At age 70, Marie Claire Underwood never thought she’d inherit the title of world’s No. 1 Elvis fan.
But it came with the house, called Graceland Too, in Holly Springs, Miss.
"This is the Number One Elvis Fan's home, and he's operated it for 30 years as the Elvis museum and tourist attraction," she tells visitors on her fifth or sixth tour of the day.
There's no one more qualified to give it.
"The year and a half it was up for grabs, not one person inquired about this house. No one wanted this house. But I wanted it. I love it."
The word obsession is on heavy rotation here. For reasons cultural and mysterious, Elvis Presley created a lot of obsessives. Marie joined that cult in 1969.
"I think I was going through puberty when the 'Comeback Special' came out, and I didn’t know what those feeling I had, but it was lust," she says.
In 2007, she read about a man in Holly Springs, who had turned his house into a tribute to Elvis.
So she went to meet Paul MacLeod, charitably known as a town eccentric. His museum was a hoarder’s house of Elvis bric-a-brac, stuffed floor to ceiling. Every few years, he’d repaint the outside a different Elvis themed color -- "Jailhouse Rock" gray, "Blue Hawaii" blue, pink.
His obsession had consumed his life, drove off his wife and kids. Annoyed the neighbors.
"A lot of people were really scared to come in here," Marie says. "They thought Paul was weird and stuff."
But not Marie Underwood. Her semi-annual trips from Peoria, Illinois to visit Elvis sites in Memphis and Tupelo always included a stop to see Paul McLeod.
"I thought he was wonderful, and I really never knew there was nothing wrong with him until after he died," she says.
Some of what she learned isn’t so endearing. He died in 2014, sitting on his front porch. Two days earlier, he’d shot and killed a man inside his house. Police ruled it justified. Some in Holly Springs suspect foul play. The truth may never be known. As for the house…
"I dreamt about Graceland Too every night," she confesses. "I was obsessed with it to the point of where I was almost sick over wanting Graceland Too."
The house was in terrible shape. Holes in the walls. Ceilings falling down. No bathroom, no AC. Underwood said her sister tried to stage an intervention.
"And she said, 'Marie you need to stop thinking about it and think what it’s doing to your marriage and your life,'" Underwood recalls. "I said 'Peggy, I have to think about it. I’m going to buy Graceland Too.
And she did, at a foreclosure auction, for $5,500. She then spent the last five years and tens of thousands more to keep it upright.
She reopened the house for tours last Saturday, Aug. 17.
Elvis impersonator Tim Hembree was in the backyard singing to a small crowd, as 63 people paid five bucks for tours throughout the day.
There were folks like Lucky Tucker, a lawyer from Oxford Miss., who first visited in the 2000s and recognized then it was a piece of small town Americana.
"This is every bit as important as Graceland," he said. "This is one man’s absolute genius."
A genius not entirely appreciated during MacLeod’s life. He was just too odd for Holly Springs.
Marie still lives in Illinois. She’s not quite sure how to keep Graceland Too open regularly. She and her husband are retired ironworkers, not businesspeople. There’s no website. For now, she’ll try to give tours every few weeks, when she’s down for a visit.
"I believe that within the next five years — and it's one of my goals to have this house good enough, and get enough of my collection down here — that even if I can’t move down here, tourism will run this for me."
Run it as a true asset to the town. Not just it’s worst kept secret.
