Charlie Hodge December 14, 1934 -
March 3, 2006
Funeral was held
7 March 2006 at Roselawn Funeral
Home Buried in Friendship Baptist
Cemetery
Charlie Hodge died Friday 3 March
2006, at Fort Sanders Regional in
Knoxville, Tennessee. Age 71He was
born and raised in Decatur.
Charlie’s love of music led to a
long career of singing with
quartets, included Bill Gaither &
Charlie’s own quartet, The Foggy
River Boys.
Charlie entered the Army with
Elvis Presley and they became good
friends. He worked for Elvis and
lived in Graceland for 17 years.
After
Elvis’ death, Charlie continued to
perform in shows dedicated to
Elvis’ memoryFor the past 15 years
Charlie performed at Memories
Theatre 2141 Parkway, Pigeon
Forge, TN 37863
He
also traveled the world sharing
Elvis stories speaking and
performing. Survivors include his
loving wife, Jennifer Hodge &
sister Margie Poteet.
Charlie Hodge, Elvis' army buddy
and friend until his death in
1977, has been diagnosed with
cancer. He has secretly been
battling cancer the past two
months
Charlie first met Elvis on the
transport ship from the New York
to Germany, September 1958. They
stayed friends until Elvis' death
in August 1977. Charlie was the
guy who sang back up, played
guitar, handed Elvis water and
gave him scarf's on stage during
the shows in the 1970's.
From
Memories Theater where Charlie
Hodge has been performing Memories
Theater for the past few years,
and he was struck down with
cancer. Despite his diagnosis,
Hodge continued to perform nightly
"...if you were not aware of his
condition, you would never know he
is sick." His humor remains high,
as did his faith in God.
Charlie Hodge's girlfriend
Jennifer offers an update on his
condition:"... It is true that
Charlie has lung cancer. He was
originally diagnosed in December
2005 and started treatment in
early January. For the 2
months he has to take radiation 5
days a week and chemo once a week.
So far he is responding well to
the treatments with little side
effects so we are staying
positive. After two months of
treatment they might continue with
the chemo. Every three months they
will do tests to see if his
treatments are successful."
"The
guy who sing harmony with me,
gives me my water and my scarves..
his name is, Charlie Hodge..."
Elvis Presley in concert
I met Charlie while he was on a
lecture tour of Elvis Presley Fan
Clubs in Australia. We were both
invited as guest speakers for the
ABC TV chat show that explored the
phenomena called Elvis.
I found Charlie sweet and
sincere. Since his death, I have
never heard a bad word from
Charlie about Elvis. What a true
friend indeed! As Elvis would say,
"The guy who gives me my water and
scarves, his name is Charlie
Hodge…"
WHEN
DID YOU FIRST HEAR THE NAME ELVIS
PRESLEY?
Wanda Jackson had completed a
Grand Ole Opry tour, she said,
“Charlie have you heard Elvis
Presley? Nobody is willing to
follow him.” So I wanted to see
this dude. I first saw him on the
Ed Sullivan Show sing, "Blue Moon
of Kentucky" like I’d never heard
before. Elvis really freaked me
out. I remember thinking this guy
is great. He was the start of a
whole new thing in music. nbsp;
WHEN
DID YOU FIRST MEET ELVIS?
Backstage in Memphis. I was with
ABC Network Show I had the number
one gospel group at the time. And
you know Elvis loved Gospel music
so he came backstage to met me and
my quartet. I
didn’t see him again until we got
drafted. He didn’t recognize me. I
had a crew cut man’s greatest
disguise.I went over to him and
asked when was the last time he
saw Wanda, Elvis said, “Hey you
look familiar?” I said, "I’m
Charlie and I was lead singer with
the Foggy River Boys."
"Hey
man I used to watch you on TV
every Saturday night," said Elvis…
Imagine Elvis watching me?
YOU
WERE WITH ELVIS IN GERMANY? Yes
we both went to Fort Hood.
However, we were never stationed
together. Going on the train to
Jersey we both sat and talked
about the folks we knew in the
Gospel field.
On
the ship to Germany he requested
that I share his compartment with
him. In the first place they put
him with a few sergeants so that
the other troops wouldn’t bother
him but he didn’t know anyone. So
Elvis went to the Captain and
asked if I could put with him and
the rest as they say is history.
HOW
WAS ELVIS TREATED IN THE ARMY?
I
remember one time when we were all
out sleeping, eating and living in
three feet of snow some Colonel
came up to Elvis and said we’re
going to fly you out to Miami to a
large convention then you'll taken
to Paris to meet the Pope. Elvis
looked at the Colonel and said,
"Sir, there’s 15 thousand men out
there who like me are sleeping out
in the snow and for me to leave
them and get this special
treatment then having to came back
and look these guys in the face,
sir, I just couldn’t do that."
WHO
WERE ELVIS MUSIC PEERS?
Elvis liked all kinds of music he
had lot of albums. Various artist
in the Country, Pop and Gospel
field. He would often listen Mario
Lanza.
Even in Memphis as a young
man, Elvis would go to a place
called Blues Alley and spend hours
listening to Blues singers. He
would list to Gospel and even
symphony music. He could
appreciate all kinds of different
and varied musical styles; he just
adored Gospel, JD Sumner and the
Stamps Quartet. JD and myself are
great friends we go back some 40
years. JD would often let Elvis in
the back door whenever the
Blackwood Brother were singing. In
those day Elvis was so poor he
couldn’t afford to pay to see the
group perform so JD let Elvis in.
Elvis never forgot what JD did for
him.
WHO
WERE ELVIS INFLUENCES? You’d
be surprised Elvis had certain
sounds which he would use like
what he called his Billy Eckstein
voice on “Fame and Fortune.” He
loved Mario Lanza’s voice in fact
he could sing as high as Mario
Lanza. Elvis had a three octave
range which is a fantastic range
for an untrained singer. Let me
tell you Elvis never had a singing
lesson in his life. Anyway, Lanza
highest note he ever got was a C
above the middle C and I heard
Elvis sing a high C many times on
stage.
WHAT WAS ELVIS’ FAVOURITE
ALBUM?
I think in Elvis has a
choice of albums, I think his
choice would be any Gospel album
he recorded.
YOU
DID APPEAR IN SEVERAL ELVIS
MOVIES?
I appeared in Clambake I played a
barber. I was briefly in Charro as
a Mexican in the scene where Elvis
rides into town.
In
Stay Away Joe I was in that too. I
remember one funny moment there’s
a scene in the movie where there
was a fight in the house. Elvis
looks outside the door where I’m
standing with the band. The camera
is shooting Elvis from his left
side and Elvis say would you guys
play a little something we’re have
a little trouble inside, and we
both laughed which wasn’t in the
script. The reason we laughed so
hard is that it was very cold and
Elvis nose was running.
