Thursday, May 25, 2017

May 25 - Sonny West Died

Sonny West has died. He was Elvis Presley's former bodyguard and one of the authors of "Elvis, What Happend?". It was last year that Sonny West was confirmed to have stage 4 lung cancer - although he had been battling with serious medical issues over the last 5 years. In a twist of bad luck Sonny’s wife Judy was also suffering with breast cancer.

Sonny was a member of Elvis Presley's entourage and met him for the first time in 1958 before Elvis left for his military service in Germany. Later he came to work for Elvis, and he was responsible for the fleet, and bodyguard. He even lived for a time at Graceland. The man had supporting roles in films such as 'Kid Galahad' and 'Stay Away, Joe'. Sonny was with Elvis (and Jerry Schilling) on December 21, 1970, when Elvis met with President Richard Nixon. Sonny West worked a long time for Elvis, but was fired in 1976. He was one of the authors of the controversial book 'Elvis, What Happened'.

(Source: FECC / Elvis Information Network)