Elvis Presley, the first and greatest American rock-and-roll star, whose throaty baritone and blatant sexuality redefined popular music, was found dead at Graceland, his home in Memphis, yesterday at 2:30 PM. He was once the object of such adulation that teen-age girls screamed and fainted at the sight of him, but was also denounced for sexually suggestive conduct on stage. Preachers inveighed against him in sermons and parents forbade their children to watch him on television. In his third television appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, his act was considered to be so scandalous that the cameras showed him only from the waist up. He was more than a singer--he was a phenomenon and a show-business legend before he was 25 years old as well as the highest-paid performer in the history of the business by the time he reached 30 years of age. In the spring of 1958, he was drafted into the US Army as a private, an event that caused as much stir as an average Super Bowl. "The Pelvis," as he was known, was stationed in West Germany for two years and was given an ecstatic welcome home by his fans. In 1967, Mr. Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu, the daughter of an Air Force colonel he had met during his military service, and had a daughter named Lisa Marie. Although concrete details of their private life remained sketchy through his deliberate design, the fan magazines were full of reports of marital difficulties, and the couple separated then divorced in 1973. He was a generous and often sentimental man who gave Cadillacs away with startling frequency, from time to time seeing some stranger, nose pressed against a car-showroom window, and inviting the person to go inside and pick out the color he or she liked best after which he would then pay the entire cost of purchase, on the spot. Mr. Presley's movie career ended a year after he had triumphally returned to television, with critics remarking on how little he had aged. He kept in shape for years with karate, in which he had a black belt, but his penchant for peanut butter and banana sandwiches washed down with soda finally caught up. After his death became known yesterday, radio stations around the country began playing nothing but Presley records. At his death, he had been an indelible part of the nation's musical consciousness for 20 years. He is survived by his 9-year-old daughter Lisa Marie, his father and grandmother, all of whom happened to have been at Graceland on the day of his death,.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Elvis Presley, the first and greatest American rock-and-roll star, whose throaty baritone and blatant sexuality redefined popular music, was found dead at Graceland, his home in Memphis, yesterday at 2:30 PM. He was once the object of such adulation that teen-age girls screamed and fainted at the sight of him, but was also denounced for sexually suggestive conduct on stage. Preachers inveighed against him in sermons and parents forbade their children to watch him on television. In his third television appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, his act was considered to be so scandalous that the cameras showed him only from the waist up. He was more than a singer--he was a phenomenon and a show-business legend before he was 25 years old as well as the highest-paid performer in the history of the business by the time he reached 30 years of age. In the spring of 1958, he was drafted into the US Army as a private, an event that caused as much stir as an average Super Bowl. "The Pelvis," as he was known, was stationed in West Germany for two years and was given an ecstatic welcome home by his fans. In 1967, Mr. Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu, the daughter of an Air Force colonel he had met during his military service, and had a daughter named Lisa Marie. Although concrete details of their private life remained sketchy through his deliberate design, the fan magazines were full of reports of marital difficulties, and the couple separated then divorced in 1973. He was a generous and often sentimental man who gave Cadillacs away with startling frequency, from time to time seeing some stranger, nose pressed against a car-showroom window, and inviting the person to go inside and pick out the color he or she liked best after which he would then pay the entire cost of purchase, on the spot. Mr. Presley's movie career ended a year after he had triumphally returned to television, with critics remarking on how little he had aged. He kept in shape for years with karate, in which he had a black belt, but his penchant for peanut butter and banana sandwiches washed down with soda finally caught up. After his death became known yesterday, radio stations around the country began playing nothing but Presley records. At his death, he had been an indelible part of the nation's musical consciousness for 20 years. He is survived by his 9-year-old daughter Lisa Marie, his father and grandmother, all of whom happened to have been at Graceland on the day of his death,." in the context of "Molly Ivins' abridged laud of Elvis, as noted in his New York Times' obituary, as published on its August 17, 1977 edition" to mean that wisdom is timeless.