And that's where 39-year-old father of five and Mississippi manufactured home salesman Andy Key saw the offer. "My eldest son is a huge Elvis fan, so I thought I'd put in a bid...we'd see it as a high bid for a day, and it would give us something to talk about," Key now recalls. He put in his bid of $8,300 — $100 more than the last bidder — and no one bid any higher. "It was a whim...a spur of the moment thing," he says of offering up $8,300 he really didn't have. He could have backed out. He could have lived with a bad buyers rap on eBay. But he had an idea. What would he risk — besides every cent he had and a full-time job and the security of his family — by taking over the preacher's mission? "To say (my wife) was shocked that I bought an Elvis museum is an understatement," he cringes. "She was not happy with me."Read the full story here: Elvis lives!
She relented, and late last year, they borrowed what money they needed and drove in a truck to pick up the proof of what is either one of the world's silliest myths or signs of an amazing truth most people would love to believe. All of it, they brought back to Hattiesburg, Miss., where they've rented out an old house to continue Beeny's bid to keep Elvis alive. Last month, three miles off the interstate, they opened the doors (theelvisisalivemuseum.com).
Mississippi Public Broadcasting's Ron Brown did this story on Laurel's Andy Key, the new proprietor of the museum.
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