Kentucky

Kentucky by Heart: Looking back at ‘The King of Rock and Roll’ Elvis Presley and his Ky. connections

Published

2 years ago

August 23, 2022

Kentucky by Heart: Looking back at ‘The King of Rock and Roll’ Elvis Presley and his Ky. connections

By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist

Elvis Presley is, in fact, one of the recognizable names within the historical past of leisure. Rising up in Kentucky, I seen these round me usually spoke of Elvis as if he was considered one of our state’s personal celebrities. Now on the current forty fifth anniversary of his 1977 loss of life, I puzzled what real-life connections he, actually, did have with the Bluegrass State.

I figured the thought deserved some analysis, and what I discovered I’ll supply to my readers.

Barbara Tate’s Elvis-themed quilt (Photograph courtesy Ralph Tate)

To begin, I used to be pleasantly stunned to search out Mila Raque’s article in Louisville As we speak speaking in regards to the crooner’s connection to town. She reported that he carried out thrice in Louisville, as soon as on the Jefferson County Armory in November 1956, and twice at Freedom Corridor, on the Kentucky Exposition Middle, in June 1974, and Might 1977, about three months earlier than his loss of life.

Be aware: In keeping with songkick.com, he carried out at Freedom Corridor on July 5 in 1976 however not in 1974. Nonetheless, my spouse claims she attended the Elvis live performance in 1974, and I’ve by no means recognized her to be fallacious about something (a lot, anyway). The web site additionally exhibits the favored heartthrob was in live performance on the Rialto Theater, in Louisville, in December 1955.

Apparently, although not associated to Kentucky, I discovered that Elvis’s very earliest performances had been usually at excessive colleges, and one was even at an elementary faculty.

An apparent state connection is a few Elvis’s songs, “Blue Moon of Kentucky” (written by Invoice Monroe and the official bluegrass music music of Kentucky), together with “Kentucky Rain” (written by Eddie Rabbit).

Raque additionally shared some Elvis-related names of varied native restaurant meals selections round Louisville, together with The Presley (peanut butter, banana, and so on.), The Fats Elvis (milkshake with peanut butter and banana flavors), and The Elvis Sundae, and The Elvis Waffle.

One other Elvis tidbit talked about within the article was about his grandfather Jesse Presley, who was a Mississippi resident. Jesse moved to Louisville in 1943 the place he remained the remainder of his life. He and his spouse Vera (whom Jessie married after divorcing Elvis’s grandmother) are buried at Louisville Memorial Gardens. I additionally discovered a YouTube sequence known as The Spa Man that exhibits a documentary about Jesse, together with different Elvis connections to Kentucky.

For a celebratory Elvis leisure occasion in our state, one is likely to be interested by 2023’s “Elvis and Legends Fest Kentucky,” to be held July 20-22 on the Paroquet Springs Convention Middle in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. The gathering will characteristic an assortment of entertainers taking part in tribute to Elvis and different musical legends.

And, I need to make point out of Jonathan Rader, a former scholar of mine, now a teen, from Jessamine County. He has grow to be fairly a “mover and shaker” by portraying Elvis. You will discover out about him by visiting his website at www.jonathanwilsonrader.com.

Gloria Strassner’s tickets to the Rupp Area live performance that by no means occurred (Photograph courtesy Susan Gall)

After which, what about that Elvis live performance that DIDN’T occur? He was scheduled to look at Rupp Area, in Lexington, on the evening of August 23, 1977. However to the heartsick dismay of legions of his followers, he died one week earlier than the date, on August sixteenth. An instance of an “all shook up” individual is Gloria Strassner, who had tickets for the live performance. She now resides in Largo, Florida, however then lived in Lexington. “I used to be terribly disillusioned,” stated Gloria, “as I used to be an enormous fan of Elvis and that’s the reason I all the time saved these tickets. It was the closest I ever acquired to seeing him in individual.”

Barbara Tate, lately deceased, additionally had tickets for the Rupp live performance. When she and her husband, Ralph, moved to Port Richey, Florida, she acquired busy making an “Elvis quilt” in tribute to The King. The quilt turned a success because it was proven round. It gained a number of quilting present ribbons and has been considered by over 100,000 followers all around the southern U.S., all the time drawing monumental opinions and reward. Barbara made positive that others knew she had tickets for the Rupp present by creating facsimiles of them on the decrease right-hand nook of her quilt.

Looks like a “sample” of Kentucky and Elvis togetherness, doesn’t it? This probably solely skims the floor. Hope you’ll e-mail me YOUR connections to the icon… sflairty2001@yahoo.com.

Sources: youtube (The Spa Man, Grandfather Jesse Presley); Louisville As we speak, Aug. 2022; etafestivals.com/kentucky; Paraquet Springs Convention Middle, Shepherdsville (interview with supervisor); interview with Susan Gall

Steve Flairty is a instructor, public speaker and an writer of seven books: a biography of Kentucky Afield host Tim Farmer and 6 within the Kentucky’s On a regular basis Heroes sequence, together with a children’ model. Steve’s “Kentucky’s On a regular basis Heroes #5,” was launched in 2019. Steve is a senior correspondent for Kentucky Month-to-month, a weekly NKyTribune columnist and a former member of the Kentucky Humanities Council Audio system Bureau. Contact him at sflairty2001@yahoo.com or go to his Fb web page, “Kentucky in Widespread: Phrase Sketches in Tribute.” (Steve’s photograph by Connie McDonald)

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Kentucky

Trends all lean Kentucky's way in Governor's Cup

Published

38 mins ago

November 25, 2024

Press Room

Trends all lean Kentucky's way in Governor's Cup

Mark Stoops owns a five-game winning streak in the Governor’s Cup series. The Wildcats have won three games in a row at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium and have not lost to Louisville at Kroger Field since 2017 when Bobby Petrino was holding the call sheet and and Lamar Jackson was playing quarterback. The Wildcats have also covered a lot of spreads in this series.

Stoops is 7-2-1 against-the-spread (ATS) in this series with with covers as a double-digit dog in 2014 and 2016. Kentucky has beaten Louisville outright as a dog three times since 2016 and has covered five straight in this series. Those are not the only trends going in Kentucky’s direction heading into this Week 14 contest.

Louisville is 0-4-1 ATS as a road favorite under Jeff Brohm with outright losses to Pittsburgh and Stanford. Kentucky is 5-0-1 ATS as a dog in its last six outing including four games this season. Kentucky covered numbers as a double-digit dog against Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Texas this season.

The visitor is 11-3-1 ATS (5-10 outright) in the last 14 meetings of this series with 10 outright wins but Kentucky has won the last two meetings at Kroger Field covering each times as a three-point favorite. In 2019, Kentucky ran away for a 45-13 victory and cruised to a 26-13 victory in 2022.

Kentucky has consistently overachieved pregame expectations in this series. The Wildcats are currently a 3.5-point dog with a total of 48.5. That’s a projected final score of 26-22.5. Will UK exceed expectations again against Louisville? A win would equal four outright upsets for the Big Blue in the last eight meetings of the series.

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Kentucky

ESPN predicts the winner between Kentucky and Western Kentucky

Published

9 hours ago

November 25, 2024

Press Room

ESPN predicts the winner between Kentucky and Western Kentucky

Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats are getting ready to host the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers for an in-state battle in Rupp Arena. This is a game that is always fun as it brings different parts of Kentucky together to share in the state’s favorite pastime, which is basketball.

WKU is 3-2 on the season with wins over Lipscomb, Jackson State, and Campbellsville. The Hilltoppers lost to Wichita State and Grand Canyon.

While Kentucky steamrolled Lipscomb, they are a solid team, and Western Kentucky was able to take them down 66-61, so the Wildcats can’t look past this matchup. This shouldn’t be an issue as Coach Pope respects the game and doesn’t let his team look past an opponent.

While WKU is a solid mid-major team, ESPN doesn’t seem to think the Wildcats will have any issue taking down the Hilltoppers, as they give Kentucky a 97.5% chance to win this game.

The best player for the Hilltoppers is guard Don McHenry, who is averaging 17.2 points per game five games into the season. The 6’2 guard is shooting 32.4% from three on the season, but he lets a lot of them fly, so the Wildcats can let him get hot from deep.

The goal for this Kentucky team when they take on WKU should be to keep working on defense and rebounding while the offense keeps doing what it has been doing all season long. If the Wildcats can keep improving in these two areas, they will be hard to beat come SEC play and March.

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Kentucky

Liberty 38-21 Western Kentucky (Nov 23, 2024) Game Recap – ESPN

Published

17 hours ago

November 25, 2024

Press Room

Liberty 38-21 Western Kentucky (Nov 23, 2024) Game Recap – ESPN

LYNCHBURG, Va. — — Quinton Cooley rushed for 166 yards and two touchdowns, Billy Lucas added 131 yards and a score, and Liberty gained 419 on the ground with four touchdowns in a 38-21 victory over Western Kentucky on Saturday.

Liberty (8-2, 5-2 Conference USA) has won eight-plus games for the sixth consecutive season to keep alive hopes of a second straight trip to the conference championship game. The Flames play Sam Houston (8-3, 5-2) on Friday.

Liberty scored 21 straight points to close the first quarter, the last covering 90 yards in just 45 seconds to take a 21-7 lead.

Amarian Williams made two interceptions, including one with 2:03 remaining to seal it. Caden Veltkamp was intercepted three times before finishing 20 of 34 for 262 yards and two touchdowns for Western Kentucky (7-4, 5-2).

Cooley reached 1,000 yards rushing for the second straight season. The Flames entered ranked No. 5 nationally in rushing yards/game (249.8). Quarterback Kaidon Salter also carried 11 times for 66 yards and a touchdown. Three other players had at least two rushes for Liberty, which ended with 63 carries.

The Flames, in their season finale at Williams Stadium, avoided dropping multiple conference games at home for the first time since 2005.

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