It's a birthday Evelyn Rodriguez will never forget.
She turned 16 on Aug. 24, 1955 and to celebrate she went to see Elvis Presley and the rest of the Louisiana Hayride musicians play on the Conroe High School football field.
"It was so exciting, a real thrill, and certainly an experience I shall never forget, even though it happened 50 years ago," Rodriguez said.
The date of Aug. 24, 2005 marked 50 years since the raven-haired heartthrob born in Tupelo, Miss. shook up the town atop a flatbed trailer. And there are still plenty of people who recall one of Conroe's most memorable nights.
Mary McCoy, current co-host of "The Larry and Mary Show" on K-STAR 99.7 FM, was not only there that night, she was a part of the show as well.
McCoy, who was born in Carthage, Texas, said that even at a young age she knew what she wanted to do.
"I wanted to sing, I wanted to make records, I wanted to have my own radio show - and I did," she said. "I've been very fortunate that I have gotten to do all the things I've wanted to do."
Her family moved to Conroe in 1949, and she signed on with the KMCO AM radio station when it came on the air in 1951. And at 12 years old, McCoy had her own 15-minute program.
Although she played her own songs, one of her favorites to play was "That's All Right Mama" from a young man named Elvis Presley.
Then in the summer of 1955, McCoy, an up-and-coming country singer, met Elvis for the first time when she played as a guest on the Louisiana Hayride program.
"The Hayride was a radio show out of Shreveport, La. and was the Louisiana version of the Grand Ole Opry out of Nashville, Tenn.," Bob Watkins said. "Elvis had been snubbed by the Grand Ole Opry and was seriously thinking of giving up on music when he landed an opportunity in 1954 to perform on the Hayride."
McCoy said she'd never forget the first time she met Elvis.
"He stepped out in a red sport coat, white lace shirt and lime green trousers," she said. As she got to know him on the Louisiana Hayride tour, McCoy recalled that Elvis was one of the nicest persons she had ever met.
"He was so sincere," she said. "And the thing I liked most about him was the respect that he had for his mother."
Then a few months later, McCoy and the radio station KMCO, brought the Louisiana Hayride to Conroe, marking Elvis' first and only appearance in Conroe.
According to Dee Green Gilmore, who was 13 at the time, posters at KMCO announced the Hayride was coming to Conroe. KMCO studios were located above the Capitol Drug Store on the downtown square in Conroe.
The afternoon of the concert, Elvis arrived at the KMCO radio station for an interview amid much chatter, said Jerry Shepard, now a resident of San Antonio.
"The interviewer, Jimmy Doyle, liken Elvis to a young Marlon Brando," Shepard said.
Barbra Dampier LaCarter was one of the lucky teens to be in the studio while Elvis was conducting the interview.
LaCarter's sister, Charlotte, was friends with McCoy and through their friendship the girls were able to sit in on the interview.
"He was a fidgety person," Barbra Dampier said. She recalled the whole time he was being interviewed, Presley was fidgeting with a small metal piece which he eventually broke.
Following the interview, Gilmore said she and six or seven other girls followed him around the downtown square.
"He went into Joe's Café," Gilmore said. "When he went in, there was no one in there, but it filled up pretty fast and we lost him."
Then when Robert J. "Red" Elliott was getting a haircut at a barbershop on South Frazier Elvis and his band mates pulled up at a dry cleaners across the street.
While in town, Presley had his pink and black Cadillac washed at Mr. Beck's Shell station, McCoy said. And both Presley and his band mates Bill Black and Scotty Moore, along with The Carlisles stayed at the Bluebird Courts on Frazier Street in Conroe.
Then, right before the concert on his way to the football field, Elliott had stopped at a gas station at First Street and Texas 105 to purchase some gum for his young daughter.
That's when Elvis approached him to ask for directions to the football field.
Elliott said he explained he was heading over there and they could just follow him.
"I never got the gum," he said.
According to Jerry Shepard, the headliner of the show was actually Johnny Horton, "the singing fisherman" of the "Battle of New Orleans" fame. Other performers that night were Mary McCoy, David Houston and The Carlisles.
"Of course, all the young crowd came to see Elvis," Shepard said.
Wanda Sue Morgan, like all the other girls in town, couldn't wait to see Elvis.
"But her mother, Jennie Mae Morgan, wouldn't allow her to go because Elvis shook his hips in a manner that was too provocative," said Stacy Morgan about her aunt Wanda Sue Morgan.
However, Morgan snuck out and went to the concert.
"Well as luck would have it, the next day on the front page of the paper was a picture of Elvis on the flatbed trailer performing and on the front row was my Aunt Wanda swooning over him," Stacy Morgan said. "So she got busted."
Bob Watkins recalled that the audience was seated on the home side of the Conroe High School football stadium between Thompson and Pacific streets.
Evelyn Rodriguez arrived early and got a great "close up" seat in the bleachers.
"At the appropriate time, Elvis' pink Cadillac arrived on the football field and made a slow trip in front of everyone in the bleachers," Rodriguez said. "The top was down, and he was sitting on the top of the back seat waving at us as he went by."
According to Watkins, the makeshift stage consisted of two flatbed trucks parked side by side where the football team normally sat during games, along the 50-yard line.
"When it came time for the announcers to introduce Elvis, the stadium was filled with anticipation," Watkins said. "At the mention of Elvis' name, the modest crowd cheered and looked expectantly at the parked Cadillac."
Then Elvis quickly crawled out of the back seat, pulling his guitar with him and ran for the stage.
"He jumped onto one of the benches and was about to bound onto the stage, when the bench toppled over under the sudden shift of his weight," Watkins said.
"Elvis crashed down hard onto the flatbed truck and the resulting thud could be heard clearly in the stadium. There was a collective gasp from the crowd and then total silence.
"Elvis just lay there face down on the truck bed with his guitar clasped tightly in one hand off to the side," he said. "No one moved. He must have stayed motionless for a complete minute."
Then, Watkins said Elvis jumped up and almost bounced to the microphone on stage, whipped the guitar strap around his neck, assumed his classic pose with feet spread apart, shook his head and that long black hair and said "Whew!"
"With that, and to the great relief of the crowd, he began to play his first song, despite a very large and obvious red knot on his forehead."
McCoy said she didn't know how he went through with the show.
"It was a wonder he wasn't knocked out," she said. "He had a big lump on his head. What was so bad about it, was some people were jealous, and news traveled that he was drunk. But that was not true, he wasn't drunk."
Rodriguez said Elvis was just about the most handsome man she had ever seen.
"The music began and he started singing and gyrating, so much that the flatbed and truck were bouncing up off the ground," Rodriguez said. "I had never seen or heard anything like this before in my life."
Following the concert, Barbra Dampier LaCarter, who was 14 at the time, was dared by the other girls in the group to go up to Elvis and ask for a picture.
"Being the daredevil of the group, I thought 'All he can say is no,'" she said. The result is a treasured family heirloom of LaCarter, "The King," and her then 17-year-old sister Charlotte who passed away several years ago.
Today, in honor of the experience, a photo of the concert and plaque hang in the halls of Travis Intermediate School in Conroe to commemorate the day "The King" came to the city.
"It really was a wonderful experience," LaCarter said. "These are memories that will be in my heart forever."
