See Minnie Mae Hood Presley, above, serving biscuits to her son Vernon and her grandson Elvis?
Well, Minnie Mae’s niece, Alice, was the grandmother of Alabama-based actress, advertising executive, and book author Edie Hand.
Got that?
Starting tomorrow, Hand, Joe Meador, and Ronnie McDowell, co-authors of The Genuine Elvis: Photos and Untold Stories about the King, will be signing copies of their new book all over town.
Flyer: What was it like, as a relative of Elvis, to actually visit Graceland when he was alive?
Hand: Well, we were down-home people. I can still hear my grandmother, Alice, and his grandmother, Minnie Mae, dipping snuff and telling stories. Ghost stories were a big thing! They’d be laughing and high on life. When I came to Graceland, I would always bring the black gum toothbrushes for them to dip their snuff in from my grandparents’ sawmill farm in Russellville, Alabama. My Aunt Nash Pritchet, Vernon’s youngest sister, was an Assembly of God minister who had a daughter my age, Karen. I got to be good friends with [Elvis’ scarves-and-water man] Charlie Hodge, and [Elvis’ step-brother] Rick Stanley.
What was the reaction on your side of the family when Vernon Presley was arrested and sent to the penitentiary at Parchman?
People were much more tight-lipped back then. You didn’t talk about your problems, you didn’t have Oprah. My grandmother would say things like, “They’re having a bad time,” but not a lot was said about it. It was one of those things — you do strange things in bad times, and Vernon did it for survival.
