Priscilla Presley gazes at a bronze statue of her former husband, Elvis Presley, in Bad Nauheim, Germany, March 20, 2025. Priscilla met Elvis in the spa town in 1959, when she was 14. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
BAD NAUHEIM, Germany — Priscilla Presley has fond memories of studying at a U.S. Air Force-run high school in Wiesbaden, Germany, in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, although she admits she wasn’t in class often.
After attendance was taken in the mornings at H. H. Arnold High, Priscilla Beaulieu, as she was known at the time, and her friends often “got on a bus that took us in town, stayed there for about three hours, then went back. It was a lot of fun,” Presley told reporters Thursday during a visit to the region.
Presley was speaking about 25 miles north of Wiesbaden, in Bad Nauheim, where 14-year-old Priscilla met her future husband, Elvis Presley, for the first time.
Elvis lived off-post in the historic spa town of Bad Nauheim from 1958 to 1960 while stationed with the Army in nearby Friedberg.
Among those turning out to bid farewell to Sgt. Elvis Presley March 1, 1960, as he left for the U.S upon completion of his overseas tour of duty was Priscilla Beaulieu, the stepdaughter of an Air Force officer stationed at Wiesbaden. Seven years later, she and Presley were married in Las Vegas. (Stars and Stripes)
Priscilla Presley takes questions from reporters in Bad Nauheim, Germany, March 20, 2025, ahead of speaking engagements in the town where she met her future husband, Elvis Presley in 1959. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
Elvis memorabilia decorates a creperie in Bad Nauheim, Germany, March 20, 2025. The historic spa town has capitalized on its Elvis connection in recent decades, hosting the European Elvis Festival each summer. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
Bad Nauheim has capitalized on its Elvis connection in recent decades, hosting the European Elvis Festival each summer. During the 2021 event, a bronze statue of Elvis dressed in his Army uniform was unveiled in a park. Presley saw it for the first time Thursday.
“This is very important to me,” she said. “Being back brings back so many memories of that time.”
Presley’s stepfather, Joseph Paul Beaulieu, was an Air Force officer whose career meant frequent relocations for the family.
The teenager was “crushed” when she learned she would be moving from Austin, Texas, to Germany, as she was about to enter high school and didn’t want to leave her friends behind.
“The teenagers that I knew back in Texas would all say, ‘Oh, you’re going to where Elvis Presley is. He’s over there at the same place that you’re going to go to,’” Presley recalled. “I never in my imagination thought that I would meet him.”
Army Sgt. Elvis Presley relaxes during an interview at Ray Barracks in Friedberg, West Germany in February of 1960, shortly before being discharged from the service and leaving Germany. (Stars and Stripes)
Elvis Presley signs autographs for fans as he arrives at what has been his home-away-from-home in Germany while serving with the U.S. Army's 3rd Armored Division in 1960. During his service, the singer rented the house at Goethestrasse 14 in Bad Nauheim. (Stars and Stripes)
But just weeks after arriving in Germany, a mutual acquaintance who was in the Air Force introduced the two at a party at Elvis’ rented home.
In 2016, Presley tried to visit the home, but the owner didn’t seem to share the community’s general enthusiasm for Elvis and his former wife.
“I knocked on the door and the woman who owns the place wouldn’t let me in,” Presley said, giggling. “I told her … I was Priscilla and I had very, very wonderful memories of the home and I just wanted to take a look at it, and she absolutely would not let me in.”
Bad Nauheim Mayor Klaus Kress said as of Thursday, town officials were still trying to convince the owner to let Presley visit.
Elvis’ deployment ended about six months after he met Priscilla, when he returned to the United States.
“I did not hear from Elvis till about 14 days after he left,” she said. “I thought he was not going to call me anymore and then on that day, when he called, it was like my life came back together. Then I thought, ‘I haven’t lost him.’”
Priscilla Beaulieu waves as she sees Elvis Presley off at Rhein-Main airport, March 1, 1960. Presley and Beaulieu, an Air Force dependent, met in 1959 during Presley's Army service in Germany. (Stars and Stripes)
Over the next three years, Elvis and Priscilla kept in regular contact as he continued his movie and music career in Hollywood, and she continued attending classes at H. H. Arnold High School, or at least some of them.
In the summer of 1963, as a 17-year-old about to start her senior year, Presley moved to Memphis at Elvis’ invitation — with her parents’ reluctant approval and under strict conditions set by Elvis and his manager, Col. Tom Parker.
There, she enrolled at Immaculate Conception High School, where she graduated.
Presley said she keeps in contact with some of her classmates from her school days in Germany and empathizes with military children.
“Just when you get to know someone, and really like them, and you want them as friends, they leave,” she said. “That was the hardest thing for me, to know that this friend I won’t have very long because they’re going to be going to another base.”
H. H. Arnold High School was demolished to make way for a new facility that opened in 2017. It was named Wiesbaden High School but maintains the history and legacy of H. H. Arnold High. The original crest mosaic was preserved and incorporated into the new building.
When asked if she had any advice for students at the school today, Presley smiled and said she was probably not the best person to ask, considering her behavior when she was a student.
Over the years, Presley has spoken positively about the military. In a 2021 video message shared by the USO, she encouraged people to support U.S. troops by signing the organization’s thank-you card.
On Thursday, Presley said that in the end, Elvis was happy he had served.
“It was very hard for him to leave, of course, and (he) didn’t understand why he had to go in the military,” she said. “But (he) did, and served, and actually, he was glad. That sorrow of going in was erased by the people he met here.”
Elvis Presley signs autographs for fans as he arrives at what has been his home-away-from-home for the last two years in the Army's 3rd Armored Division, in 1960. During his service, the singer rented the house at Goethestrasse 14 in Bad Nauheim. (Stars and Stripes)
