It was 49 years ago today when Elvis Presley died upstairs at Graceland on August 16, 1977. The sudden heart attack fatally struck the King at just 42 when he was living out a normal day ahead of flying off on tour.
The Last Record on His Turntable
To this day, the last vinyl he played on his record player still sits on it, perfectly preserved in his bedroom. The record in question is a sample copy of JD Sumner and the Stamps, the gospel group that often backed the King live and would sing at his funeral just two days after he died.
The Book He Was Reading
As for the last book The King read, he’d taken it to the bathroom for reading on the toilet since he suffered from constipation. Around lunchtime on August 16, Elvis tragically suffered a fatal heart attack and was found collapsed and dead on the floor.
According to his last girlfriend Ginger Alden, who found his corpse: “Elvis looked as if his entire body had completely frozen in a seated position while using the toilet and then had fallen forward, in that fixed position, directly in front of it... It was clear that, from the time whatever hit him to the moment he had landed on the floor, Elvis hadn't moved.”
When he died, he was reading one of his spiritual books: A Scientific Search for the Face of Jesus by Frank O. Adams. However, this is debated, with conflicting sources claiming it was Sex and Psychic Energy by Betty Bethards. The King had become fascinated with religion and spirituality and would spend hours discussing writings on such topics with his cousin Billy and wife Jo on his bed.
