In the summer of 1961, Elvis Presley came to Ocala to make his ninth movie, “Follow That Dream.” Filming in a downtown bank drew throngs of screaming, star-struck fans of “The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” and Elvis’ presence became part of local lore.

But there was another bit of music history made that day, even if no one knew it. Or would know it for years.

On that warm summer day, a 10-year-old Tommy Petty would travel from his Gainesville home with his aunt, brother and cousins to see Elvis. Petty’s uncle, Earl Jernigan, was a local film developer who worked on film locations around Florida.

When they got to Ocala, young Tommy was wowed by the crowds and the reaction when Elvis arrived at the then-Commercial Bank and Trust Co. at 117 E. Silver Springs Blvd (more recently SunTrust).

“There was this huge crowd …” Petty would later remember. “And then, I swear to God, a line of white Cadillacs pulled in. All white. I’d never seen anything like that.”

Petty’s Uncle Earl brought Elvis over to the Petty crew.

“He stepped out radiant as an angel,” Petty remembered in a 2007 interview. “He seemed to walk above the ground. It was like nothing I’d ever seen in my life. At 50 yards, we were stunned by what this guy looked like. And he came walking right toward us. We were speechless.”

Elvis greeted Petty and his family members then walked off to his trailer.

“I thought at the time, ‘That’s one hell of a job to have. That’s a great gig – Elvis Presley,’” Petty said.

An excited Petty would go home and trade a slingshot to his friend and neighbor, Keith Harben, for some of Harben’s sister’s old Elvis 45s. Petty played them over and over and over.

Petty’s cousin, Sadie Darnell, who was along on the trip and would later serve as sheriff of Alachua County, remembers that day in Ocala well.

“He was completely, completely enthralled,” Darnell told The Gainesville Sun in 2007. “And Tommy told us as a family he was going to be a rock star.”

And, of course, he did just that. Petty would go on to be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer with his band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, taking his place alongside his greatest inspiration, Elvis. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers would sell more than 80 million records and earn three Grammys in a legendary career. Petty died in 2017 at age 66.

Now the City of Ocala will acknowledge the inspiring moment with a historical marker titled “Elvis in Ocala, Tom Petty Inspired” at the corner of Silver Springs Boulevard and Osceola Road.

The effort was brought forth by the Sunset Rotary Club, which will pay the $3,500 for the marker.

Contractor Paul Stentiford, an avowed Petty fan who has a Petty autographed guitar hanging in his den, was the driving force behind the club’s effort.

“Why is there not something saying this is the spot” where Petty and Elvis met and inspired a second legendary career in music? he asked.

“This is where a young boy was inspired to follow his dream,” Stentiford told me. “And it happened right here in Ocala. It’s cool.”

Petty never saw Elvis again after that, but he never forgot that fleeting moment in downtown Ocala that ignited his destiny.

“I learned all those early Elvis songs,” he once told an interviewer. “And having all that kind of background in rock ‘n’ roll, of where it had come from, has served me to this day. It became an invaluable thing to have. So, for that, I thank him.”