Fans Gather To Celebrate Elvis’ Birthday

Jill Bugg came to Graceland from Colchester, England for a piece of Elvis Presley’s birthday cake and a little bit of rock.

“It’s such an emotional thing to come over for his 60th birthday,” she said Sunday. “So we pick up stones. We pick up sticks. We pick up anything we can to take back home. They’re treasured possessions.”

Bugg scooped up a handful of small stones from beside a walkway at Elvis’ former residence as she waited for the cake-cutting to mark what would have been Presley’s 60th birthday.

She was among 300 faithful from The Official Elvis Presley Fan Club of Great Britain who joined about 1,500 fans in a sing-along.

Packed around a temporary stage set up on Graceland’s front lawn, the fans sang “Happy Birthday” along with some of Presley’s former backup singers, J.D. Sumner and the Stamps and the Sweet Inspirations.

The mayors of Memphis and Shelby County cut Presley’s six-tier, vanilla and chocolate-sponge birthday cake, decorated with replicas of a pink Cadillac, teddy bear, piano and guitar.