20 Years After Death, Elvis Still Packs ‘Em In

MEMPHIS, Tenn. —  Elvis Presley fans flooded Memphis by the tens of thousands Friday on the eve of the 20th anniversary of his death.

Some had begun standing in line 24 hours in advance of a candlelight vigil expected to last until daybreak today, eager to be among the first to pass through the gates of the entertainer’s home for a solemn, single-file walk past his grave.

Elvis was 42 when an ambulance crew found him dead of a drug-induced heart attack at 3764 Elvis Presley Blvd., inside the stone-sided, white-columned Southern mansion better known as Graceland.

An estimated 50,000 people, the biggest such crowd to gather in Memphis since Presley’s funeral two decades ago, have come to relive old love songs, remember teenage crushes and tell their children how Elvis put their legs to dancing.

The Graceland procession also was expected to attract a particularly large crowd this year. It has drawn up to 15,000 in the past.

Bill Rowe, a 47-year-old paper mill foreman from Dayton, Ohio, was the first in line for the 10th year in a row.

“For me, it’s to pay back what I feel is a debt to an old friend,” he said. “When I was growing up he taught me a few of life’s lessons . . . two I learned were that to make it big you don’t have to trample over people and that you never get too big to remember your friends and family.”

During the vigil, candle-carrying fans are allowed to walk up the driveway into Graceland all night long, circling the grave and walking back down the hill. In advance of the ceremony Graceland remained open for regular tours, and the complex was mobbed with gift-buying visitors from around the world.

* LOOK, IT ISN’T ELVIS: E1