They say that every man has his price, but don’t bother making any offers to Bill DeNight. The president of the Elvis Presley Burning Love Fan Club wouldn’t give up his duties for anything.
“Elvis is a way of life for me,” said the Streamwood resident. “You could offer me $20 million right now, tax free, to take over my club, and I’d tell you to take a hike. I wouldn’t even have to think about it for a second. There’s more to life than money, and I absolutely love running this club.”
DeNight’s Burning Love club boasts more than 1,000 members from all 50 states and 40 foreign countries. Dues are $12 a year. Activities include monthly get-togethers at the Ford City Shopping Center and a quarterly newsletter. The club has published five cookbooks, and it produces a new T-shirt every year. Once a month, club members pay for flowers to be placed at Elvis’ grave at Graceland, his Memphis home.
The Burning Love club also raises money for charity through auctions, raffles and conventions featuring Presley memorabilia, and it has raised $109,000 since the club was formed in 1983.
“Our charitable dollars go to the Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center in Memphis and the LeBonheur Children’s Medical Center in Memphis, because that’s the way Elvis would have wanted it,” DeNight said.
Marler Stone, executive director of the Med Foundation, the fund-raising arm of the trauma center, said: “Bill and (his wife) Noreen and their club members set a great example for others. They’ve found a wonderful way to honor Elvis and at the same time do a lot of good. Bill has done fundraising work that’s amazing. He’s an entrepreneur, but he does it for charity. He’s an extremely generous person, and he’s just so dedicated to honoring the memory of Elvis Presley.”
Violet Norris of Chicago, the club’s vice president, has been listening to Elvis since the 1950s. She said all the members of the club appreciate DeNight’s efforts. “He is so enthusiastic,” she said. “He just adores Elvis, which I think is great. Thanks to Bill, so many of us have so much fun. He’s a fine gentleman.”
Steve Orlando, 14, from Orland Park, joined the club in 1992 and is the junior vice president. “Elvis is the best, the king of rock ‘n’ roll,” said Orlando, whose buddies used to tease him about his affinity for Elvis. “And Bill is a great guy to be around. He makes it fun to be in the club.”
DeNight, 48, became an Elvis devotee at age 10 while growing up in Chicago. The first record he ever bought was “Hound Dog.” The 45 rpm record still plays on his Elvis-only jukebox, which has 179 Presley records and one tribute record called “Elvis Has Left the Building.”
“We have Elvis music going almost 24 hours a day in our house,” he said. “My son, Kenny, sings Elvis songs in his sleep, and he even gets all the words right. Then there’s my van. The only music I’ve ever played in that van is the recording from his last concerts in 1977. In my wife Noreen’s car, we only listen to `Aloha from Hawaii.’ “
Bill and Noreen met in high school when both were Elvis fans; they were married in 1965. “We’ve met a lot of great people through the fan club,” Noreen said. “And we’re all involved for the same reason, to keep Elvis’ memory alive. We meet new people all the time, and our mutual love of Elvis brings us together. It’s a great feeling to know so many great people are out there who still love Elvis.”
Like all Elvis fans, DeNight remembers exactly where he was on Aug. 16, 1977, the day Presley died. DeNight’s father-in-law died the same day, and he and his family were at the hospital when they heard the news about Elvis. “We were all very upset for a number of reasons that day,” DeNight said. “My thoughts were going to Memphis, but it was impossible to physically get there.”
DeNight has been to Graceland dozens of times since, and he’s a regular participant in Elvis Week in Memphis every August. Unfortunately, DeNight never saw Elvis perform, something he regrets every day.
“I never saw him perform, because I always thought there’d be a next time,” he said. “I really blew it. I have to wait until I get to the great Elvis concert in the sky, and you just know that Elvis will be leading the choir. I’ll see him some day. I firmly believe that.”
And yes, DeNight debunks everyone who believes Elvis is still alive. “There’s no doubt he passed away,” he said. “Thousands of people viewed the body. If he wasn’t really dead and just wanted to get away, he couldn’t have carried it out for this long. I don’t read or listen to that garbage.”
Along with running the club, DeNight is also a serious collector of Elvis memorabilia. His collection includes all 38 Elvis liquor decanters ever produced and all 112 collector plates, along with dozens of figurines, photos, buttons, posters, dolls, coffee mugs, trading cards, belt buckles, Christmas ornaments, stickers, books and other stuff.
When the U.S. Postal Service issued the Elvis Presley stamp, DeNight bought more than 10,000 of them, and there’s one Elvis stamp on every piece of mail that leaves the DeNight household.
“When I run out of those stamps, you won’t want to talk to me for a while,” he said, fearing a future without Elvis stamps. “I’ve had so much fun with those stamps.”
DeNight said it’s tough to think about a world without Elvis Presley. “I can honestly say that I just can’t live without the music,” he said. “And of course his movies were great. But all that’s not one-tenth as important to me as the memories of the man who cared and shared so much with everyone. It’s not the music or the movies that really count, it’s the man himself. And our club is just carrying on where he left off.”
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For information on the Burning Love Fan Club, call DeNight at 708-882-1061.
