Elvis Presley, Gospel Singer: An Inspirational Life

By Madeleine Wilson

Elvis was known as the "King of Rock and Roll", but he was also a Gospel Singer. He received three Grammy awards for his recordings, all of which were for his gospel songs.

Elvis, "The King", many times said publicly that there is only one King, and that is Jesus Christ. He not only acknowledged the Lord but also worshipped Hi

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shalom Publishing
• Release date: Apr 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781802272567

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Published by Shalom Publishing First published (2022)

Copyright © Madeleine Wilson (2022). All rights reserved. Anyone wishing to reproduce any part of this publication, except for a few sentences to be used in reviews, please contact the author.

We have endeavoured to contact any copyright owners whose work we have included in this book. If we have unwittingly infringed any copyright, we apologise. Please forgive us.

Quotes from the book Last Train to Memphis (Little Brown) are used with permission from the publishers. Quotes from books by Larry Geller are printed with permission from the author. Quotes from Elvis Days are used with permission of Janice Fadel

Excerpts from The Rebel and The King by Nick Adams. ISBN-13:978-0-615693101. Copyright 2012. Used with permission by the publisher Allyson Adams.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, formerly the International Bible Society. The Anglicised editions, which are used in this book, are published by Hodder & Stoughton. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible – Public Domain. Other versions used in the appendices are listed in those sections of this book.

We have endeavoured to discover the ownership of the photos. Many photos on the internet give no indication of ownership. Where we do know the ownership, we have included that, in parenthesis, at the end of the photo caption.

Front cover photo shows Elvis singing gospel in the 1968 Singer Presents Elvis TV Special. (Graceland)

Any enquiries about this book, please contact the author, Madeleine Wilson:

Email: [e-mail]

Web site: www.elvisgospel.com

ISBNs:

Paperback: 978-1-80227-255-0

eBook: 978-1-80227-256-7

Contents

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Tupelo Honey – Sweet Beginnings

Chapter 2 - Memphis Meanderings

Chapter 3 - The Slippery Slope

Chapter 4 - Military Manoeuvres

Chapter 5 - Hollywood Highlights

Chapter 6 - The Concert Years – Part 1

Chapter 7 - The Concert Years – Part 2

Chapter 8 - 1977 - A Year Many Will Not Forget

Chapter 9 - Life After Death

Chapter 10 - The Beat Goes On

Epilogue Why?

Appendix 1 - Living the Good Life

Appendix 2 - More about the Christian Faith

Appendix 3 - How radio was, and still is, vital to Elvis’ success

Appendix 4 - South & Mid-South Radio Stations

Bibliography

Dedication

To all Elvis fans worldwide, with special thanks to those who prayed for Elvis through his most trying times.

Acknowledgements

My grateful thanks go to the many people who have contributed to the writing of this book, through personal contact and encouragement and/or their own writings, including all those mentioned in the bibliography. I would particularly like to thank:

Alyson Adams, Patsy Andersen, Sherman Andrus, Joseph Atkins, Rev. Fred Bennett, James Blackwood, Terry Blackwood, Bill Burk, Marina Buswell, Marion and Joanne Carson, Rev. Wally Cason, Pam Caviness, Nick Dadd, Rev. Christine Darg, David and Jean Dyson, Mary Dyson, Rev. Rex and Caroline Dyson, Dixie Locke Emmons, Ed Enoch, Martin Fox, Larry Geller, Pål Granlund, Peter Guralnick, Glen Hardin, Ron and Denise Harper, Sue Harris, Ted Harrison, Andrew Hearn, June Juanico, Michael King, Becky Martin, Julie Anne McBride, Janelle Mc Comb, Arne Metzner, Joe Moscheo, Jim Murray, Billy Nashad, Shaun Neilson, Anne E Nixon, Rev. Fred Omvlee, Kim Ong, Sylvia Oudhoff, Danny Owen, Nigel Patterson, Judy Peiser, Annie Presley, Donna Presley, Karen Sue Presley, Nicola Prentis, Jim Reid, Don Richmond, Rev. Bruce Sheasby, Trevor Simpson, Frank Skinner, Kirsten Skjaerpe, Todd Slaughter, Jack Soden, Lyn Sperling, David Stanley, Gordon Stoker, Dr. Tony Stone, Bud and Mary Stonebreaker, Larry Strickland, Donnie Sumner, Lynn Royce Taylor, David Wade.

I am also extremely grateful for the loving support of my husband Peter (J Peter Wilson), and all our faithful prayer partners, including Mother Dolores Hart and her community in Bethlehem, Connecticut, USA.

Finally, I wish to express my undying gratitude to my Lord, Jesus Christ, without whom none of this would have been possible.

About the Author

Madeleine Wilson was born in 1944 in the village of Cottingham in East Yorkshire, England.

Being an only child, she had quite a sheltered upbringing, but not so sheltered that she did not listen to Elvis’ records as a teenager, though she was not a fan at the time. Being of a curious mindset, she was very interested in science and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Hull University. She then went on to engage in research at ICI Ltd in Harrogate, followed by training to become a teacher, after which she taught Chemistry and Maths in the local college and schools.

Whilst in Harrogate she met and married James Peter Wilson, a textile technologist. They produced three children: Marina, Hannah, and Aaron, and now have five grandchildren.

Madeleine became a fan of Elvis Presley when she watched some of the TV programmes in January 1995 which were aired to celebrate his 60th birthday. After watching the programmes, she wept for a week. It was such a strong experience, that she prayed and asked the Lord what it was all about, and felt led to start researching into Elvis’ life, discovering that not only was he brought up as a Christian, but that he was called to be an evangelist.

During her research, she has been privileged to meet members of Elvis’ family and friends and musicians who understood his spiritual yearnings, and she began to understand this simple yet complex man whom she never met. She also began to understand his calling, something which is a continuing story. It is a story of dreams, hopes, passion, disappointment, and ultimate victory.

When asked about Elvis’ religion Madeleine says, Elvis’ idea of religion was not necessarily attending church, but rather one’s personal relationship with God and how one lives one’s life.

About the charges that Elvis’ lifestyle was out of keeping with a faith commitment, she says, "It depends which part of his lifestyle you are referring to. If you mean his dependence on prescription drugs, his immoral sexual activity, unhealthy eating habits and his occasional temper tantrums, then yes, I will say his lifestyle was out of step with his faith commitment.

If, however, you mean his generosity with his money, spending hours counselling and encouraging relatives and friends and fans from the Word of God, successfully praying for people to be healed, honouring his parents by buying them their dream home and living with them as an extended family at Graceland, being sweet-natured, not harbouring bitterness, having a sense of fun and joy for life, and crying out to God in anguish for forgiveness and direction, then I would say his lifestyle was fully in step with his commitment to God.

To share her stories of Elvis with others having the same interest, she started the Elvis Gospel Fan Club in 1998, with her husband, organising several Elvis Gospel events both in the UK and the USA. She also produced a booklet, Prayers of Elvis, in 2002.

Madeleine is now retired, still happily married to Peter, and enjoying life by the sea in Bridlington, in East Yorkshire, England.

She is hoping that her 25 years of research has produced a book that will interest, delight and challenge those who read it.

Introduction

It has been said that the formula of a great tragedy is that a fatal flaw prevents tremendous potential from being realised, and the ending is one of ruin not of joy.

In many ways, the life story of Elvis Presley can be seen as one of tragedy, but I would maintain that it is a story of triumph. It is certainly one of triumph over adversity in the material sense as Elvis, who was born in a two-room cabin in Mississippi, USA, lived in relative poverty until he shook, rattled, and rolled his way into fame and fortune in the mid-nineteen fifties. He lived to see his childhood dream of buying a big house and cars for his parents come true.

The news of his demise, in 1977, at the age of 42 sent shock waves around the world, though many who were close to him, on reflection, commented that they had begun to notice that he was not well. Tragic was a word accurately used to describe the lead up to, and the circumstances, of his death.

Elvis was brought up in the Bible Belt of the USA, where praying, praising God and discussing spiritual matters was not only for church meetings but was also part of many people’s everyday lives. That was certainly the case with the Presley family and their friends. Consequently, Elvis knew his Bible well and was taught at an early age to pray and trust in God. There is no doubt that his first flush of fame took him off the narrow path. He however, always acknowledged that his voice was a gift from God. In later years as he matured and began to reflect on his purpose in life, he became convinced that he was to use his voice to sing of God’s love and goodness and mercy. He had many times in his later years expressed his desire to perform a full gospel concert, and I understand that at the time of his death, plans were in hand for this to happen.

In this book, distilled from over 25 years of research since I became an Elvis fan in 1995, I explore Elvis’ love of gospel, both the music and the message, his spiritual journey, and the continuing worldwide inspiration that he and the songs he sang have had, and still have, on the lives of people today. I also suggest the source of this inspiration.

As you join me in journeying through Elvis’ life, you will see the influence and impact he had, not only on his family, friends and entourage, his fellow musicians, management, and fans, but also complete strangers.

Elvis was alive in a specific historical time, and I have endeavoured to give some insight into the world in which he lived, and some of the people who influenced him. Where I have quoted from someone’s spoken or written word, I have used their spelling and grammar and not corrected it, as I believe that is more authentic.

So, I hope that you enjoy travelling with Elvis through his life and even feel that you get to know him a little better.

God bless you, Madeleine Wilson.

Chapter 1

Tupelo Honey – Sweet Beginnings

He nourished them with honey from the rock. (Deuteronomy 32:1)

Many people have described Elvis as sweet. What was the source of this sweetness? Perhaps it was the Holy Spirit, that Sweet, Sweet Spirit whom he so loved to sing about. As we shall discover, Elvis’ roots were indeed sweet, though tinged with hardship.

Elvis Aaron Presley was born in a two-room wooden cabin in Tupelo, Mississippi on 8th January 1935, 35 minutes after his twin brother Jesse Garon who was stillborn. Although on 7th February 1934, Tupelo became the first city to receive power from the Tennessee Valley Authority, thus giving it the nickname the First TVA City, the Presley home had no electricity nor indoor water supply.

The birth was not an easy one for Gladys – she started labour in the middle of the night and so Vernon immediately went to fetch his mother and father, Jessie and Minnie Mae, who lived next door on Old Saltillo Road. If all had been well, Minnie Mae would have helped deliver the baby, but she could tell that all was not well, so they called for Dr Hunt who was 68 years old and had already delivered 918 babies. Dr Hunt had also established a reputation as the poor man’s doctor and, although his fees were very low, the Presleys could not pay, so he was paid later by welfare. Because even the poor man’s doctor’s fees were too high, Dr Hunt had not seen very much of the family as they were rarely ill enough to warrant a doctor’s attention. Consequently, Dr Hunt did not know that Gladys was carrying twins. Jesse Garon was stillborn at 4am, followed by Elvis at 4.35am. Elvis’ birth record shows his name as Evis Aaron, most probably because this was the way Vernon pronounced the name Elvis (which was Vernon’s own middle name), barely pronouncing the l. The birth record also shows that Vernon was a labourer, aged 18, and Gladys a housewife, aged 21.

This only child was named Elvis after his father and Aaron in honour of Aaron Kennedy, the song leader at church, a friend of the family who Vernon greatly admired. It was Aaron Kennedy who later on would encourage Elvis to learn to read well so that he could appreciate his Bible.

Right from the beginning of his life, Elvis knew that he was loved, that he was special and that one day he would do great things. During her labour pains, Gladys is reported as saying, I know it will be a boy – a boy who will be a joy to the world. I will live so my boy can live. He has a wonderful life ahead of him.

Elvis remained the only child of Vernon Elvis and Gladys Love Presley, though Gladys did have a miscarriage when Elvis was about seven years old. The USA had entered the Second World War in 1942. Vernon was not drafted but went to help build a camp for German prisoners of war in Como, Mississippi over 170 miles away. While Vernon was away, Gladys miscarried and was taken to hospital, accompanied by Elvis. However, she refused to be admitted until Elvis’ Uncle Noah came to get Elvis and look after him. Again, welfare paid the hospital fees.

In an interview with Good Housekeeping magazine in 1978, Vernon said:

"Gladys and I were so proud of Elvis and enjoyed him so much that we immediately wanted more children. But, for reasons no doctor could understand, we had none. While Elvis grew from infant to toddler to lively little boy, we consulted doctors about our failure to have another child. We prayed about it, too.

When Elvis was about 10 years old, the reason was revealed very clearly to me in a way that I can’t explain – l can only say that God spoke to my heart and told me that Elvis was the only child we’d ever have and the only child we’d ever need. Elvis was a special gift who would fill our lives completely. Without little Jesse, who was born dead, without the other children we’d hoped to have, we understood that we were an extraordinarily complete family circle. As soon as I realized that Elvis was meant to be an only child, I felt as though a burden was lifted. I never again wondered why we didn’t have additional sons and daughters. It’s hard to describe the feelings Elvis, his mother and I had for each other. Though we had friends and relatives, including my parents, the three of us formed our own private world. Elvis was a good child who seldom gave us trouble. I did spank him a few times, but now that I think back, I believe it was for nothing.

The Bible says that the tongue is an instrument of life or death and that we can choose how to use it. Elvis’ parents and family always spoke well of him and, in a sense, prophesied his success. Mrs Oleta Grimes, Elvis’ fifth-grade teacher at Lawhon School in Tupelo, said that he was just a sweet child and that people who knew him well just loved him. She never heard anyone say anything bad about him.

Elvis’ Singing Voice is Already Noticed

Every morning at Lawhon School began with a chapel service. Elvis would often take part by singing a solo, such as Old Shep or God Bless My Daddy, or by saying a prayer. Mrs Grimes, who taught her pupils the song Old Shep, said that Elvis was best in chapel time because he liked to sing, and he did it so well. We sang out of this book, like a church book, and each child had a turn and we just let them sing what they wanted. This was every morning. He came back to my school in later years. It was right after his mother died, and we talked about her. He went into my classroom and told the boys and girls that I had one time been his teacher. Mrs Grimes said of Elvis he was a real good little boy who liked people and knew God. There is something nice about everyone. There is everything nice about Elvis.

Mrs Grimes was instrumental in encouraging Elvis to sing in public as she had noticed that Elvis had a good, sweet voice and it was she who arranged for him to enter the Children’s Talent Contest at the Mississippi Alabama fair in 1945.

The Presleys were part of an extended family and had many relatives in the area that helped each other through the economic depression of the 1930s.

They were descended from David Presley, who arrived in North Carolina in 1845 from Ireland. His family were originally from Scotland but had moved to Ireland and then, because of hardship caused by the potato blight, sailed to the USA to seek a new and, hopefully, more prosperous life. Some researchers believe that the Presley family originated in Wales and cite the fact that there is a St Elvis farm near Solva, in Pembroke, and that Saint David, patron saint of Wales, was baptised by a Bishop Elvis around AD 500. Wales has a mountain range called the Preseli Mountains, and, of course, Welsh men are renowned for their wonderful singing!

The Bible Belt

Belonging to a church community was an integral part of the Presley’s lives in the 1930s, as was the teaching of the gospel in schools. No wonder that this part of America is known as the Bible Belt.

The 1828 edition of Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language defines the Bible as The Book by way of eminence; the sacred volume, in which are contained the revelations of God, the principles of Christian faith and the rules of practice. It consists of two parts, called the Old and New testaments. The Bible should be the standard of language as well of faith.

Elvis was brought up to believe that The fear of the Lord is pure. The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold, they are sweeter than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned, in keeping them is great reward. (Psalm 19:9-11)

Raising Patriots

According to Becky Martin, an elementary school friend of Elvis, whom we visited in her home in Lake Street just opposite the Lawhon School, lessons at Lawhon included learning the names of the presidents and the names of the state capitals, the Gettysburg Address and a poem called Crossing the Bar. The Gettysburg Address was President Lincoln’s speech made in 1862, honouring those who were killed in the two-day battle. The address ends: That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. These young children in Tupelo were taught to be proud of their country, to be patriotic. The following is some of the history which Elvis would have learned:

On 9th November 1620, the ship the Mayflower, carrying a group of Puritans, landed at Cape Cod in America. Their pilgrimage began in 1604, which saw the start of the persecution of the Puritans in Britain. They were persecuted because of their belief that conversion was central to the Christian faith. They believed that when a man’s sin comes upon him like an armed man, and the tide of his thoughts is turned that is the moment when God’s grace entered the soul and began the work of redemption. They were spied upon and imprisoned, and life became very difficult for them. In 1608, many of them moved to Holland where they could practise their faith without harassment, but they were still looking for somewhere new where they could put down their roots.

At the time, the East Coast of America was being colonised, and a group of Puritans decided that that was the place for a new beginning. So, they returned to England and made preparation to set off from Plymouth on the Mayflower on 16th September 1620. They arrived at Cape Cod on 19th November and, after some reconnaissance for a more suitable place to settle, they sailed into Plymouth harbour on 16th December. On 25th December, they started to build their first house. It was a hard winter. This is how a historian of the time, William Bradford described it:

"And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search an unknown coast. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wasteland, full of wild beasts and wild men – and what multitudes there might be of them they knew not …What could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and His grace?

May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: ‘Our fathers were Englishmen, which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity. Let them forever praise the Lord because He is good: and His mercies endure forever.’

Despite their difficulties, the Puritans settled and planted crops and, the next year in 1621, they gathered in their first harvest and gave grateful thanks to God. This was the first Thanksgiving Day, which is still celebrated by Americans all over the world.

The first president of the United States, George Washington, appreciated the foundation on which the fledgling country was laid and saw America as a city set upon a hill – a beacon to all nations of the world declaring the blessings of a nation who God is the Lord. In his inaugural address in 1789, he said:

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency … Washington saw America as having a mission to the nations and that, through her example, others would find the truth of the Christian Gospel.

On 6th March 1799, the second president, John Adams, seeing that America was straying from its Godly beginnings, proclaimed a national fast day and called the nation to implore His pardoning mercy, through the great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that, through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience.

Abraham Lincoln also recognised the needs of America to deal with its sins against God and against one another and, on Thursday 30th April 1863, he called a Day of National Humiliation. He instructed the nation, We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in number and in wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown, but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand that preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtues of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us. It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

This diet of awareness of God and the place of America in history greatly influenced Elvis’ outlook on life and stayed with him for the rest of his life. He was a great patriot as signified by the use of the jewelled American eagle emblazoned across the front and back of the suit that he wore for the TV show Aloha from Hawaii which was transmitted worldwide via satellite in January 1973. Elvis had asked his costume designer to produce a costume that would say America to the whole world.

Elvis regularly attended the AoG (Assembly of God) church in Adams Street, East Tupelo, with his parents. Gladys’ uncle, Gains Mansell, became the preacher of the church in 1937. He had built the small two-roomed, wood-framed building with his own hands. Over its door was a sign saying, You are Welcome. It was here that one Sunday morning, the shy two-year-old Elvis, slipped from his mother’s lap, ran down the aisle and scrambled onto the platform to join the choir. He was too young to memorise all the words, but he held the tunes with his sweet young voice. (The church building has now been moved to Elvis’ birthplace.)

Terrifying Devastation

On 5th April 1936, an F5 tornado with winds of more than 260 mph ripped through Tupelo. These were the days when there was no early warning system, so it came like a bolt out of the blue with not one of the approximately 7,000 residents being at all prepared for the devastation of that day. One-third of the city’s houses were piled up in the streets. Most of the business district escaped damage. Those churches, hotels and schools still standing were converted into hospitals. Although the Tupelo-Gainsville tornado is often called The Forgotten Outbreak, it is, to date, still one of the deadliest outbreaks in the history of the United States. The Gum Pond area of Tupelo was the worst hit during the tornado. Homes along the pond were swept into the water with their victims. Most of the bodies of the people reported killed in Tupelo were found in Gum Pond, the area which is now Gumtree Park.

The final Tupelo death toll of 250 with 700 injured was much higher than the official records show because the racial inequality of the time meant that the names of the African Americans who died – their communities were decimated – were not listed in the Official Roll of the dead. Tragically, the total death toll still remains unknown.

Despite all this, there were some amazing escapes as reported by the Greenwood Commonwealth newspaper. On 7th April, they wrote, hundreds of miraculous escapes were reported today. Among them:

Carl E Smith, auto dealer and his family, saying their bedtime prayers remained kneeling. The storm snatched the roof off their house and drove an oak tree through the front porch into the bedroom. No one was hurt.

H D McCarter crawled in bed with his wife and three children and covered them all with a feather mattress. The house was carried ten feet. Timbers were driven through the wall above the bed. The roof of the house went away. No one was injured.

Jim Davenport, a farmer, living three miles east of Tupelo saved his family of four by throwing them to the ground and falling over them while the tornado tore down his house.

The house of Dr Charles Nash, a dentist, was the last house on the southern edge of the storm’s path. He found himself in a wardrobe after the storm, uninjured, but unable to explain how he got there.

So where was the one-year-old Elvis and his family at this time? Not surprisingly, as it was Palm Sunday, they were at the evening service in church. According to Elaine Dundy in her book, Elvis and Gladys, suddenly Vernon’s father, J D, appeared at the back of the church to signal them to come out as there were storm warnings. They hurried into the school bus and Noah Presley drove them to his house which was larger and stronger so they could all be accommodated. The menfolk lined up against the south wall of the house to brace the planks against the worst that was to come. When the storm twisted through East Tupelo, the house remained intact.

When it was all over, they went outside and could see the devastation of Tupelo before them. Noah and the other men drove down to the main town to offer any help they could. Next day, when Vernon, Gladys and Elvis arrived at their own home, the first thing they saw was that St Mark’s Methodist church directly opposite their home had been totally razed to the ground by the tornado. Their own home was untouched. The Presleys were forever grateful for what they considered a miracle that had saved their home and their lives.

Despite the swiftness of the blow, the frightful loss of life, the staggering destruction of property, the people of that city have lifted their heads from grief to face the future in an unconquerable determination to rebuild a better, greater, and fairer city. Such an unquenchable spirit makes them neighbors to the rest of the world.

These words were penned by William Clifford Morse, PhD, Mississippi State Geologist in his bulletin about the devastating Tupelo tornado of 5th April 1936.

A Prison Sentence

On 25th May 1938, Elvis’ father, Vernon, along with two others, was sentenced to three years in the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman Farm for forging a cheque. Vernon had sold a hog to Orville Bean and had received a cheque for $4. He thought that he had been sold short, so, encouraged by two friends, he altered the cheque closer to the amount he believed he deserved. It is thought that they changed the cheque to $14. The community of East Tupelo, including Gladys herself, rallied support from the church and the Mayor of East Tupelo, Noah Presley, and others of influence to put pressure on Orville Bean to be lenient and not to press charges. However, for whatever reason, this was lost on Orville, who was very angry that an employee should try to cheat him.

Thankfully, Vernon served only nine months of the prison sentence as the local community had got together a petition citing hardship and the fact that the Presley family were a good influence in the town, and surely Gladys would have been praying for her husband’s early release. The first and third Sunday of every month were visiting days at Parchman and, as soon as Vernon had visiting privileges, Gladys and Elvis would visit him whenever she could find a friend or relative to drive the 4–5 hours to Parchman and back. Although Parchman was notorious for brutal hard labour, the visits did have conjugal rights. So at some stage during the visit, Vernon and Gladys would leave Elvis with whoever had brought him and disappear for a while.

During this time, Gladys did not want to stay with just the two of them in their home, so she moved in with relatives in South Tupelo, never to go back to the house where Elvis was born. While Vernon was away and not earning, Gladys, when she felt confident enough to leave three-year-old Elvis with her relatives, went to work at Mid-South Laundry in Tupelo. Previously, before she had Elvis, she had worked at the Tupelo Garment Company as a machinist.

The Move South

The search for better-paid work led Vernon, Gladys, and Elvis, along with Vernon’s cousin, Sales Presley, his wife Annie, and their children, to move to Pascagoula, a port near Biloxi on the Gulf of Mexico. The men undertook unskilled work in the shipyards, whose workload had expanded because of US involvement in the Second World War. They were there in 1940 for only eight months as the work was very hard and took place in oppressive heat. It was during this time that Annie and Gladys cemented their already close relationship as they were strangers in town, so relied solely on each other for company.

Singing, Robust Preaching and Expectations in Church Services

It was popular for churches to have singings where church members would perform their favourite hymns for the rest of the congregation. As Elvis grew older, he would sing as a trio with his parents in other churches in the neighbourhood. The Presleys gained a reputation for being good singers. For example, when attending a service at the Free Will Baptist Church, Vernon and Gladys were called up to sing. They sang If We Never Meet Again This Side of Heaven, with Vernon singing tenor and Gladys alto. Also, in another church, they sang Amazing Grace, Old Rugged Cross and Working on a Building to a congregation of about 300.

Full immersion water baptism was preached at church, as they believed that to be authentic a person had to make a personal decision to follow Jesus, which babies cannot do. Until the AoG Church built its baptistry, people were baptised in the local town creek. When they had built the baptistry, the fire truck would come to fill it for them. Several sources mention that Elvis was baptised in 1944, some say baptised in the Holy Spirit. Frank Smith is adamant that he did not baptise Elvis.

In 1944, the 19-year-old Frank Smith became co-pastor with Gains Mansell at the AoG church. His father had been a drunkard and Frank had been saved by his mother’s nightly prayer for the salvation of her sons. He married one of the Presley’s neighbours, Corene Randall and they became good friends of the Presleys.

Frank’s method of preaching was to intersperse his sermons with hymns, accompanying himself on a guitar. He would encourage people to be real before God. In one sermon he preached:

There’s nothing wrong with weeping. It’s a way of emptying your heart. If you break down and cry, you empty your heart of grief. Strong men weep. Hear me, I said strong men weep in the presence of God. A superintendent of Sunday School, a strong man, an automobile mechanic, and a good one wept and said, ‘I’m crying, but don’t pity me I’m crying because I am in the presence of God.’ By crying, you empty your heart of all that emotion. During the service, people came down to the front to receive prayer for healing. Frank prayed Lord, melt my heart, melt my heart.

Another time he said:

What’s wrong with Christianity today? We’re still of this world not separated from it as we should be. Separate yourself from the world. We’ve got to separate ourselves from the world before we have revival in our hearts. Get to where nothing matters but God.

Although Elvis could not have heard that sermon, he would be aware of its advice and, later, in the difficult times, would remove himself from the world and retreat to the sanctuary of his beloved home, Graceland in Memphis.

House Moves

In 1946, the Presley’s moved from East Tupelo to Mulberry Alley, near to Shake Rag, a very poor part of Tupelo where the coloured people lived. There the 11-year-old Elvis would slip out of his mother’s sight and go over to Shake Rag with friends and listen to a different kind of music, which expressed the pain and hurt of generations that still had a strong vein of hope. Elvis would have noticed that the singing in the churches of the coloured people was somehow more exuberant and expressive than the music he heard in his own church. A few months later, they moved to North Green Street to a Whites-only designated area in a respectable coloured neighbourhood.

Peter Guralnick, in his book Last Train to Memphis, says of the regular church revivals held in North Green Street, "People would come from all over, dressed up in their finest regalia, the women in pink and yellow and hot fuchsia, wearing fantastic, feathered boa hats and carrying their weight without apology, the preachers preaching without anything to hold them back. getting lost in their Bible, chanting breathing, snorting rhythmically, gutturally, breathlessly, until their voices soared off into song. You didn’t have to go inside to get the feeling – the sound, the sense, the allure, were all around you. You only had to walk up the street and the street was rocking. There was really nothing like it, you had to hand it to the coloured people, they really knew how to live. If you lived on North Green Street, you breathed it in as natural as air – after a while, you got used to it, it became yours too, it was almost like being in church."

Perhaps that is why, later, when they moved to Memphis, Elvis would still like to visit the Black churches to hear the lively, powerful singing and ecstatic preaching.

Elvis Goes Public

Singing wasn’t just for Church. The family would often sing at home and, around 1943, eight-year-old Elvis would attend Saturday afternoon Jamborees in downtown Tupelo. These were organised by the local radio station WELO and were an amateur talent hour that was broadcast from the Courthouse. It had live audiences of about 150 and anyone wanting to sing on-air would just walk up and say, I want to go on. Elvis did this quite often, mostly singing Old Shep, but also gospel and popular ballads. WELO is where Elvis first heard Mississippi Slim, aka Carvel Lee Ausborn, a country singer from East Tupelo, whom Elvis greatly admired and made sure he got to know. Although Elvis was painfully shy, especially with strangers and older people, he had a quiet determination. Even at that early age, Mississippi Slim remembers Elvis insisting that he accompany him on his guitar at one of the Saturday afternoon Jamborees. Slim confided in a fellow musician, Hell, I got to play for him. His timing’s all off, but he’s doing a good job for an eight-year-old. Elvis told Mississippi Slim that he wished he could sing as well as him, and Slim replied, You’re good to be as young as you are – you just keep on working.

Elvis did keep on working, and this was rewarded on 3rd October 1945 when, aged 10, he came fifth in the Mississippi–Alabama Fair and Dairy Show talent contest in Tupelo. Standing on a chair to reach the microphone, without musical accompaniment, he sang Old Shep. The prizes were awarded according to the volume of audience applause. Elvis didn’t win a prize, however, coming fifth was an encouragement, and being appreciated by a crowd of over 1,000 people no doubt fanned into flame his desire to become a performer.

Elvis’ First Guitar

After Elvis got his guitar for his 11th birthday, he would go with school friend James Ausborn, (Slim’s younger brother) and sit quietly in the studio during the broadcasting of the radio show. Slim would help him, teaching him new chords and timing. In fact, Elvis became good enough to appear on Slim’s radio show, though his first scheduled appearance when he was 12 showed how shy Elvis really was. The week before, Slim had announced that a young lad, Elvis Presley, would be on the next week. However, Elvis had such an attack of nerves that he could not do it. He did, though, appear the following week and several times after that.

There are various versions of the story of the purchase of Elvis’ first guitar on his 11th birthday 8th January 1946, however, the most reliable is contained in the following letter written by Forrest Bobo, who was the person who made the sale.

The letter, which was written on 2nd October 1979, on Tupelo Hardware Company letterhead says:

GOOD MORNING –

My name is Forrest L. Bobo from Tupelo, Mississippi. I am 78 years young today, but I can well remember the afternoon when Elvis Presley and his mother came into Tupelo Hardware, where I worked for twenty years. He wanted a 22-cal. rifle and his mother wanted him to buy a guitar. I showed him the rifle first and then I got the guitar for him to look at. I put a wood box behind the showcase and let him play with the guitar for some time. Then he said that he did not have that much money, which was only $7.75 plus 2% sales tax.

His mother told him that if he would buy the guitar instead of the rifle, she would pay the difference for him. The papers have said that the guitar cost $12.50 but at that time you could have bought a real nice one for that amount. The small amount of money that he had to spend had been earned by running errands and doing small jobs for people.

I am proud to have been a little part in Elvis’ life. I had supper with Elvis the night he left for his first audition. We all wished him a great success, and he sure made a great life for himself and the rest of the world.

Thank you for your time, Forrest L. Bobo

Elvis later recalled that the day before they went to the shop, he had discussed his desire for a guitar while they were in the storm cellar hiding from a tornado. Most probably, Gladys engaged Elvis in a conversation about his birthday to take his mind off the scary, shrieking, crashing sounds of the tornado above. (There was a tornado in Tupelo at 5am on 7th January 1946, though nowhere near the scale of the one in 1936.)

Several other people were involved with teaching Elvis to play the instrument, including Frank Smith and Elvis’ uncles, Johnny