Graceland Too: Woman 'cursed' by Elvis fan's mansion resurrecting Holly Springs home

She is "cursed." She is "haunted."

Marie Underwood of East Peoria, Illinois, uses such terms when she discusses the dilapidated antebellum mansion she now owns on Gholson Avenue in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

The mansion has stone lions on the porch and an electric chair on the patio. Those Addams Family details are mitigated by the less intimidating and more defining fixture that has been placed in welcome behind a second-story window above the entrance: A life-sized Elvis Presley cardboard cut-out.

The house may not be haunted, in the supernatural sense, although it has seen death; but it certainly is haunted by memory and ambition and desire, all connected to the King of Rock 'n' Roll and his fans.

The house is known as "Graceland Too," a do-it-yourself shrine to Elvis that for many years was perhaps the most popular if also most "cult" tourist attraction in Holly Springs.

Said Underwood: "My hope is to make Graceland Too rock again."

The "rocking" begins in earnest the weekend of Aug. 16, when Graceland Too will welcome visitors for the first time in a decade.

Retired ironworkers ("hardhats and spud wrenches and all that," Marie said), Marie Underwood and her husband, Geoffry Underwood, bought Graceland Too for the rock-bottom price of $5,500 in 2015, after it was auctioned by the Bank of Holly Springs in the wake of the 2014 death of Paul MacLeod, the home's previous owner.

An Elvis fanatic in more ways than one, MacLeod, 70, died of a heart attack, two days after he shot and killed Dwight David Taylor Jr., 28, a local handyman, on the front porch of the home that since 1990 he had operated as a self-made and unauthorized-by-Elvis Presley Enterprises tourist attraction.

Fronted by colonial-style pillars that suggest those of the actual Presley mansion, Graceland Too, in its heyday, was open 24 hours a day to anyone with the $5 admission price.

Its two stories crammed, hoarder-style, with largely inessential Elvis memorabilia, the house was a place of irreverent pilgrimage for boozy after-hours Ole Miss students, Memphis daytrippers, indie rockers and other aficionados of the ​outré from around the world. A boisterous personality, MacLeod led the tours himself, serenading visitors with his version of "Jailhouse Rock" and sharing stories of ectoplasmic encounters with the deceased singer.

"The place was famous for years and years," Underwood said. "It brought more tourism to Holly Springs than any other thing, except maybe the hummingbird festival, and that's not even there any more."

Since MacLeod's death, the smallish 1853 mansion and its bizarre history have inspired magazine stories, short documentaries, photo exhibits, songs (Phoebe Bridgers released her oblique "Graceland Too" in 2020), and even a New York play ("Graceland Too: The Building Elvis Never Left," written by Memphian Nicole Hughes). But Underwood, a lifelong Elvis fan who befriended MacLeod during her many visits to Memphis, said the macabre elements of the story have overshadowed the fun and joy that was the original hallmark of a trip to Graceland Too.

"To me, I loved it," said Underwood, 70. "We would talk about Elvis, and he would sing. For me, it wasn't like it was for a lot of people, who would kind of be making fun of Paul behind his back."

"I visited in 2008, and it's a memory I can't let go of," said Hughes, the playwright. "Anyone who met Paul has a story. It's an experience that's stuck with them for decades. In a way, he's not gone, even though he is gone."

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After MacLeod's death, Underwood convinced her husband that the couple should buy Graceland Too. "The last thing Paul ever said to me was, 'If something happens to me, I want you to have this house.' With those words, he cursed me forever.

"I can't help myself," she continued. "That house has haunted me. It's my Elvis palace and also my halfway house for Elvis addicts. You can check in but you can never check out. My husband says the biggest mistake he ever made in his life was taking Exit 30 off Route 78, that first time we went into Holly Springs."

Tyrisha Battle, executive director of the Holly Springs Tourism and Recreation Bureau, said the return of Graceland Too is "exciting. Marie has a very great love and passion for Holly Springs."

Plus, she's a more congenial tourism partner than the home's previous owner. "Paul was different and difficult, to say the least," she said.

The tourism bureau is helping to promote the reopening of Graceland Too, and hoping visitors to the actual Graceland in Memphis and to Elvis' birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi, also will stop at Holly Springs, located more or less halfway between the two cities.

So far, the Underwoods have spent about $10,000 a year lifting Graceland Too from what Marie calls its "deplorable condition." They've added a new roof and new porches and are repairing the foundation, "but we still don't have running water," she said.

Once the house is repaired, Underwood will move her own "pretty impressive" Elvis collection from Peoria to Holly Springs, to augment MacLeod's depleted memorabilia. (Much of MacLeod's collection was sold at auction, although his non-functioning "Jailhouse Rock" electric chair, which he built himself, remains.)

The project represents "the resurrection of Graceland Too," Underwood said. "I just want to spread Elvis fever," she explained.

Piggybacking on the end of the "Elvis Week" celebration of Presley in Memphis, the Graceland Too events begin at 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 16 (the anniversary of Elvis' death in 1977), with an outdoor "Blues on the Back Porch" concert. Admission is $5.

The next day, Aug. 17, Underwood will lead tours of Graceland Too every hour, on the hour, from noon to 8 p.m. The cost, as in MacLeod's day, is $5 per person. In addition, family-friendly activities and a "Blue Hawaii Luau" will take place on the mansion grounds.

Finally, a "Gospel and Revival Service" will be held at 9 a.m. Aug. 18 on the Graceland Too porch.

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Although Elvis officialdom can sometimes be touchy, Underwood isn't worried about the wrath of Elvis Presley's Graceland, which in the past tolerated if never endorsed MacLeod's obsession. If necessary, Underwood said, she can always stamp a "Not Affiliated with Elvis Presley Enterprises" label on her display items, as MacLeod used to do.

"And if they start suing me, I'll just change the name," she said.

Change it to what?

"I don't know," Underwood said. "'Graceland Three?'"

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Graceland Too to reopen in Holly Springs, welcome Elvis fans again