Long love the King

You'd think a few bad marriages might end one's thoughts of finding wedded bliss. Not if Elvis has anything to do with it.

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published June 11, 2007

Jeremy "Elvis" Ewbank, right, belts out his favorite Elvis songs at while his friend Bill Lindsey DJs during the 5th annual Tampa Elvis Fesitval. Listen to audio slideshow
	[Melissa Lyttle | Times]

Head south on Seminole Boulevard. Turn right after the Southern Pawn sign. If you hit Arby's, you've gone too far.

Walk into the clubhouse at the Sun Village Mobile Home Park. And witness Jeremy "Elvis" Ewbank, clad in a white, silver-studded jumpsuit, officiate his first Vegas-style wedding.

The groom: his ex-stepdad.

The bride: his wife's mother.

A day before their own one-year wedding anniversary, Jeremy and his wife will become stepbrother and stepsister.

But only fools rush in. To follow this bi-generational love story, one must start at the root of the family tree. There's Jeremy. And there's Elvis.

Jeremy is half a foot shorter than Elvis, and maybe more pudgy. He doesn't pretend to be Elvis. All he wants to do is pay tribute to the King.

This is a story about acceptance - of a few extra pounds, half-baked dreams, baggage, mistakes.

It's not about pretending to be someone else. It's about being your own weird self, and finding people you can be weird with.

It's about third chances.

Jeremy moved to Clearwater shortly after marrying Wife No. 1. They split because she moved back to Indiana, and he stayed.

Jeremy met Wife No. 2 at a country line-dance club.

They dated for three months, then he proposed.

But she was more country, he was more rock 'n' roll. And she didn't take Elvis seriously.

When he bought his white jumpsuit, she hated it. When he kissed women on the cheek during performances, she hated it.

Four years after they married, they separated.

Enter Shelby. And with her, Shelby's mom, Brenda. Brenda was a lifelong Elvis fan. Shelby liked to tease her about watching tribute artists.

Shelby called them "wanna-bes." She called Elvis "the dead guy."

Shelby changed her mind when she saw a hunky 21-year-old perform on vacation in Mississippi. When she got back to Tampa, she started attending Elvis events.

Shelby and Jeremy started going to the same Elvis meet-ups at Village Inn and Beef O'Brady's. At first she called him "dorky Elvis" because he wore glasses bigger than his face.

Jeremy liked that she appreciated Elvis as much as he did. Shelby liked that her daughter started calling him "daddy" almost immediately.

Jeremy and Shelby dated three months, then he proposed.

They finalized their respective divorces and married on Treasure Island in April of last year, adorned in flowered shirts and leis, to the refrain of Elvis' Hawaiian Wedding Song.

All shook up

Two people sat at the same table at the wedding. Bob Gwyn, once married to Jeremy's mother, was single. So was Brenda Freeman, Shelby's mother. Both had two failed marriages behind them. Neither had a desire to roll the dice a third time.

But five months later, on a family trip aboard a Carnival cruise ship, love struck. Together, on the last night of the cruise, they hit the slots.

Bob blew $20 in quarters, and decided to go to bed. Brenda decided to stay. Bob bent down and kissed her on the forehead, then started to walk away. He turned around.

There was something about the way she was looking at him. Bob couldn't shake that look. Brenda couldn't shake that kiss.

She hadn't dated in at least a decade. At one of Jeremy's shows, they shared six dances, and Brenda finally blurted it: "I've never felt so comfortable with someone."

Bob walked her to her car that night and kissed her. Brenda went home, and wrote this in her pocket calendar: All Shook Up.

They dated three months, then he proposed.

Three months later

Join Bob & Brenda, the invitation says. As they tie the knot Las Vegas style.

It's spring. Sixty-two guests are seated at tables with plastic place mats, sprinkled with poker cards and brochures for Jeremy's carpet cleaning side business. The smoked scent of miniature wieners sweetens the air.

Bob, standing at the altar, looks calm. Yesterday, he looked into his neighbor's trailer, and caught an illegal glimpse of his fiancee's dress. To his relief, his bowtie and cummerbund were the same shade of gold.

Shelby, standing by the door, is keeping watch for the bride. Brenda is on her way over from the neighbor's trailer, No. 80, with her 11-year-old granddaughter, Destinii.

"She's here, " Shelby says finally.

Jeremy begins to croon, reading off a karaoke monitor: Wise men say/only fools rush in . . .

Down the aisle comes Destinii in a gold dress, carrying a cardboard box she made into a slot machine. She sprinkles poker chips along her path.

But I can't help / falling in love with you . . .

Enter Brenda, in her own gold dress. Bob sheds a tear.

"Who gives this woman away?" Jeremy asks, in Elvis' baritone.

"We do, " Shelby says. "If you don't give her back."

Jeremy begins: Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness before family and friends the exchange of solemn vows between this raceman and rock-a-hula woman. If there be any suspicious minds present in the audience, doncha think it's time to speak now or never? Their love won't wait.

Brenda, repeat after me:

It only took one night to get stuck on you, and now my wish came true, you big hunka hunka burnin' love! . . . So kiss me quick and love me tender, for I can't help falling in love with you.

Bob:

I used to live in the hotel down the end of Lonely Street, but now it's viva Las Vegas, cause I need your love tonight.

They exchange rings.

By the powers vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife.

But remember, there is no return to sender.

You may now kiss the bride.

And they do. And the audience claps and sings Viva Las Vegas. And they eat cheese cubes and drink Budweisers and kick off their shoes for the Electric Slide.

And everyone goes home. Jeremy and Shelby put newborn daughter Preslie Jean to sleep, and end their night as they always do, under Elvis bedsheets.

And Bob and Brenda walk along Hawaii Avenue to trailer No. 79, hoping that like Jeremy, their third time also will be the charm.

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at 813 226-3354 or azayas@sptimes.com.

[Last modified June 10, 2007, 17:52:44]