![]() ![]() And there it remained until Marchese suggested it be put on public display. Gladys’ grave marker with the Star of David went into storage. But she says “the Jewish faith gave him comfort when he was seeking answers” to help him deal with her passing.įollowing an attempt to steal Elvis’ body from a Memphis cemetery, Vernon Presley had the remains of his son and wife moved to Graceland for security reasons. ![]() What prompted Elvis to include the Star of David on his mother’s headstone? Marchese isn’t exactly sure, or even when Elvis learned of his mother’s Jewish heritage. This portrait of Gladys Presley hangs on the wall inside the Graceland mansion in Memphis. The new marker featured a Star of David on one side and a cross on the other along with the words “Sunshine Of Our Home” engraved between. Her headstone was marked with a cross.īut Marchese says that six years later, Elvis replaced the headstone with one designed to his specifications. Initially Elvis had her buried in a public cemetery in Memphis. “If they had, they would never have considered asking him to be a Shabbos goy,” Fruchter said.Įlvis was especially close to his mother, who died of heart failure in 1958 at the age of 46. Fruchter said his parents “never had even an inkling” that Elvis had Jewish roots. The rabbi’s son, Harold, who now lives in Maryland, said that Elvis actually served as the Fruchters’ “Shabbos goy,” a non-Jew who performs household tasks for observant Jews that are normally forbidden on the Jewish Sabbath. The Presleys once lived in an apartment directly below the family of Rabbi Alfred Fruchter, the first principal of the Memphis Hebrew Academy. The family moved to Memphis when Elvis was 13. Two years later, Gladys gave birth to Elvis in Tupelo, Mississippi. According to, Burdine was born in Mississippi in 1826 and died in 1887.īurdine’s great-granddaughter was Gladys Love Smith, who married Vernon Presley in 1933. Little is known about Burdine, but it’s believed her family immigrated to America from what is now Lithuania around the time of the American Revolution. Marchese says Elvis’ maternal great-great-grandmother was a Jewish woman named Nancy Burdine. It was designed by her famous son to honor the family’s Jewish heritage. Gladys Presley’s grave marker, now on display at Graceland.
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