Priscilla Presley honored for contributions to Tennessee music
Priscilla Presley received Tennessee's highest civilian honor Monday in recognition of her efforts to preserve the state's rich musical legacy.
Why it matters: Priscilla Presley, who was married to Elvis Presley, was pivotal in preserving his Graceland home and making it a must-see destination for generations of music lovers.
Graceland helped cement Memphis' reputation as the birthplace of rock 'n' roll.
The big picture: Presley, 79, has also been a prominent supporter of Memphis' Rock 'n' Soul Museum, which also chronicles the city's role as a major hub for blues and soul music.
She is currently advocating to relocate and expand the museum.
State of play: Presley received Colonel Aide de Camp award from Gov. Bill Lee and members of the General Assembly at the Tennessee Capitol.
Elvis Presley received the same honor in 1961.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: Graceland opens to the public
Today is Saturday, June 7, the 158th day of 2025. There are 207 days left in the year. Today in history: On June 7, 1982, Graceland, Elvis Presley's Memphis mansion, was opened to the public as a tourist destination, five years after Presley's death. Also on this date: In 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia offered a resolution to the Continental Congress stating 'that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent States.' In 1892, Homer Plessy, a Creole of color, was arrested for refusing to leave a whites-only car of the East Louisiana Railroad. (Ruling on his case, Plessy v. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld 'separate but equal' racial segregation, a concept it renounced in 1954.) In 1929, the sovereign state of Vatican City formally came into existence as the Italian Parliament ratified the Lateran Treaty in Rome. In 1942, the Battle of Midway ended in a decisive victory for American naval forces over Imperial Japan, marking a turning point in the Pacific War. In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Griswold v. Connecticut, struck down, 7-2, a Connecticut law used to prosecute a Planned Parenthood clinic in New Haven for providing contraceptives to married couples. In 1976, New York magazine published an article by journalist Nik Cohn entitled 'The Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night,' which inspired the film 'Saturday Night Fever,' which in turn sparked a nationwide disco craze. (Cohn admitted in 1997 that the article was actually a work of fiction.) In 1979, Texas became the first state to recognize Juneteenth as an official state holiday. (Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021.) In 1998, in a crime that shocked the nation and led to stronger state and federal hate crime laws, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old Black man, was hooked by a chain to a pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. (Two white men were later sentenced to death and executed for the crime; a third was sentenced to life in prison.) In 2006, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of al-Qaida in Iraq, was killed by a U.S. airstrike on his safe house. In 2021, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and her son Paul Murdaugh, 22, from a prominent South Carolina legal family, were found shot and killed on their family's property. (Alex Murdaugh, Maggie's husband and Paul's father, would be found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.) Today's Birthdays: Filmmaker James Ivory is 97. Singer Tom Jones is 85. Actor Liam Neeson is 73. Author Orhan Pamuk is 73. Author Louise Erdrich is 71. Music producer L.A. Reid is 69. Musician Juan Luis Guerra is 68. Former Vice President Mike Pence is 66. Rock musician-TV host Dave Navarro is 58. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., is 53. Actor Karl Urban is 53. TV personality Bear Grylls is 51. Basketball Hall of Famer Allen Iverson is 50. Actor-comedian Bill Hader is 47. Actor Michael Cera is 37. Rapper Iggy Azalea is 35. Actor-model Emily Ratajkowski is 34. NFL running back Christian McCaffrey is 29.
New York Post
4 days ago
- New York Post
The tragic true story of the Jersey Girl whose forgotten song ‘Pretty Little Baby' is blowing up TikTok
Who's sorry now? Not Connie Francis. The Jersey girl was a pop superstar of the '50s, '60s and '70s with hits such as 'Who's Sorry Now?' and 'Stupid Cupid.' She retired after a life filled with both immense success and incredible tragedy, including being raped and her brother's murder. Now, at age 87, she's back on the charts with a song she hardly recalls cutting. Her little-known B-side 'Pretty Little Baby' — originally recorded in 1961 when JFK was President and Dick Clark's 'American Bandstand' was plugging young Connie's records — has gone viral on TikTok. More than 2 million videos using the song have been posted to the social network, and the tune is now trending on Spotify's Viral 50. The lyrics include 'You can ask the flowers/I sit for hours/Telling all the bluebirds … Pretty little baby, I'm so in love with you' making it an ideal soundtrack for videos of pets, babies and date night prep. Advertisement 6 Connie Francis' B-side 'Pretty Little Baby: is suddenly trending thanks to TikTok. The octogenarian has been shocked by the song's sudden success, calling it 'so unexpected' on her official Facebook page. 'My initial response was to ask [about TikTok] 'What's that?'' she wrote. 'I am thrilled and overwhelmed at the success of 'Pretty Little Baby.' I recorded that song 63 years ago, and to know that an entire new generation now knows who I am, and my music, is thrilling to me.' Advertisement In her heyday, Francis was, of course, quite well known. With golden oldies such as 'Lipstick on Your Collar,' and 'Stupid Cupid,' she had a remarkable 15 Top 10 hits — topped only by Elvis Presley, who had 16. 6 Francis, 87, said on Facebook that she's been 'thrilled and overwhelmed' by the song's unexpected success. Mychal Watts 6 The sweet lyrics of 'Pretty Little Baby' have made it a popular soundtrack for social media posts featuring babies and pets. briiii_s/ TikTok Born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconaro, her career began at age 4 when her father, an Italian immigrant and roofer, began taking her to talent shows to compete. But the fame and success that followed was marred by shocking crimes and misfortune. Advertisement In 1974, a few weeks shy of her 38th birthday, Francis was appearing at the Westbury Music Fair. A knife-wielding man broke into her room at the nearby Howard Johnson Motor Lodge at 5:30 in the morning and violently raped her, then tied her to a chair, bound her hands behind her back, and covered her with a mattress. The man fled with her mink coat and jewelry, and the police never found him. 6 While a new generation is just discovering Francis, she was hugely popular in her day. With golden oldies such as 'Lipstick on Your Collar,' and 'Stupid Cupid,' she had a remarkable 15 Top 10 hits — topped only by Elvis Presley, who had 16. Getty Images Emotionally and physically debilitated by the attack, Francis suffered a breakdown — lying in bed for months and never leaving home. She hid from the world for seven years before she appeared again on stage, choosing, bravely, the Westbury music venue near where she had been attacked. She sued the motel chain for failing to protect her and was awarded nearly $1.5 million. Not long after the rape, her third husband, Joseph Garzilli, walked out on her after she financed his successful travel business. She later told The New York Times that his last words to her were, 'You've become a loser and I don't like losers.' Her first two marriages each lasted just a few months. Advertisement In press interviews and later in her bestselling 1984 memoir, 'Who's Sorry Now?' she revealed that she was in psychotherapy for a number of years and saw psychiatrist after psychiatrist. 6 But her fame and success that was marred by shocking crimes and misfortune. Getty Images In March 1981, Connie's beloved brother, lawyer George Franconero, was gunned down by two men outside his home in a ritzy section of North Caldwell, N.J. The assailants fled in a car, and George was found bleeding by his wife. He was just 40 years old. The shooting was considered by authorities to be a mob hit. In the past, George was said to have given information to a state commission about alleged organized-crime dealings, and feared for his life. At the time of his death, he was facing a two-to-three year prison term on a land fraud conviction in Morris County, N.J. In 1978, he had pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges, and received a two-year suspended prison sentence and three years' probation. Of all the men in her life, Connie's true love was Bobby Darin, with whom she had a brief romance. They first met when he came to her office in 1956 to show her a song he had written. The two had an immediate connection, and would often exchange love letters.. 6 Francis wrote in her memoir that Bobby Darin was the great love of her life. But the two never married and he died at age 37. CBS via Getty Images Advertisement But their dreams for the future sadly ended in December 1973, when Darin, who had had rheumatic fever as a child, died unexpectedly after heart surgery. The 'Mack the Knife' singer, who won two Grammys and was nominated for an Oscar, was just 37. 'He was very sweet in all his letters,' Francis wrote in 2017 tell-all memoir, 'Among My Souvenirs.' 'In one he wrote that he knew his feelings were genuine, and that every time he thought of me, he felt a lump in his throat like the one you get when you're going to cry.'
Indianapolis Star
5 days ago
- Indianapolis Star
Annual sale: Unlimited access and 5 reasons to subscribe to IndyStar
The Indiana Pacers are in the NBA Finals. Gov. Mike Braun and the General Assembly are redefining Indiana politics. Downtown Indianapolis is evolving, leaning hard into its leading role as a sports and convention destination. IndyStar brings you exclusive coverage of all those topics and more – better than anyone in the state. Take advantage of our great annual subscription rate now to lock in unlimited access to exclusive Central Indiana news, sports and entertainment information. Already a subscriber? Whether you get home delivery of the print edition or have a digital-only subscription, these benefits are included! Check out our activation guide for help on getting started. With a subscription, you can be one of the first to learn about breaking news with news alerts, flip through a digital replica of the print paper, get exclusive newsletters and more. Download the free app and start to personalize it to your liking. Additionally, you can download articles for offline reading and sign up for breaking and topical news alerts. Also in the app, you'll find the eNewspaper, available exclusively for subscribers. As an added benefit, subscribers can access the eNewspaper from any of our more than 200 sister papers across the United States, plus each edition of USA TODAY. Just tap the "Universal" icon to find a complete listing. And, don't forget to check the "Bonus Content" section for free monthly magazines and special sections. ► SPECIAL OFFER: Save on a new subscription today. We know when you subscribe, you expect more. Each day, you can expect to see some of our best storytelling, investigative work, sports analysis and more. Just log in with your account to enjoy your exclusive access. Here's some examples: Enjoy a streamlined, fast-loading experience that makes it easy to view the stories, photos and videos you're most interested in. Through the app, you can personalize notifications so you can know the news right when it happens. You can select alerts for breaking news, news, sports, entertainment, weather and business. Quiet times for your alerts can be set within the app. Miss out on recent news? Get the latest effortlessly with our Catch Up feature. Want alerts when we publish something new on a topic you're interested in? Sign up to get a notification with the "My Topics" button along the bottom menu bar or the "Add Topic" button at the top of articles to get started. Personalize your feed in the For You front with topics that interest you. The app also provides you access to daily horoscopes and access to over 100 games. Want to follow the news from another city? You can add up to five of our sister publications across the country to get more news right on the home screen. ► DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more To keep our subscribers informed, we email the most important articles to their inbox each day in the form of a Daily Briefing newsletter. Subscribers also get exclusive access to our Your Week newsletter. Each week, you'll get a note directly from the executive editor with background on a big story from the week, a behind-the-scenes look at our reporting and links to some of our top subscriber-exclusive work. ► SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTERS: Browse our entire portfolio of newsletter offerings to pick more topics that interest you specifically.
