Rockin' farewell to Rotherham's own Elvis

Two of the King’s classic hits, Always on My Mind and There Goes My Everything, boomed out at the funeral of Brian Smith–who had changed his name by deed poll 30 years ago–after he lost his life to pneumonia. 

Elvis’s proud daughter Zoe (33), of Kimberworth Park, said: “It might not have suited people who like hymns, but my dad would have loved every minute of it.”

The ex-fork lift truck driver dumped his old name in 1979 and had refused to answer to anything but Elvis ever since.

Zoe said: “A lot of people thought it was just a fad when dad came home from the solicitor’s with his deed poll and said he’d become Elvis Presley.

“Everyone imagined that he’d go back to being Brian Smith before too long, but it was dad’s way of keeping Elvis’s name alive and he wouldn’t budge one bit.

Would you like to pay tribute to Elvis? use the "write a comment" buttons to post your views.

“It wasn’t easy because everyone had known him as Brian, but he went round ignoring people if they didn’t call him Elvis, and that seemed to do the trick.

“Dad changed everything so all the utility bills came to Mr Presley instead of Mr Smith. He altered all his records at the doctor’s as well as at the bank and the tax office and everyone got the message eventually.

“Dad was such a fan. He just idolised Elvis through and through and he never once accepted that he was dead.”

Zoe’s mum Joan couldn’t wait to return the Presley label to sender after the couple from Byrley Road, Kimberworth Park, split up in the 1980s.

Zoe added: “My mum wasn’t happy about becoming Mrs Presley in the first place. Dad wanted to call me Priscilla, after Elvis’s ex wife, when I was born, but mum put her foot down and she wouldn’t let him go through with it.

Mum went back to being Mrs Smith after they split up and she’s never missed being a Presley one bit.”

Zoe and Elvis’s partner Helen were at his bedside when the final curtain fell at a nursing home in Gainsborough, where he had lived for the final years of his life.

Speaking after her dad’s funeral Zoe said: “Dad was very poorly but his face always used to light up when we played Elvis songs at the home.

“All the staff called dad Elvis. It was lovely, and the vicar never mentioned Brian’s name at the funeral. It was all about Elvis Presley instead of Brian Smith and that’s just how dad would have wanted it.”