for ten cents.

Photo courtesy of Ginger Alden

Elvis and me holding hands, with Ed Parker in the foreground, after arriving in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 31, 1976, before his New Year’s Eve show. Usually shy about being photographed, I was also sad here because my grandfather had just passed away the day before.

Photo courtesy of BobKleinMedia.com

Elvis onstage during his New Year’s Eve show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 31, 1976. It was a fantastic show! I was so proud of his performance and happy that he was wearing the cross necklace I had given him for Christmas.

Taken by Donna Gaffin, from the Russ Howe Collection

Elvis and me walking toward my parents’ Lincoln Continental, leaving the Ramada Inn in Harrison, Arkansas, on January 3, 1977. We had earlier returned to the Ramada after my grandfather’s funeral.

Photo by Bill Doshier Jr., courtesy of
Harrison Daily Times
, Harrison, Arkansas

Elvis entering my parents’ Lincoln Continental after my grandfather’s funeral. He had changed into the jeweled robe that he so often loved to wear.

Photo by Bill Doshier Jr., courtesy of
Harrison Daily Times
, Harrison, Arkansas