Loving You

She starred alongside Elvis Presley as the stunning teenage beauty in Loving You , and then again in King Creole , at the beginning of her short but phenomenal acting career. “Elvis was such a sweet, personable young man. He would always call me Miss Dolores. The only other persons who called me that were Clark Gable and Mother Abbess when I was a postulant.”” So recalled Dolores Hart, in a rare interview conducted recently for The Tablet of Brooklyn:

“Many times on the set, in between breaks, Elvis would ask me how often I read the Bible or if I had a favorite Psalm. He seemed to always want to know if there was a Bible around somewhere.”

Elvis loved to sing and record Gospel music. “Those spiritual songs had an unquestionable depth of soul to them,” she notes. “They were like incarnational expressions for all who heard them. Elvis no doubt touched something very deep in the heart and soul of so many individuals. He reached deep down into that place that awakened a call to Christ. I have no doubt that Elvis Presley made the Lord a reality for others not only in his Gospel music but in his countless gestures of generosity and caring compassion. People seemed to be called out of darkness by his voice in those songs of deep devotion, hope and abiding faith.”

Life as an actress “was a definitive call,” said Hart, but it was not the only or the ultimate one. She still votes for the Oscars each year, but now from behind the walls of Connecticut’s Regina Laudis monastery, where she has lived and prayed and chanted the psalms for the last forty-five years, since leaving the star-studded film industry at age twenty-five. Undoubtedly, Elvis continues to touch the soul of America. Unseen and speaking now in silence, Mother Dolores’ impact is no less.

Asked to elaborate about her “nudge” from God to enter the cloistered monastic community, she added, “It is hard to explain. I guess the best way I could answer that this is this way: if one is married, why did one marry so and so and not another? . . .

In response to a question about what truly makes her happy, she looked intently with her beautiful and tranquil clear blue eyes and said, “To be with someone I love.” . . . Visitors [to Regina Laudis] still may be amazed at her choice of vocation and seek more of an explanation. But for Mother Dolores, no explanation is necessary.