Jane Gowen are 18 yrs . old when she got a kiss out of Elvis shortly after conference their show within the Memphis during the an excellent stopover into his treatment for the newest east shore and you can Army duty overseas inside the Germany.
Jane Wilbanks old Elvis for ten months while he is actually stationed during the Germany and invested Christmas time, New-year, and his 24th birthday for the King regarding Rock-‘n’-roll.
Gowen said Elvis try most funny and you will practical, however, is actually unfortunate along the latest loss of his mommy and you can worried that he would get lbs and that the general public manage skip him.
If the train eliminated, she looked up, and there he was. She had towards a white leather jacket and endured call at the group.
“That’s as i in reality fulfilled your,” Gowen, who stays in Hernando, told you during a phone interviews. “He believed to George Klein, ‘Is she along with you?’ And he said, ‘zero, I simply met their.’ They made me upon brand new show in which he kissed myself several times.”
Gowen told you all she you certainly will muster to say are “I am Jane Davis Wilbanks. I’m away from The brand new Albany.” She remembers Elvis informing their own “I will not ignore your” just like the his teach pulled away.
In the station, she saw Elvis’s best friends George Klein and you will Alan Fortas and you will knew which was the region become
The fresh hug try seized towards the motion picture into the a now well-known image drawn from the a located picture taking throughout the Industrial Appeal and looked in the push and you may Elvis enthusiast magazines around the globe given that “girl which kissed Elvis goodbye.”
That wasn’t the first occasion you to definitely she came across Elvis. Gowen said she basic noticed Elvis whenever she was in a talent tell you on Middle-Southern Fair. The guy hadn’t yet , become their meteoric ascend to as the brand new world’s most well-known Rock ‘n’ roll star. She said Elvis acceptance their unique to help you drive the new Zippin Pippin rollercoaster with him, however, she became him off.
“He had been actual amicable and asked me to experience the new Pippin,” Gowen told you. “I did not particularly roller coasters, thus i said no. While i got household We called him Ellis Prellis. I scarcely realized whom he was.
“We understood new Blackwood Brothers as well as their wives,” Gowen told you. “I was backstage and so they titled your over. He previously a night out together and you can was winking within me. He told you ‘I do believe you’re Jane Wilbanks.’”
Three weeks once kissing him during the place, Gowen told you George Klein called their and you can said that Elvis desired their own to enter so you can him when you look at the Germany. Thus she performed. Elvis entitled their unique from the five times off Germany assuming the guy discovered away from their unique mother that she try groing through so you’re able to Germany to call home with her uncle, Capt. J.P. Kirkland, Jr., who was simply an army chaplain, he told her to appear your up whenever she got truth be told there.
He appeared over and one of these brought me personally
Elvis named her inside the Germany and you will requested their unique to Vietnamca kadД±n en sД±cak invest Christmas time which have him in the their hotel where he had been way of living off base within the Crappy Nauheim. Elvis’s dad, Vernon, and you may friend Lamar Fike, chosen their particular right up in a beneficial Mercedes. She recalls one to Elvis was sporting a striped jacket having a good velvet neckband and is actually hearing information about history. He greeted their unique which have a bashful grin and you may given her a beneficial nothing field that were covered. Into the is a silver band built in Germany which have an excellent turquoise inside.
They went along to a party afterward from the an army captain’s domestic in which Elvis seated off from the cello and you may performed tunes. Up coming, Gowen said they drove inside the snow-covered scenic roadways from this new German town in which Elvis talked about their mother, who had passed away into August, and exactly how far he missed her.