FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Sybil Marie Presley would like you to walk 10,000 steps in her rubber-soled shoes.

That’s the number of steps she counted on a pedometer once, about five miles and a typical long day day in the life of a waitress, of which she’s seen her share.

“Tell me when to stop,” Presley said last week while visiting family in Fairhope where she grew up. “It’s got to be over 50.”

She was naming the number of restaurants she’s worked in over the years.

Her first was in Fairhope during high school. Then a local A&W, next as a carhop in Mobile, then a singing waitress in Dallas, and she also has shouted orders at Waffle Houses in Memphis and Nashville.

“You learn a lot about people waiting tables,” she said. “It’s also a good lesson on patience and learning to get along with co-workers. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they behave in a restaurant.”

Presley, 61, has boiled that experience down into a cast of characters at a fictional restaurant in her first book, The Soap Opera Grill: Poems from a Southern Waitress.

It paints a humorous picture of life “on both sides of the tray,” as she says, capturing the characteristics of customers and servers she has come to know in her more than four decades of waiting tables.

But she also writes about a “homeless man,” who a waitress in the poem treated to a meal. The waitress later finds a hundred dollar bill at her table with a note on a napkin that reads: “You needed this money/The Lord has answered a prayer/You were kind to this homeless man/And entertained an Angel unaware.”

Presley said that’s one of the favorite poems in the book, and that people have asked to have it printed and framed separate from the book.

“I was riding on a bus in downtown Memphis,” she said. “By the time I got off the bus, that poem had been written. It just poured out of me.”

Presley’s book also includes a poem about her deceased friend, Mary Jenkins, who was also Elvis Presley’s cook at Graceland.

About her last name, Presley said she was married to a man who claims to be one of Elvis’ sons. She promised to talk more about that the next time she was in town.

In addition to being a waitress, writer and comedian who performs her routine about waiting tables at the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis, Presley is also an advocate for an effort to get the month of January named “Be Kind to Servers Month.”

“I love the idea,” said Patti DeVita, who wrote and produced. “Did I Say Thousand Island?” an independent film released last year about the life of waitresses. “That’s why I was thrilled by what Sybil did. We need recognition. I am glad to see there are other people who want to take a positive stand for servers.”

DeVita learned this month of Presley’s advocacy work on Waitersworld.com, a Web site dedicated to news and issues facing servers.

Presley met with Memphis City Councilman Bill Morrison recently and heard from his office last week.

“After much consideration, Councilman Morrison feels that it may be better to do the resolution in December for January 2009,” said Danielle Spears by e-mail last week, a research analyst for the council and assistant to Morrison. “This would allow businesses and citizens to really participate throughout the month of January. He appreciates your idea and willingness to serve those who serve others.”

Presley said she intends to have the month recognized at the state and federal levels as well. Her idea is to have local restaurants offer discounts to servers who will bring their pay stubs in to show where they work.

She has also written a second book, As the Tables Turn, that she may publish later this year. Then a third will follow she said will be called Spiritual Buffet.

“It’s got the same kind of humor, but for the church crowd.”

Presley has also contacted Cracker Barrel restaurants about carrying her book and stopped by the Fairhope Public Library while she was in town.

She donated a copy of her book, which is now on shelves there. The library director said she is thinking of having Presley come back in the summer to talk about her book.

“I think her book is really good,” said Judy Peiser, executive director of the Center for Southern Culture. “She entertained at our Music and Heritage Festival last year, telling jokes about being a waitress. I know waiters and waitresses who have read her book and said, ‘Yea, I know that customer or waitress.’”

Presley said she hopes her books help supplement her income as a waitress, but that she has no plans hang up her apron or order pad.

“I want to remain a waitress, even if I don’t have to because it’s the cornerstone of my writing and comedy,” she said. “The material will never run out.”

To order a copy of Presley’s book or to book an appearance, visit www.sybilpresley,com or contact her at sybilpresley@bellsouth.net.