Elvis’ Relative Had to ‘Cater to Him Like a Small Child’: ‘I Had to Baby Talk to Him’

By the end of Elvis Presley’s life, he surrounded himself with just a few friends and relatives. One was his cousin’s wife, Jo Smith. Smith and her husband, Billy, were among Elvis’ closest confidants in his final years. Smith explained that Elvis looked to her as a maternal figure. She said she had to treat him like he was a child.

Elvis Presley’s relative treated him like a child

Several months before Elvis’ death, Smith began putting Elvis to bed as though he was a young boy. She loved him and was willing to do anything for him, but he relied heavily on her.

“We had to take care of him and cater to him like a small child,” Smith said in the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. “I did things I never thought I’d do. Like when it came time for him to go to sleep, he liked to be put to bed, and he liked to be told good night — the whole send-off … I had to baby talk to him, too.”

Elvis still had her do this when he had women in bed with him.

“One time I’d started into the kitchen, and Elvis called me to his room and said, ‘Come in here and sit with us,'” she recalled. “So I went to his room and he was in bed with a girl, sitting up. We talked for a while and I got ready to go.”

Elvis Presley’s relative said these interactions could last a while

In what was likely an uncomfortable interaction, Elvis continually stopped Smith from leaving the room. Every time she thought he was going to fall asleep, he said something to keep her in the room.

“He said to me, ‘Tell her all about the lamps.’ So I started telling her about these lamps that he had bought to go in my trailer,” she said. “And he was almost asleep. He nodded off. So I started to get up and he revived and said, ‘And tell her about the —’ and named something else.”

She said this continued for a long time.

“But every time he’d almost go to sleep, and I’d get up and start to go out, he’d grab me and say, ‘Wait, tell her about the —’ So I told about, and told about and told about,” she said. “Finally, he fell asleep.”

Priscilla Presley said she babied Elvis too

By babying Elvis, Smith filled a role that had once been Priscilla Presley’s. She enjoyed treating him like a child.

“I loved babying Elvis,” she wrote in her book Elvis and Me. “He had a little boy quality that could bring out the mother instinct in any woman, a beguiling way of seeming utterly dependent. It was this aspect of his charm that made me want to hold him, shower him with affection, protect him, fight for him, and yes, even die for him.”

She admitted that she went to extremes to take care of him.

“I went to extremes in taking care of him, from cutting his steak at dinner to making sure his water glass was always filled,” she wrote. “I enjoyed pampering and spoiling him and found myself jealous of others vying for his attention and approval.”