In the spring of 1961, a Memphis college student named Pat Boyd was only looking for a summer job. She had won a local swimsuit contest — nothing serious, just photographers and fun — and that had landed her work as a hostess at a boat show. While she was showing boats to visitors, two men stopped to talk: George Klein and Alan Fortas, both close friends of Elvis Presley. They invited her to a party at Graceland that very night. Pat worried out loud that she wouldn’t finish work until 10 p.m. George laughed. In Elvis’s world, 10 p.m. was early.
So Pat went, bringing two girlfriends along. They had been told to drive around the back and park near the carport, so they knocked at the rear door. Elvis’s housekeeper Alberta let them in — then scolded all three for coming in the back way. George heard the trouble and rescued them, walking the women through the main rooms before leading them downstairs, where the real party was. Music was blasting through the whole house. Pat still remembers the song: “Only the Lonely” by Roy Orbison.
She also remembers something else. The basement was freezing. When she complained about the cold, someone explained the house rule: Elvis liked it that way. So Pat waited. They played pool. They listened to records. The party rolled on and on — but Elvis never came down. He stayed upstairs, hour after hour. By around three in the morning, her two friends had given up. Both had jobs waiting in a few hours and wanted to go home. Pat had no job at all. She was a student hunting for summer work, so she had nothing to rush back to. She stayed.
Watch her tell this story in her own words.
Pat West Reveals How Elvis Hired Her In 1961 | Untold Story From Elvis’s Inner Circle
Then the room went quiet. Pat felt a hush move through the basement, and she looked up to see Elvis Presley coming down the staircase. She never forgot what he was wearing: black trousers, a white ruffled shirt, rings flashing on his fingers, and a small cigar in his hand. She says the sight nearly gave her a heart attack. This wasn’t a star walking onto a stage. This was a man strolling into his own basement — and even his closest friends felt the whole mood of the room change.
He walked straight over and asked the three women where they were from. They were so stunned they could barely answer. Then he asked what each of them did for a living. One worked at a bank. Another named her job. Pat said she didn’t have one — she was looking for something before going back to school. Elvis’s answer changed her life in about six words: he needed a secretary, and would she like to work for him? No application. No interview. No Colonel Parker. He told her to come back on Monday to meet his father, Vernon, and his grandmother, Dodger.
Pat says she started around April 19, 1961. Her real job was handling the flood — Graceland paperwork and the mountains of fan club mail arriving for the most famous singer in America. But Elvis gave her something bigger than a paycheck. Through him she met Red West, Elvis’s oldest and toughest friend. They married on July 1, 1961 — barely three months later — and remained married for 56 years, until Red died in 2017!