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The Start of Her Elvis Obsession
Rosaaen's big hunk o' love started off slowly in 1956. She was just nine then, saw Elvis thrusting his pelvis on The Ed Sullivan Show and began buying his records with her babysitting money. She claims she wasn't hooked until a dozen years later, when the King appeared in a sleek black leather suit (alas, Graceland counts it among its favorite display pieces) on a 1968 NBC special called Elvis. After that, there was no turning back.
Never married, though she's dated a handful of Elvis impersonators, Rosaaen insists today that she has more sisterly feelings than sexual fantasies for Elvis. But ask her about the first kiss—ultimately there were eight, all garnered at shows where she appeared as a devoted fan. Recalling how she wrangled that buss in 1971 at the Internationale Hotel in Las Vegas, when she held up an "I Want Your Body" bumper sticker, she swoons.
"He said, 'You got it, baby,' and I pulled the scarf off from around his neck. It was hot and sweaty, and he smelled wonderful. I had my ring hand up through his hair. Looking in my eyes, he kissed me with those lips that were big, warm, puffy pillows. I thought, Oh, God, I wonder what this would be like for more than a split second? After, I realized a couple of his hairs were stuck in my ring. I wrapped them in tissue and tucked them in my bra. When I got home, I put them in a Gerber baby food jar, where they've been ever since."
Some folks, including Rosaaen's mother, have politely suggested her good sense might be as fried as the King's favorite peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich. Though she's made some money over the years as an Elvis expert (including for eBay), Rosaaen doesn't currently hold a job or health insurance yet continues to spend money on her collection.
"I'm not a nut," she insists. "It's a passion as well as an investment." She views herself as a caretaker of her Elvis items, and in the end, the King may be as good to her as she has been to him. "If I were to sell the whole," she says, surveying her sizable portion of Elvis Presley's fiefdom, "I wouldn't take less than $6 million." On the auction block, she just might get it.
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