Women share hunk of burning love for the king Photo: Mary Settle, 62, of rural Assaria hugs her cardboard cut-out of Elvis Presley in her home. Settle has a room dedicated to Presley memorabilia. By Gary Demuth The Salina Journal SALINA - The first time Mary Settle heard Elvis Presley sing on the radio, she was, as Elvis once put it, "All Shook Up." The 13-year-old from Rogers, Ark., had never heard a singer like Elvis before - a powerful, soulful voice who brought a raw, emotive power to soon-to-be classic songs like "That's All Right," "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and "Good Rockin' Tonight." This was the summer of 1954, when Elvis recorded his first songs at Sun Records in Memphis, Tenn. Long before he was anointed the "king of rock 'n' roll" and made his first television appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show," the former truck driver from Tupelo, Miss., performed at small clubs and concert halls in the south, including nearby Little Rock, Ark. Settle begged her mother to let her attend a concert, but her mother refused. Elvis already was notorious for his hip-swinging gyrations, and Settle's mother wasn't about to let her sweet, innocent daughter "watch something from the devil," Settle said. "It broke my heart, but my mom's words did not stop me from listening to him," said Settle, now 62 and living in rural Assaria. "I baby-sat and bought every record and album that hit the stores. I loved him the first time I heard him sing, and I love him just as much today." Settle has remained a loyal Elvis fan for 50 years and has devoted a small bedroom at her home to Elvis memorabilia. This includes posters, books, movies, framed photographs, bedspreads, pillows, lamps, purses, a life-size cardboard cutout and a model reproduction of Graceland, Elvis's Memphis home. Settle may be a fanatical Elvis fan, but there are countless others like her around the world. An international fan-based organization called Elvis Meet-up currently boasts 5,697 members in 353 groups that includes New York, London, Belfast, Sydney, Vancouver, Singapore and Budapest. Each group, coordinated through the official Elvis Web site, http://www.elvis.com, generally meets on the first Tuesday of each month. The Salina-area meet-up was formed four months ago. Members gather at a local restaurant, which is decorated in a 1950s motif that includes a hip-swiveling Elvis in the front window. So far, there only are six members, all women, but Settle is convinced there are many more fans in the area. This January's meet-up was especially important to Settle - on Jan. 8, Elvis, who died in 1977 at age 42, would have turned 70. "I think if Elvis were alive today, he'd still be singing and his voice would still be beautiful," said Settle, who paid tribute to the king by decorating several tables at Spangles with balloons, birthday napkins and a homemade coconut cake. "While Elvis's mother was alive, she made him a coconut cake everyday," Settle said. Although Settle is a dedicated fan, she didn't seriously start collecting Elvis memorabilia until about 12 years ago. She said she wanted to remind her children and grandchildren how important Elvis was to American culture. "I didn't want the younger kids to forget about him," she said. "When Elvis came, everyone was listening to singers like Perry Como. Elvis was new and different - he meant rebellion. He was something we kids needed at the time." She first started ordering Elvis memorabilia from a catalog published through Graceland. It wasn't long before her collection began to spiral out of control. "I finally decided to put everything in the one room," Settle said. "My husband is indulgent of my Elvis collection. If he wasn't, I'd just leave and take everything with me!" Other Elvis items in the room include several foot-high dolls, portraying both the young black leather-jacketed Elvis and the white jumpsuited Vegas Elvis; paintings of Elvis; an Elvis clock shaped like a guitar; Elvis for President bumper stickers; and an Elvis Christmas stocking. Settle said that while the room is just for show, "every once in awhile I'll sleep in here if my husband starts snoring," she said. When Settle decided to form a local Elvis meet-up club, one of the first people she contacted was her neighbor, Brenda Hammond, 62, also a longtime Elvis fan. Hammond's parents also disliked Elvis in the 1950s, her father once saying, "We don't listen to trash like that," before changing the channel on their black-and-white television set. At the January meet-up, Settle cut Elvis's 70th birthday cake while the other women unloaded helium-filled balloons, a CD boom box playing songs from "The Elvis Presley Collection," table settings designed like musical notes, several commemorative booklets and TV Guides with Elvis on the cover, and personal photo albums with pictures taken at Graceland or in Las Vegas beside Elvis impersonators. Member Charlotte Sheets, 67, of Assaria, placed several Elvis dolls on the table along with one Barbie doll dressed as a 1950s bobbysoxer clutching an autographed picture of Elvis. Sheets said she had been an Elvis fan since 1956, when she first heard him sing "Heartbreak Hotel." "There was a lot of life and excitement in his music, and the younger generation was looking for something different at that time," Sheets said. "I think he's bigger now than he was when he was alive." Rita Becker, 65, of Salina, has visited Graceland several times between 1956 and 1959, and she is the only member of the Salina meet-up group who had seen Elvis live in concert, first in Wichita in 1967 with her husband and in 1974, also in Wichita, with her young son and daughter. "My 5-year-old son wore a white jumpsuit to the concert," she said. "I told myself I wasn't going to be satisfied until I got one of his scarves, but I never did. It didn't matter - he was the best showman, period." Elvis has been gone for nearly 30 years now, but true fans like Settle, Hammond, Sheets and Becker are helping keep his memory, and his cultural importance, alive. It's the least they can do, Settle said, for what Elvis has given to them. "He hypnotized all of us back then, and we haven't snapped out of it yet," she said. "I'm still lonesome for Elvis Presley." home | new | the man | lisa marie | priscilla & others | fun | clothes | photos | records | movies | concerts | gifts | web | guide | e-cards | today | facts Click here for more info on the book The Girls' Guide to Elvis Click here to check out sister book The Girls' Guide to Country Click here to check out the latest sister book The Ultimate Guide to Chick Flicks