Simon Vega

Who is Simon Vega?

Simon H. Vega is a retired high school teacher who became a personal friend of singer Elvis Presley while the two served together in the United States Army in Germany from 1958—1960. In 1993, Vega turned his house into a museum called "Little Graceland" located in his native Los Fresnos in Cameron County north of Brownsville, Texas. "Little Graceland" is loosely patterned on Presley's mansion, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee.

Vega was one of three children born in Los Fresnos to Pablo Vega and the former Estefana Hinojosa, she a native of San Luis Potosí, Mexico. His sister is Matea V. Garcia of Chicago; his brother now deceased, Jose Isabel Vega of Los Fresnos. He and his wife, Teresa Vega, named a son, Rene Elvis Vega, after Presley.

In 1978, a year after Presley's early death, Vega composed a song, "The Ballad of Elvis Presley". He produced three thousand copies and has five remaining ones for his personal collection. Little Graceland is a home converted into a shrine to the man dubbed "The King" of rock and roll music. The museum contains many pictures of Presley, some with Vega, which the museum owner considers among his most prized possessions.