Longtime fan views Elvis’ former car
ELOISE OGDEN/MDN George Masters of Minot stands beside the 1977 Lincoln Continental Mark V that originally was owned by singer Elvis Presley. Masters drove the vehicle to Trinity Nursing Home in Minot Wednesday, Aug. 5, to show it to Goldie Braaten, a nursing home resident who is a longtime Presley fan.
ELOISE OGDEN/MDN Goldie Braaten wears a necklace with the “TCB” insignia that was a gift from the present owners of Elvis Presley's former vehicle.
ELOISE OGDEN/MDN George Masters of Minot stands beside the 1977 Lincoln Continental Mark V that originally was owned by singer Elvis Presley. Masters drove the vehicle to Trinity Nursing Home in Minot Wednesday, Aug. 5, to show it to Goldie Braaten, a nursing home resident who is a longtime Presley fan.
ELOISE OGDEN/MDN Goldie Braaten wears a necklace with the “TCB” insignia that was a gift from the present owners of Elvis Presley's former vehicle.
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When George Masters of Minot got a job detailing a 1977 Lincoln Continental Mark V that once was singer Elvis Presley's car, he knew someone who definitely would like to see it.
Masters, longtime president of Dakota Cruisers Car Club of Minot, drove the car to Trinity Nursing Home the afternoon of Wednesday, Aug. 5, so resident Goldie Braaten, a longtime Elvis Presley fan, could view it.
Braaten, who took part in many Dakota Cruisers' activities with her 1957 red Chevy, “had Elvis all over it," Masters said.
After looking over the long, dark blue, two-door Bill Blass Signature Series Lincoln with a chamois-colored top and chamois-colored leather interior parked in the driveway at the nursing home Wednesday afternoon, Braaten, filled with emotion, said, "I love Elvis."
Masters also presented Braaten a necklace with the "TCB" insignia from the current car owners who purchased the necklace at Graceland, Presley's home in Memphis, Tennessee. Presley gave the necklaces, with the bolt of lightning that meant "taking care of business in a flash," to his friends. That insignia's also on both doors of the car.
Masters said the car, now owned by Greg and Ruby Feland of Minot and purchased at ACC Auctions, will be on display during the Dakota Cruisers car show at Motor Magic at the North Dakota State Fairgrounds Labor Day weekend Sept. 5-6. He said people can see the car and if they wish, take their photos with it.
He said Presley bought the car, drove it briefly and then gave it as a gift to his jeweler, Lowell Hays of Memphis.
Greg Feland plans to meet with Hays, who is in his 80s, to have dinner in Memphis soon to talk about the car, according to Masters.
A display board that Masters brought along for his stop to see Braaten carried information including the bill of sale, dealership receipt, check confirmation of Presley's total payment of $15,194.80 for the car to Foxgate Lincoln-Mercury dealer in Memphis ($14,500 plus $660 state sales tax, $29 gross receipt tax and $4.50 title and license) and a letter of authenticity from Duane Curtis, Foxgate sales manager.
Curtis' letter of authenticity verifies the car was originally purchased from him by Presley as a gift for Hays on April 13, 1977.
"I personally handled the sale to Elvis and delivered the car to Graceland that same afternoon. I might add that upon my arrival at Graceland, Elvis did something out of the ordinary, he jumped in this particular car, and drove it around town for about half an hour. I don't believe I ever delivered a car before that he took such a personal liking to," Curtis wrote in the letter of authenticity.
Gary Selman, a longtime Presley fan and avid collector of Presley memorabilia, purchased the car from Hays in fall 1978. He wrote in a story about the car that Curtis "claimed this was the last car Elvis bought from him, and it very well could be the last car he drove, as he went on tour soon after. He died four months after these events."
Selman also wrote he purchased the car from Hays "to enjoy a car he (Presley) once drove. Elvis had a magic effect on my life. I hope the new owner enjoys the car, and the legend that goes with it."