
Mother Dolores Hart at "Conversations on Elvis"
It’s not that often you find a nun headlining a rock and roll event. But fans packed the main stage tent at Graceland Wednesday to hear Mother Dolores Hart along with singer/songwriter T.G. Sheppard and bassist Norbert Putnam tell tales of the King of Rock and Roll at the "Conversations on Elvis" discussion.
Fans were particularly interested in Mother Dolores’ unusual story. Before she joined a monastery as a nun, Mother Dolores was a rising actress in Hollywood and costarred with Elvis in two of his films. She’d been in prestige films and starred on Broadway, but gave it up for the cloistered life.
Cloistered but not isolated: with permissions from her abbess and the archbishop, she published a book and came to Memphis to visit fans and sign "The Ear of the Heart." She’s also taking pictures of people she’s meeting on the trip — fans, staffers and even reporters. "I’ve always wanted to see Graceland and where Elvis lived and where his heart was," she said. "I feel his presence here so much."
She recalled the first time she met Elvis (asking him "What do you do?" because she’d been studying too hard to pay attention to pop culture), saying, "I could not believe his charisma — his voice and how it penetrated the heart."
A long line of fans stood to meet her and get signed copies of her book.
T.G. Sheppard also told his stories. Elvis knew Billy Neal Browder in the early days before he changed his name to T.G. Sheppard. He recalled to fans how Elvis was walking around Graceland singing along with his first hit, but Elvis didn’t know his friend Billy — who was hanging around at Graceland — was also T. G. Later Elvis found out and said, "Hey, you could’ve told me you were T.G. Sheppard."
source: http://www.commercialappeal.com/ Memphis Commercial Appeal Newspaper & Elvis Information Network - http://www.elvisinfonet.com
It’s not that often you find a nun headlining a rock and roll event. But fans packed the main stage tent at Graceland Wednesday to hear Mother Dolores Hart along with singer/songwriter T.G. Sheppard and bassist Norbert Putnam tell tales of the King of Rock and Roll at the "Conversations on Elvis" discussion.
Fans were particularly interested in Mother Dolores’ unusual story. Before she joined a monastery as a nun, Mother Dolores was a rising actress in Hollywood and costarred with Elvis in two of his films. She’d been in prestige films and starred on Broadway, but gave it up for the cloistered life.
Cloistered but not isolated: with permissions from her abbess and the archbishop, she published a book and came to Memphis to visit fans and sign "The Ear of the Heart." She’s also taking pictures of people she’s meeting on the trip — fans, staffers and even reporters. "I’ve always wanted to see Graceland and where Elvis lived and where his heart was," she said. "I feel his presence here so much."
She recalled the first time she met Elvis (asking him "What do you do?" because she’d been studying too hard to pay attention to pop culture), saying, "I could not believe his charisma — his voice and how it penetrated the heart."
A long line of fans stood to meet her and get signed copies of her book.
T.G. Sheppard also told his stories. Elvis knew Billy Neal Browder in the early days before he changed his name to T.G. Sheppard. He recalled to fans how Elvis was walking around Graceland singing along with his first hit, but Elvis didn’t know his friend Billy — who was hanging around at Graceland — was also T. G. Later Elvis found out and said, "Hey, you could’ve told me you were T.G. Sheppard."
source: http://www.commercialappeal.com/ Memphis Commercial Appeal Newspaper & Elvis Information Network - http://www.elvisinfonet.com