Nancy Walters

Everybody wants to know, "Whatever happened to Miss Prentice?" I caught up with Nancy Walters just as she was relocating to Wyoming from her native Orlando, Florida. Today Nancy is retired from acting, and is an evangelist with the "Jesus Is Coming" Ministries. After an appearance at a 1995 Elvis Convention, she decided not to visit the Elvis gatherings anymore. She wanted to concentrate full-time on her ministry work. In an article for a Florida paper, she said, "I loved Elvis. If there's anything I can say to his loving fans, I will. I just don't want to get caught up in it. This is enough. I have to get on with my life." And so she did.

Nancy's career began as a model, appearing in ads in magazines such as Vogue, Mademoiselle, and Harper's Bazaar. In Blue Hawaii, she was Miss Prentice, the schoolteacher who was on a tour to Hawaii with her class. Her famous line: "Mr. Gates, do you think you can satisfy a schoolteacher and five teenage girls?" Elvis' reply: "Oh, I... I'll sure try, ma'am!" (Once again, Elvis is stuck with a dirty, thankless job!) (click to hear it!)

Besides Blue Hawaii, Nancy has appeared in The Singing Nun with Debbie Reynolds, Bells Are Ringing with Dean Martin, and Monster On The Campus, among others. She also made quite a few guest appearances on TV shows in the '60's, including "77 Sunset Strip" and "The Jackie Gleason Show".

Apart from being an ordained minister, Nancy is a published poet, a painter, an estate executive, and a world-wide traveler.

Sources:
Nancy Walters IMDB
Copy of article by Debra K. Minor for the Sentinel (a paper in Lake County Florida somewhere)
Copy of article for the Elvis Always Fan Club. Both of these articles were sent to me by Nancy.
Both photos from Blue Hawaii scanned from Elvis Monthly magazine, January 1962