This has been a week of reflections for me. As a lifelong fan of Elvis, the 30th anniversary of his death has brought back a lot of memories.

I don’t remember when I first became a fan of Elvis. Being a southern girl, I think I was just born loving his music.

Like everyone else in America I can tell you where I was and what I was doing when I found out Elvis had died. I was 11 years old and we were living in Califonia at the time, north of San Francisco in a little town called Brentwood. I had been outside playing and I came in to watch TV and a special report came on that he was gone. Mom was in the kitchen and she came and sat on the couch and we both cried.

Whether or not you are a fan, you can’t deny Elvis’s place in music history. He changed music forever, the founder and king of rock and roll. The world had never seen anything like him and never will again.

He was a polite southern boy who said yes ma’am and no ma’am, and loved his mother, but could dance and shake his hips like he was possessed. The girls went crazy, and nothing was ever the same again.

He had a distinctive unmistakable velvet voice. Elvis was known for his rock and roll music but he also loved gospel. Ironically the only Grammy awards he ever won were for his gospel albums. I personally agree that this was his best work.

It is so sad that his life was so short. He had so much left to give the world. I often wonder what he would be doing now if he still were alive. I know he would probably still be singing.

Here’s to you Elvis wherever you are. We haven’t forgotten you.

Lifelong Elvis fan Linda Underwood is the wife of Independent editor John Underwood and is herself an employee of Gulf Coast Newspapers.