Lots of us had an aunt who’d pull us aside and whisper that we were her favorite. You laughed, you hugged her, and you never really thought about it again.
Harold Loyd thought about it.
Harold was Elvis Presley’s first cousin. His mother was one of the sisters of Gladys Presley, Elvis’s mom. So when Harold talked about “Aunt Gladys,” he was talking about the woman who raised the King of Rock n’ Roll, and he knew her long before the rest of the world did.
In 1992, Harold sat down with Jack Dennis, a reporter for the San Antonio Headlines Examiner. By then he’d spent decades around Graceland. He started working there in 1961, taking care of the grounds, and later he worked the front gate. “I’ve been doing this ever since and I love it,” he said.
When the talk turned to Gladys, the first thing Harold wanted people to know was simple. “She was always taking care of everybody,” he said.
He meant it in a very practical way. When Gladys was young, she took odd jobs so she could buy material, and then she sewed clothes for her younger brothers and sisters. That was who she was in her own family, years before she was anybody’s famous mom.
And she had a soft spot for Harold.
“She always told me I was her favorite,” he said.
For a long time that was just a sweet thing an aunt said. But as Harold got older, he came to see something else in it. He decided it wasn’t really about him at all.
“I think it is because I represented and reminded her of the love of her sister,” Harold said.
Every time Gladys looked at her nephew, she was seeing her sister. Loving Harold was a way of holding on to that bond.
Graceland made a Mother’s Day tribute to Gladys for its Gates of Graceland series, and it’s a lovely way to put a face and a life to the woman Harold kept talking about.
Graceland’s own tribute to Gladys Presley
That caring streak ran straight through to her son.
Harold said Elvis looked out for him the same way his aunt always had. If Harold got into a jam, Elvis stepped in, sometimes by helping out and sometimes by sending somebody to come pick him up.
“Anytime I ever got into any kind of trouble or type of jam, he would always help me,” Harold said.
Then, years later, Elvis told his cousin something Harold never forgot.
“Elvis told me years later that I would never have to worry about money or a job,” he said.
It’s easy to see where Elvis learned that. Gladys spent her girlhood making sure her brothers and sisters had clothes to wear, and her son grew up looking after his cousin the very same way.
Harold summed up his famous cousin in a way Gladys would have loved. “Elvis is good to his family and he is good to his fans,” he said.
Maybe that’s the real answer to why Gladys picked a favorite. She loved her family so much that it spilled over onto everyone who reminded her of them, and Harold was lucky enough to be one of those people.