Elvis Presley and Parents Leave Topelo, Mississippi
Elvis continues to grow up as his father Vernon gets sporadic work in and around Topelo and finally Vernon was able to get employment in some factories in Memphis. Vernon would spend the entire week in Memphis and return home to Topelo on weekends. Elvis started school in 1941 at East Tuplelo Consolidated. Gladys, his mother, walked him to and from school as often as possible. During this time Elvis became acquainted with a country singer named Mississippi Slim.
Elvis received his first little guitar at around the age of 9 or 10 for a birthday present. He preferred an air rifle, but his mother talked him into the little guitar instead. The fall of same year he received a guitar he performed at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show singing "Old Shep," and won second prize.
When the war ended things seemed to look up a little for the Presley family. Vernon lost his jobs in Memphis, but the entire family was together again in Topelo. Vernon became a deacon in the First Assembly of God Church and of much importance was that Vernon saved enough money to buy a modest house. In August of 1945 he made a down payment of $200 toward a four-room house on Berry Street in Topelo. Total price for the home was $2,000.
Vernon soon got a job in the Deake and Goodlet lumberyard. When Vernon's father, J.D. Presley left Minnie, Vernon's mother, Minnie moved in with Vernon, Gladys and Elvis. A cousin named Harold Loyd stayed with them occasionally as well.
Less than a year later, Vernon was forced to leave the home as he was unable to keep a steady job and missed a payment. Orville Bean, seller, later sold the house. This meant the Presley family was again sliding down hill. They moved to Mulberry Alley near the city dump where Vernon found work again driving a truck for L.P. McCartey, a wholesale grocer. This job came with the added benefit of Vernon being able to carry home damaged groceries to help feed his family.
Elvis entered a new school, Milam Junior High, where he felt not liked, particularly because of his talent and clothes. He had to wear overalls for lack of finances for better clothes. Vernon kept his truck driving job and Gladys went to work at the Mid-South Laundry. This combined income helped them to move to a two-family house at 1010 North Green Street still in Tupelo. At this residence Gladys was able to take Elvis to a nearby library to get a library card Elvis used often.
Vernon was fired from the truck-driving job because he took the truck for a drive Sunday after work hours on personal time. He is unemployed again and no more church deacon, just unemployed and not very respected.
In 1948, the Presley family packed all their belongings in boxes and put them on top and in the trunk of their 1939 Plymouth and left Tupelo overnight broke. On Elvis's last day of school at Milam, he sang "A Leaf on a Tree" for his class.
Source: Graceland, The Living Legacy of Elvis Presley, published by Collins Publishers San Francisco 1993
Elvis received his first little guitar at around the age of 9 or 10 for a birthday present. He preferred an air rifle, but his mother talked him into the little guitar instead. The fall of same year he received a guitar he performed at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show singing "Old Shep," and won second prize.
When the war ended things seemed to look up a little for the Presley family. Vernon lost his jobs in Memphis, but the entire family was together again in Topelo. Vernon became a deacon in the First Assembly of God Church and of much importance was that Vernon saved enough money to buy a modest house. In August of 1945 he made a down payment of $200 toward a four-room house on Berry Street in Topelo. Total price for the home was $2,000.
Vernon soon got a job in the Deake and Goodlet lumberyard. When Vernon's father, J.D. Presley left Minnie, Vernon's mother, Minnie moved in with Vernon, Gladys and Elvis. A cousin named Harold Loyd stayed with them occasionally as well.
Less than a year later, Vernon was forced to leave the home as he was unable to keep a steady job and missed a payment. Orville Bean, seller, later sold the house. This meant the Presley family was again sliding down hill. They moved to Mulberry Alley near the city dump where Vernon found work again driving a truck for L.P. McCartey, a wholesale grocer. This job came with the added benefit of Vernon being able to carry home damaged groceries to help feed his family.
Elvis entered a new school, Milam Junior High, where he felt not liked, particularly because of his talent and clothes. He had to wear overalls for lack of finances for better clothes. Vernon kept his truck driving job and Gladys went to work at the Mid-South Laundry. This combined income helped them to move to a two-family house at 1010 North Green Street still in Tupelo. At this residence Gladys was able to take Elvis to a nearby library to get a library card Elvis used often.
Vernon was fired from the truck-driving job because he took the truck for a drive Sunday after work hours on personal time. He is unemployed again and no more church deacon, just unemployed and not very respected.
In 1948, the Presley family packed all their belongings in boxes and put them on top and in the trunk of their 1939 Plymouth and left Tupelo overnight broke. On Elvis's last day of school at Milam, he sang "A Leaf on a Tree" for his class.
Source: Graceland, The Living Legacy of Elvis Presley, published by Collins Publishers San Francisco 1993
