One of the first ever Elvis Presley Fan Club presidents was Sterling Gary Pepper Jr.

Born in 1931, Gary Pepper grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and had cerebral palsy.

Gary and his parents garnered a personal friendship with Presley, who hired Mr. Pepper, Sr. as a Graceland Gate guard and paid Pepper a salary for his fan club work, cutting out clippings from newspapers and magazines. Pepper was so close that he sat at the head table at Elvis and Priscilla’s 1967 wedding.

I interviewed Elvis Presley, his Uncle Vester Presley, cousin Harold Lloyd, Charlie Hodge and others during a week long Memphis stay in 1976.

I briefly met Gary, but spent more time with nurse Nancy Pease Whitehead, who was the caregiver for Pepper and his mother after she moved in 1974 from Cedar Rapids to Memphis.

I was president of the Texas Chapter of the Elvis Presley-Graceland Fan Club, where our members raised $200 for a cerebral palsy charity Gary was involved in.

Whitehead and the Peppers moved into a house on Dolan, next to Elvis’ father, Vernon, who lived behind Graceland. It was during a couple of their daily visits to the mansion’s gates that I met Gary and Nancy. (Both attended Presley’s 1977 funeral, and the star’s father gave them each a white rose from his casket).

Gary and Mrs. Pepper, were among the first ever Presley fans, which turned into Gary keeping up with and clipping all mentions of Elvis from the newspapers and sending them to Elvis’ mother, Gladys Presley.

Touched by Gary’s story, Gladys invited the Pepper family to a Christmas Eve party at Graceland for which only close friends and relatives of the Presley’s would be in attendance.

Gary’s father, Sterling Pepper, had recently been laid off and, learning of the family’s financial difficulties, Elvis requested that his father, Vernon Presley, place Sterling on the Graceland payroll as a relief guard posted at the entrance to the estate.

Whenever Elvis would return to Memphis, Gary regularly accompanied him and his closest friends to late night parties at local hotspots and movie theaters, including the Mid-South Fairgrounds, the Rainbow Arena Roller Rink, the Memphian Theater and the Crosstown Theater.

In the 1960s, during Elvis’ tour in the U.S. Army, Gary played an important role in inaugurating one of the first and farthest-reaching Elvis Presley Fan Clubs, The Tankers.

The Fan Club was named in honor of Elvis’ service with the Second Armored Division stationed in Germany. As president, Gary oversaw the production of the Tankcaster newsletter and relayed updates from Colonel Thomas Parker, Elvis’ manager.

The Tankers Fan Club was highly successful and gained international attention. At the height of its membership, Gary’s network of thousands of members reached worldwide.

Gary Pepper maintained a close relationship with Elvis and his family throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He grieved with Elvis and Vernon at Gladys Presley’s funeral, welcomed Elvis home from Germany at the Memphis train station, sat at the head table at Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s wedding reception, posed for photographs with the young couple at Graceland days after the birth of their daughter, Lisa Marie, and was seated in the front row of many Elvis concerts.

When the Pepper family was faced with their greatest hardship, the death of Sterling Pepper, Sr., Elvis did whatever he could to help them.

Sterling Pepper died of a sudden and unexpected heart attack while on guard duty at the Graceland gates. Upon the death of her husband, Nell Pepper sank into a deep depression, which left both her and Gary completely helpless.

Jerry Schilling, Elvis’ friend since the 1950s and close to Priscilla Presley today, revealed in his book, Me and a Guy Named Elvis that “just before Christmas of 1964, Elvis asked me to come with him and Marty for a ride across town.”

“We drove to a small home in a working-class neighborhood in Midtown,” the home of Gary Pepper.

“When Elvis stepped off the train in Memphis after returning from Germany, the first person to greet him was Gary,” Schilling wrote. “Gary suffered from cerebral palsy, and had a hard time communicating and getting around without a wheelchair. But he was a very bright guy, and for all the special care he required, in some ways he was taking care of his not-very-well-off family.”

“Marty had let Elvis know that Gary needed a new wheelchair, and this trip was made to deliver the chair as a Christmas present. We knocked on the front door but got no answer.”

“Elvis peeked through a window, and then quickly walked into the home,” he continued. “The scene that greeted us when we stepped in behind Elvis was, to my eyes, nightmarish.”

“To him, this was simply a friend who needed his help. Elvis was a Hollywood star and a rock-and-roll legend, but nothing seemed more important to him right then than lifting Gary Pepper into a new wheelchair.”

“Gary was crawling across the floor of the small living room. His father wasn’t around, but his mother was, and she seemed to be completely out of it—in a trance-like state.

“Elvis immediately went right for Gary, got his arms around him, and helped get him up and comfortable. Gary was terribly embarrassed to be seen this way, but Elvis talked to him quietly and let him know it was OK—he was there to help him in any way he could.

“Once we had the new chair inside, Elvis lifted Gary into it and made sure it was adjusted correctly. I remember feeling weak. This scene was so awful, and I felt I wouldn’t have known how to go about helping this poor disabled young man. But Elvis didn’t hesitate to put his hands on him and comfort him.

On March 29, 1980, Gary Pepper died of pneumonia at the age of 48 in a nursing home in Long Beach, California.

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