Anita probably hailed from Jackson, Tennessee and won a number of beauty pageants in 1954 and succeeding years. She secured her a gig as a disc jockey on WHHM and a slot on ''Top Ten dance Party'' where she met Cliff Gleaves. It was Gleaves who apparently introduced her to Elvis Presley.

Anita was seen on Elvis' arm as he breezed in and out of Memphis in the whirl that preceded his induction into the Army. She was the one chosen to kiss him goodbye as he went off to Fort Chaffee for induction. She then proceded to work on her career. This was probably a bad move if she wanted to retain the affections of the departed king, who apparently despised independence as a quality in woman.

Anita signed with ABC pictures for seven years, although no0one can recall having seen her in a movie. She did, however, manage to finagle her record debut on ABC-Paramount in 1958 with ''Crying In The Chapel''.

By December 1960 Elvis had returned – but not to the arms he had left in 1958, former Elvis girlfriend Anita Wood was becoming a Memphis institution when she made these side in 1960 for Sun Records. ''I'll Wait Forever'' not to be confused with the Glenn Honeycutt song of the same title, turns out not to be a bad record. Wood double tracks her vocal in the release which, coincidentally, is when the strings come out to play. Unfortunately, they play a little too loud. It was not released until June the following year. Did Elvis, who was planning the arrival of his underage kewpie doll from Germany, hear the record. We'll probably never know.

It was a steady downhill path on record from that point. Her next affiliation was with Nita Records in Memphis which had been formed by Billy Riley and his accountant Ira Lyn Vaughan. Their first label, Rita Records (with Roland Janes in the partnership) had been named for Vaughan's daughter. Nita was supposedly named for Anita Wood.

For Nita, Anita recorded the old Ruth Brown hit, ''Mama (He Treats Your Daughter Mean)''. It was her only shot on the label. Her final two singles were on Santo with Chips Moman and Wayne McGinnis at the controls.

Anita Wood finally quit the waiting game and married Johnny Brewer, a former professional football player with the Cleveland Browns. She was indeed a beautiful girl, the more so after cosmetic dentistry had closed the gap between her front teeth, but her success lay in the reflected glory from her one-time beau who, when it came to say ''forever'', cherished an innocence greater then Anita's. (CE) (WR)