Sixty-five years ago yesterday, the King of Rock ‘n Roll became a Tennessee colonel, and he was escorted by Lawrence County’s own Greg O’Rear.

At 6’9″ and nearly 300 pounds, Lawrence Countian Greg O’Rear was a legendary Tennessee lawman who is remembered almost as much for his extraordinary stature as he is for his extraordinary career. A favorite local expression today is still that a snow is “knee-deep to Greg O’Rear.”

At the beginning of his career with the Tennessee Highway Patrol in 1939, O’Rear had a borrowed desk and a filing cabinet at the county courthouse. He was one of only 65 state troopers then, and he had to cover an area of 85 miles of highway on a motorcycle. O’Rear worked his way through the ranks of the THP and was appointed Tennessee Commissioner of Safety in 1958.

At the dedication of the Lawrenceburg Highway Patrol building which bears his name, Governor Frank G. Clement said of O’Rear that he “doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘disloyalty.'”

O’Rear met many famous and infamous people through his law enforcement career, from politicians to celebrities to assassins. One famous photo shows O’Rear escorting James Earl Ray into custody after he was arrested for the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

However, on March 8, 1961, O’Rear had a much different duty. In this photo, O’Rear (white hat, foreground) is seen escorting Elvis Presley away from the state capitol after the King of Rock ‘n Roll addressed the Tennessee legislature and was made an honorary colonel on the governor’s staff.

The halls and balcony of the capitol were filled with screaming teenage girls who, according to one newspaper account, “almost pulled his coat off.” Elvis made some brief remarks and thanked the legislators for the honor–which he called “the greatest honor I’ve ever received”–as well as “those who have skipped school” to be there.