Elvis Presley Funeral - Ham Embree - The Sketch Artist

This is a report from WHAS 11 main anchor Jim Mitchell who made the trip down to Memphis for Elvis Presley's funeral. He even found local people from Kentuckiana who made the trip.

I love seeing the footage of all the fans who made the trip to Memphis to pay their respects to Elvis.

What stood out to me was the sketch artist Ham Embree's rendering of Elvis Presley lying in state with Priscilla and Vernon standing beside him. The local artist is Martha Hamilton. 

“Ham” Embree, noted Memphis artist, was also a courtroom sketch artist. Hamilton had been commissioned to do the courtroom drawings by local television stations. A pioneer in television animation, she was the courtroom artist for CBS News and its Memphis affiliate, WREG-TV, Channel 3. Embree’s drawings gave visual reality to trials that could be covered by courtroom reporters but not photographers.

Elvis Presley, Priscilla Presley and Vernon Presley - by Ham Embree

Embree's courtroom drawings include the trials such as the James Earl Ray evidentiary hearings, the Judge David Lanier trial, the Debra Groseclose murder trial, the Congresssman Harold Ford case, and the Dr. George Nichopolous trial. They are significant from both a legal and social history standpoint.

The Ray hearings, related to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Deep Throat Obscenity trial and the Nichopolous case, with its sensational testimony related to Elvis Presley’s drug dependence, described events involving individuals known world-wide.
 
Ham passed away in 1996.