Gladys Love Smith was born on April 25, 1912 in Pontotoc County, Mississippi to a family of migrant workers. Her parents were Robert Lee (Bob) Smith and Doll Mansell Smith. She grew up in the peasant poverty typical of her generation. With the exception of her father, her family was made up of drunkards who always seemed to get into trouble, but Gladys was a bright and fun young woman.She was 22 when, on June 17, 1933, she married nineteen-year-old Vernon Elvis Presley. The economic depression made life difficult for the young couple and they struggled to keep their heads above water.Gladys gave birth to twins on January 8, 1935 . The firstborn – Jesse Garon – was born dead, but the other – Elvis Aaron – was strong and healthy. The loss of Jesse drew Gladys’ full attention to Elvis. Mother and son developed a close bond that kept them together until their deaths. Elvis lavished cars, houses, money, jewelry and clothes on his mother, and he insisted that she and Vernon live with him at Graceland.But “Sattnin,” as Elvis called her, was never entirely comfortable with her son’s success because she always felt a bit of an outsider. As Elvis began spending more and more time touring, she turned to vodka and pills to deal with the severe depression that was becoming a part of her life.She contracted acute hepatitis and died of a heart attack at Methodist Hospital on August 14, 1958, aged 46. Elvis was devastated and may never have fully recovered from his loss. She was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery. After Elvis’ death, her remains were also transferred to Graceland and interred next to him in the meditation garden. Her tombstone reads, “She was the sunshine of our home.”
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Giving Gladys Dignity…
Gladys Presley deserves a certain level of dignity and continuing to address the assumption of alcoholism is important. Research shows that Gladys was not a lifelong alcoholic. All testimony points to her drinking at Graceland in 1957 and not before. If Gladys was indeed a serious, lifelong alcoholic, there would be drunk Gladys stories, just as there are drunk Aunt Delta stories. However, there are none.
“Gladys was a very kind and considerate lady who neither smoked nor drank, but she never judged those who did,” said Vester Presley. “I never saw her drink,” recalled Guy Harris. “I never saw my mother drink either. I don’t remember ever seeing any of the women in our neighborhood drink. The men drank, but not the women.”
“I doubt very much that she did,” he said. “Her and my grandmother were a whole lot alike and the women didn’t drink,” said cousin Lee Clark.
“I was around their house more than anybody,” claimed Elvis’ best friend in the Courts by most accounts, Buzzy Forbess. “I never saw beer or any kind of alcohol there.”
“I stayed overnight with Gladys and often stayed late into the evenings and I never saw alcohol in the house and I never smelled it on her. She never, ever acted intoxicated,” recalled Barbara Hearn Smith.
As fully explained in Destined to Die Young, Gladys began seeing a cardiologist while living at the Audubon House. Her health was poor. As with ancestors before her, who treated health issues with alcohol as the only form of treatment they could afford, Gladys turned to what she knew as well. Elvis’ success was not the problem. Her newfound drinking habit was not the problem. Her liver and a failing heart were the problem. It was literally written all over her face.
The dark circles beneath her eyes, most visible in the photos taken at the Draft Board Office during Elvis’ induction into the Army, held the secret of what was unknowingly happening inside her body. They are evidence of just how unhealthy and ill she was at the time. “Dark circles or even sunken eyes for weeks or months mean there’s a hidden problem, a liver problem,” wrote Anthony William author of Liver Rescue. “In truth, this symptom has everything to do with a toxic, dehydrated liver creating toxic, dirty blood. Where the skin is thin under the eyes, it gets dark because the blood flowing through is lacking oxygen and is filled with poisons, both from present-day exposures and from the troublemakers we inherit though our family lines.”
Dr. Clarke, Gladys’ cardiologist, remained perplexed by Gladys’ case until the end of his career. He often talked about it. He knew what was wrong with Gladys was not something he could properly diagnose at the time. “I do indeed remember my daddy stating that he did not understand the condition of her liver when she had never taken a drink of alcohol in her entire life,” recalled his daughter Nancy Clarke Wilkerson. Another witness that spent time at Graceland and must have known his patient on some intimate level and yet Dr. Clarke also believed Gladys to be a non-drinker, a non-drinker with severe liver disease.
We now know that Gladys suffered from Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency. It is documented that Elvis was a carrier for the genetic disease. The relationship between Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency and lung disease was first recognized in 1963. It would take another decade before the association with liver disease was understood. It was therefore not possible for a proper diagnosis from Dr. Clarke in 1958. “My daddy would have loved to have this information and known this,” said daughter Nancy Clarke Wilkerson. “No one knew all of this back then.”
It is understandable that alcoholism is the easy answer to liver disease. Even today, it is a go-to conclusion. However, there was so much more going on with Gladys than just sadness over her son becoming so famous. There is evidence of heart, liver and kidney disease in the Smith family tree. Knowledge can bring understanding. Gladys more than deserves the benefit of both.
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