Five years quickly passed by since the wedding of Elvis and Priscilla Presley in Vegas. Lisa Marie was born on February 1, 1968. Now it is the end of April 1973 and all is not bliss.
Clay Lacy answers the phone, it’s Elvis requesting Clay to fly the Presley’s from Palm Springs to Santa Monica the following day, April 30. Since the wedding/honeymoon flight in 1967, Elvis had been using Clay and his Learjet, N464CL to frequently fly them around the USA.
Midmorning on the 30th, Clay touches down with the Learjet at Palm Springs Airport. At the arranged time, Elvis shows up with Lisa Marie in tow, along with a few of Elvis’ entourage, but no Priscilla. Elvis mentions that Priscilla should be arriving soon.
Clay and Elvis pass the time chitchatting while leaning on the Learjet’s port (left) wing tip tank. The five-year-old Lisa Marie passes the time running rings around Elvis and Clay slowly widening her circles until she is doing laps around the entire Learjet.
After about 45 minutes, Elvis sends one of his guys to retrieve Priscilla. Soon afterward, Priscilla shows up and they all pile into the awaiting Learjet and make the flight to Santa Monica.
Once the plane landed, the Presley’s and their entourage climbed out of the jet and into waiting limos. But one of Elvis’s guys needed to fly to Van Nuys with Clay and the Learjet. During the brief flight from Santa Monica to Van Nuys, this fellow came forward to the cockpit, leaned over to Clay and said, “Did you notice that everyone was a little somber?” Clay glanced over at the guy and said, “Yeah, what’s going on!” The guys responded, “Well, they are getting divorced tomorrow!”
So, Learjet 24A, N464CL, became the Elvis divorce jet and it is in the Palm Springs Air Museum collection.
