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Mary Jane Ross

Biography

Mary Jane Ross

Mary Jane Ross is an award-winning college professor and writer, honored with the NAACP Image Award for Best Biography or Autobiography, with Ray Charles Robinson. Her collaborations span subjects as diverse as Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Piper Laurie, Mafia hitman Roy DeMeo, and Congressmember Nancy Mace. SOFTLY, AS I LEAVE YOU, with Priscilla Presley, marks her ninth memoir. Her body of work also includes poetry and an online grammar textbook for second-language students. She lives in her native Southern California.

Mary Jane Ross

Books by Mary Jane Ross

Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis
by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley with Mary Jane Ross - Memoir, Nonfiction

Priscilla Presley’s divorce from Elvis left his fans incredulous. From the outside, life in Elvis’ mansion looked glamorous and enviable. But inside the mansion, her husband was constantly surrounded by a male entourage, while at the gates, lines of beautiful women waited hopefully for an audience with the King. From the time she was 17, that life was all Priscilla had known. During her 10 years with Elvis, it became painfully apparent that she had no idea who she was outside Elvis’ world. The only way to find herself was to leave that world and seek a new life of her own, because leaving was the only way to survive --- for herself and for her daughter. SOFTLY, AS I LEAVE YOU is the deeply personal story of what Priscilla lost and what she found when she walked away from the man she loved.