On 18 August 1977, the streets of Memphis were lined with people who had traveled from around the world to watch a line of cars go by.
The procession carrying Elvis Presley from Graceland to Forest Hill Cemetery was forty-nine vehicles long. Leading it were eleven white Cadillacs.
Nobody had to explain that choice. Elvis and Cadillacs were inseparable. He had given away as many as 200 over his lifetime—to friends, to staff, to strangers. The first one he ever bought with real money, in 1955, was a pink Cadillac for his mother, a woman who could not drive. Of all the ways to lead him out of his own house, that was the right one.
Elvis Presley’s Funeral
He was carried in a copper-lined casket that weighed around 900 pounds and needed six men to move it.
The crowds were overwhelming. Police had to be posted along the entire route. Some people wept openly, others simply stood in silence. Over the two days, more than 50,000 people came to pay their respects, leaving over 3,000 floral arrangements on the lawn.
Elvis Presley, The Last 24 Hours
Two days earlier, none of them knew it was coming.
On the morning of 16 August, Elvis was at Graceland preparing for a twelve-date tour due to begin the following day. In the early hours, he had played racquetball with his cousin Billy Smith and Billy’s wife Jo, then sat at the piano and sang a few gospel songs. Jo hugged him goodnight at the bottom of the stairs. His last words to Billy were “I love you, see you tomorrow.”
He was found unresponsive that afternoon.
And there is one more thing about that burial. It did not last. Twelve days later, three men climbed a wall at Forest Hill in an apparent attempt to take his body. The family petitioned to have Graceland rezoned, and on 2 October 1977 Elvis and his mother were moved home to the Meditation Garden — the quiet spot he had built for himself years earlier.