Ginger Alden was a young beauty queen when she met Elvis Presley. Photo: @1atlanticcity/Twitter
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https://scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3187855/meet-elvis-presleys-last-love-ginger-alden-only-person Celebrities
Meet Elvis Presley’s last love Ginger Alden: the only person the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll proposed to apart from Priscilla, the former beauty queen was just 20 when she found him dead
- Ginger Alden first met Elvis Presley on a tour of Graceland – he proposed to her just 2 months after they started dating with a diamond from his famous TCB show ring
- But Presley’s family weren’t fans, and after his death, his uncle said that Alden was ‘dead’ to them and that they didn’t ‘even recognise her as a human being’
Ginger Alden was the last person to see Elvis Presley alive, but has been frozen out by his family since his death. Photos: Ginger Alden/Facebook, @PeterParker_84/Twitter
She was the last person Elvis Presley loved – and the person who found the 42-year-old legend dead on the bathroom floor at Graceland. Meet Ginger Alden – one of the most disliked women by Presley’s inner circle and yet the only woman he proposed to, except his wife, Priscilla.
Their short love story is nevertheless complicated – it was always going to be, when one half of the couple was world-famous. But from the young beauty queen’s perspective, she had found her soulmate and the man she wanted to spend her life with.
Here’s their love story, hiccups and all …
A bad start
Elvis Presley and Ginger Alden took a trip to Hawaii in March 1977, five months before his death. Photo: @ginger_alden_fan/Instagram
Just months after Presley and Linda Thompson split, he started dating another former beauty queen, this time Alden. Alden and her two sisters were invited to go to Graceland. She was 20 and Presley was 41. According to The DeSoto Times Tribune, Alden admitted to being immediately attracted to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. She said Presley teased her about the fact that she was staring so much and said the feeling between them was mutual.
A younger Elvis Presley walks through the International Hotel in Las Vegas, in 1969. Photo: @jmhound/Instagram
But Presley’s inner circle – known as the “Memphis Mafia” – reportedly didn’t approve of Alden. According to reports, she did not bond with the crew as much as Thompson had. After Presley’s death, his uncle Vester explained to the press that the family was “not interested in her” because “she took advantage of Elvis’ name”.
He even went as far as to say: “Ginger Alden is dead now as far as the family is concerned. We don’t even recognise her as a human being.”
Elvis Presley gifted Ginger Alden a Triumph TR-6 Convertible in the summer of 1977 – reportedly one of three he gave her during their time together. Photo: @ginger_alden_fan/Instagram
Despite the reservations of those around him, Presley proposed to Alden after just a two months of dating, according to Newsweek. Alden was the first girlfriend he had proposed to besides Priscilla, who he had married (and later divorced).
The proposal
Ginger Alden first met Elvis Presley alongside her sisters on a visit to Graceland. Photo: @ElvisInArkansas/Twitter
Per The DeSoto Times Tribune, the massive ring Presley proposed with had a diamond that came from his US$30,000 TCB (“Taking Care of Business”) stage ring at its centre. The couple apparently set the wedding for December 25, 1977.
Alden described the proposal in her book Elvis and Ginger, saying he had told her he had been “searching for love so long, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would find it in my own backyard”.
The engagement ring that Elvis Presley proposed to Ginger Alden with contained a huge sparkler reportedly taken from one of his showier stage rings. Photo: Ginger Alden/Facebook
She said he was holding the ring behind his back in a green velvet box and she answered “yes”. Alden described their relationship as “intense” and said she thought she had found her “soulmate”.
A rocky ride
Elvis Presley fell in love with Ginger Alden quickly, and proposed to her after just eight weeks. Photo: @walking_in_memphis/Instagram
Despite the firm commitment from Presley’s side, those close to him reportedly remained sceptical that Alden was the one he was going to marry, with Presley’s father Vernon telling Good Housekeeping the year after his son’s death that when he’d asked Presley when he was planning to wed Alden, The King had replied, “only God knows”. Whatever the truth, the pair never married because Presley died unexpectedly of heart failure on August 16, 1977.
The memoir
Ginger Alden wrote her autobiography, Elvis and Ginger. Photo: @ginger_alden_fan/Instagram
In her autobiography, Elvis and Ginger, Alden gave insight into the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s reckless and often violent behaviour. She said he had hit her once and later apologised. According to British media, she also said he had fired a gun at a television set and “threw a dish of ice cream he was devouring when she decided to talk about calories and being fat”.
Elvis Presley’s final days
When Elvis Presley and Ginger Alden first met, he was 41 and she had just turned 20. Photo: @ginger_alden_fan/Instagram
This day had begun with excitement and hope for Elvis and me, but ended in heartache and disbelief. At the age of 42, my fiancé, Elvis Aaron Presley, was dead
It was Alden who discovered the musician dead in his bathroom. Although the picture painted of that day by many since has been one of a musician who was so out of control that he had suffered an undignified death alone and on the toilet, Alden counters that nothing could have been further from the truth.
Ginger Alden admitted that Elvis Presley would often “gorge on certain foods” during the time she knew him. Photo: @elvislife3577/Instagram
According to British media, she said he was excited about the future and, in the hours before his death, discussed some of his plans with her – to get back into shape and go on his next tour.
“He told me a couple of weeks before he passed that he had been off too long. He was ready to go back on stage, something he loved with all of his being,” she reportedly said.
Ginger Alden has given several interviews since Elvis Presley’s death, and also wrote her own memoir about their relationship. Photo: @ginger_alden_fan/Instagram
She said he was excited and wanted to be back on stage. She added that he was determined that a renewal for himself and his image was about to begin … only for him to die just hours later.
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