She was the sister Elvis Presley never had, a companion, confidante and keeper of secrets in the exciting days of his early career.
They drove bumper cars in Las Vegas, rode horses in California and hung out at Graceland, the Memphis home he had just bought for his mother.
Her name is Judy Spreckels, and she agreed to her first sit-down interview memories were bubbling to the surface - but there were still some things Spreckels wouldn't discuss.
'He told me secrets that I never told and will never tell', says Spreckels. 'I had nothing to do with being a yes man for him and obviously he trusted me.
'Anything he told me was not going to go to any publication. I am the only person who was around Elvis who was a writer and didn't write a book. I felt secrets were secrets'.
When Elvis' mother Gladys died in 1958, Judy went to the funeral.
'I've never seen anyone as sad as Elvis was', she says. 'He grieved. He cried continuously. We were in the front hall at Graceland and he stood there hugging me for a half hour. He was crying and crying and crying. It was the saddest thing I'd ever seen'.
In later years, she attended his Las Vegas concerts and he would stop the show to introduce her to the audience. She had married by then and so had he. By the time drugs invaded his life, she was less involved.
'I never think of him as he was the last year or year and a half', she says. 'I think of him as so vibrant and beautiful and funny. When he died, a whole part of my life changed and I died a little'.
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