Teen fairytale with King of Pop too good to last
Could teenager Priscilla Wagner Beaulieu have dreamed her introduction to a handsome pop star would unfold as a modern fairytale?
Could Priscilla Wagner Beaulieu ever dream her introduction to a handsome pop star at an American air force club in Germany would unfold as a modern fairytale? She was a baby-faced schoolgirl, the pop star more than a decade older, at the meeting that defined the life of Priscilla Presley, who turns 70 tomorrow.
The brunette who captured the heart of The King Of Pop for long enough to become his only bride was born on May 24, 1945, at Brooklyn to James Wagner, 23, a Flight Squad 75 pilot with USS Roosevelt, and his wife Anna, 19. Tragedy struck six months later when Wagner was killed in a plane crash while returning home on leave. Her mother met US air force officer Paul Beaulieu, from Quebec, in 1948 and married within a year. Presley later described herself as “a shy, pretty little girl unhappily accustomed to moving from base to base every two or three years”, who worried about making friends at each new school.
Her mother had five more children by the time Presley learned of her biological father while sorting through family keepsakes. Her mother apparently encouraged her to keep it from her siblings, fearing disclosure would “endanger our family closeness”.
With Beaulieu promoted to captain by 1955, the family transferred to Bergstrom air force base at Austin, Texas. In 1959, Beaulieu moved his family to a post at Weisbaden, Germany, near Bad Nauheim where Elvis, drafted in December 1957, was based with the US Army’s 3rd Armored Division. The Beaulieus arrived in Germany on August 15, 1959. Within weeks Priscilla was a regular at the Eagles Club, a popular air force community centre.
Airman First Class Currie Grant organised entertainment at the club, where aspiring comedian and Elvis pal Cliff Gleaves performed and made introductions. Priscilla recalled Grant asking “How’d you like to meet Elvis Presley? My wife and I are good friends of his.”
Grant recalls her asking for an introduction. He assured the Beaulieus she would be chaperoned; they instructed she return home by 11pm. On September 13, 1959 Grant and his wife Carol took Priscilla to Bad Nauheim, near Frankfurt, to meet Elvis. “Three or four of Elvis’ friends were with their dates, and a couple of girls dropped by,” Priscilla recalled. “It was a very casual evening, a family atmosphere. Elvis was sitting in a chair when I arrived and he got up and shook my hand.”
She wore a white and navy sailor dress with white shoes, and recalled being shy and quiet.
Elvis then had a former date, Elisabeth Stefaniak, 19, working as a live-in secretary and young female fans were regular visitors. Another date, Anita Wood, waited back home. But Elvis was apparently smitten by the brunette schoolgirl.
Friends said he described Priscilla as “the most beautiful little creature I ever laid my eyes on, and so delicate”. Others recalled him saying she reminded him of his mother Gladys, who died in 1958.
Days later Currie phoned to tell Priscilla that Elvis wanted to see her again. After four dates, Priscilla’s father insisted Elvis visit their home. The schoolgirl was then chauffeured on the 40 minute drive to Bad Nauheim three or four times a week.
Elvis returned to the US on March 1, 1960, leaving Priscilla struggling to concentrate at school as she looked forward to phone calls that sometimes lasted all night. Elvis reunited with Wood, 23, at Graceland: “Elvis could make you believe anything in the world, so he had me believing that she (Priscilla) was just a friend,” Wood explained in 2005.
Elvis surprised her with an invitation to visit in 1962. Promising she would be respected, chaperoned and stay with an acquaintance, he sent a first-class return ticket for Priscilla, and a detailed itinerary for her stepfather. Priscilla returned to Germany on July 1, while Wood packed her bags to leave Graceland in August.
Priscilla was invited to spend Christmas at Graceland before Elvis asked Beaulieu if “Cilla” could live with his father Vernon and his wife in Memphis. Elvis would enrol her at Catholic Immaculate Conception High School, ensure she graduated, and have her chaperoned. Priscilla and her stepfather met Elvis in Los Angeles on March 2, 1963, to finalise arrangements for her to live in Memphis, where she soon moved into Graceland.
Despite reports of his philandering, Elvis married Priscilla on May 1, 1967. They divorced in 1973.
ELVIS HITS OF 1959
Elvis’s releases were curtailed during his years in the Air Force, he did manage a handful of hits the year he met Priscilla Beaulieu:
● (Now And Then There’s) A Fool Such As I
● I Need Your Love Tonight
● A Big Hunk O’Love
● My Wish Came True
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