MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - It looks like Elvis Presley’s airplanes are staying at Graceland after all.
Graceland released a statement Sunday saying the Lisa Marie and the Hound Dog II, two custom-designed airplanes once owned by Presley, will remain permanently at the Memphis tourist attraction centered on the life and career of the late singer.
The announcement ends confusion about the future of the planes, once used by the King for travel to performances after he bought them in the 1970s.
The larger plane, a Convair 880 named after Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie, is like a customized flying limousine, complete with a large bed, a stereo system, conference room and gold-plated bathroom fixtures. It was renovated after Presley bought it from Delta Air Lines. Presley took his first flight on it in November 1975.
When Presley died on Aug. 16, 1977, Presley’s pilot flew the Lisa Marie to California to pick up Presley’s ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, to bring her back to Memphis.
The smaller jet, a JetStar named the Hound Dog II, was also used by Presley.
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MARION, Ark. (AP) - What remains of the greatest maritime disaster in U.S. history lies buried beneath an Arkansas beanfield where the Mississippi River once ran.
A century-and-a-half later, residents of the nearest town and descendants of passengers aboard the steamboat Sultana are gathering to commemorate a disaster that was overshadowed by Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
Along Highway 55 entering Marion, Arkansas, a small banner welcomes the descendants arriving for Monday’s anniversary. Workers are feverishly restoring a mural depicting the steamboat as they seek to give the disaster its place in history.
The Sultana blew up on April 27, 1865, about seven miles north of Memphis, Tennessee, claiming as many as 1,800 lives, according to historical estimates. The Titanic claimed fewer - 1,517 - when it sank 45 years later.
But the momentous events of April 1865 - Lincoln’s death and Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender among them - all but eclipsed the tragedy on the Mississippi.
That month, thousands of Union prisoners newly freed in the South were being sent back north on steamboats. The Sultana was carrying six times its capacity with almost 2,500 people, among them many emaciated, injured or sick Union veterans.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - State lawmakers concluded the legislative session without an agreement on how they would go about exerting their newfound power to reject gubernatorial nominations to fill judicial vacancies.
In one of the final acts before adjourning last week, a proposed compromise between the House and Senate received just four positive votes in the upper chamber, meaning lawmakers won’t have a say on nominations until at least next year.
“This is one of the worst recommendations by a conference committee report I have ever seen in any of my time in the General Assembly,” Senate Republican leader Mark Norris of Collierville said before the vote.
“This is the kind of thing we work assiduously to avoid - the dilution of the Senate’s vote by the larger body,” he said. “This cannot stand.”
Tennessee voters in November approved a constitutional amendment that included giving lawmakers the power to refuse gubernatorial appointments. But the language of the ballot measure did not specific how lawmakers should go about rejecting nominees.
The 99-member House wanted to decide over appointments through a joint convention of the two chambers. But the 33-member Senate worried its power would be diluted by the lower chamber’s larger number of votes.
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MORRISTOWN, Tenn. (AP) - The Morristown Police Department is asking for the public’s help in finding a runaway teenager believed to be headed to West Tennessee.
According to WBIR-TV (https://on.wbir.com/1E8Lnyd), 15-year-old Dustin Allen Davis left the Helen Ross McNabb Center on foot on Thursday.
His family is concerned that his life may be in danger if he does not receive his prescribed medication.
Police say Davis may be attempting to go to West Tennessee where he has relatives.
Anyone with information about the teen is asked to contact the Morristown Hamblen County 911 Center at: 423-585-2715.
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