POP/ROCK - April 10, 1987

Elvis Presley did a lot of tender loving in private for 24 years, if a new book by Lucy de Barbin is to be believed. De Barbin claims she and the King had a long-term affair that produced an illegitimate daughter named Desiree. David Bechwith, a spokesman for Presley’s Graceland estate, called the woman’s claim “ludicrous” and said that the book has “no basis in fact.” De Barbin says in her book--titled “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”--that Presley asked her repeatedly to marry him, but she refused, and that they would meet secretly in parks and hotel rooms across the country.