| | Life & times of Elvis Presley | | | | | | | | | Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Vernon Elvis and Gladys Love Presley. In the two-room shotgun house built by his father in readiness for the birth, Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn. Growing up as an only child, Presley became close to both parents and formed an unusually tight bond with his mother. The family lived just above the poverty line and attended an Assembly of God church where he found his initial musical inspiration.
In September 1941, Presley entered the first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his instructors regarded him as "average". He was encouraged to enter a singing contest after impressing his schoolteacher with a rendition of Red Foley's country song Old Shep during morning prayers. The contest, held at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, saw the singer's first public performance: dressed as a cowboy, the ten-year-old Presley stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang Old Shep. A few months later, for his eleventh birthday, Presley received his first guitar.
Presley listened regularly to Mississippi Slim's show on the Tupelo radio station WELO. Slim's younger brother, a classmate of Presley's, described him as "crazy about music". Presley entered a new school, Milam, for sixth grade in September 1946. Though generally regarded as shy and a "loner", he began bringing his guitar in on a daily basis the following year. He would play and sing during lunchtime, and was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played "hillbilly" music. When Presley was 12 years old, Mississippi Slim scheduled two on-air performances by the young singer. Overcome by stage fright the first time, Presley was unable to perform, but succeeded in doing so the following week. | | | | |
|