Individual Details

I was driving to northwest Arkansas to visit family with my children in the car when the announcement came over the radio that Elvis Presley had died - it was Stuart's 13th Birthday. When we lived on the Gulf Coast, I heard many stories about Elvis dating local girls when he came down to coast to sing in some of the clubs.
"Elvis Aaron" Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".
Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family when he was 13 years old. His music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer "Sam" Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist "Scotty" Moore and bassist "Bill" Black, Presley was a pioneer of rockabilly, an up-tempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer "D. J." Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley's classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel "Tom" Parker, who would manage the singer for more than two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number one hit in the United States. With a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records, he became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, made him enormously popular—and controversial.
In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in "Love Me Tender". Drafted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He held few concerts however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood movies and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed television comeback special "Elvis", which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, "Aloha from Hawaii". Years of prescription drug abuse severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at his Graceland estate, just "42 years" of age.
Presley is one of the most celebrated and influential musicians of the 20th century. Commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, blues, and gospel, he is the best-selling solo artist in the history of recorded music. He won three competitive Grammys, received the Grammy Lifetime "Achievement Award" at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame.
"Elvis" Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to "Gladys Love" Presley (née Smith) in the two-room shotgun house built by his father, "Vernon Elvis" Presley, in preparation for the birth. "Jesse Garon" Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn. Presley became close to both parents and formed an especially close bond with his mother. The family attended an "Assembly of God" church, where he found his initial musical inspiration.
Presley's ancestry was primarily a Western European mix: On his mother's side he was Scots Irish, with some French Norman. "Gladys" and the rest of the family apparently believed that her great-great-grandmother, "Morning Dove" White, was Cherokee; the biography by "Elaine" Dundy supports the idea, but at least one genealogy researcher has contested it on multiple grounds. Vernon's forebears were of German or Scottish origin. "Gladys" was regarded by relatives and friends as the dominant member of the small family. "Vernon" moved from one odd job to the next, evincing little ambition. The family often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance. In 1938, they lost their home after "Vernon" was found guilty of altering a check written by his landowner and sometime employer. He was jailed for eight months, and "Gladys" and "Elvis" moved in with relatives.
In September 1941, Presley entered 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, was his first public performance. Ten-year-old Presley was dressed as a cowboy; he stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang "Old Shep". He recalled placing fifth. A few months later, Presley received his first guitar for his birthday; he had hoped for something else—by different accounts, either a bicycle or a rifle. Over the following year, he received basic guitar lessons from two of his uncles and the new pastor at the family's church. Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to play a little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it."
In September 1946, Presley entered a new school, Milam, for sixth grade; he was regarded as a loner. The following year, he began bringing his guitar to school on a daily basis. He played and sang during lunchtime and was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music. By then, the family was living in a largely African American neighborhood. Presley was a devotee of Mississippi Slim's show on the Tupelo radio station WELO. He was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, who was one of Presley's classmates and often took him into the station. "Slim" supplemented Presley's guitar tuition by demonstrating chord techniques. When his protégé was 12 years old, "Slim" scheduled him for two on-air performances. Presley was overcome by stage fright the first time but succeeded in performing the following week.
In November 1948, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. After residing for nearly a year in rooming houses, they were granted a two-bedroom apartment in the public housing complex known as the "Lauderdale Courts". Enrolled at "L. C. Humes High School", Presley received only a C in music in eighth grade. When his music teacher told him he had no aptitude for singing, he brought in his guitar the next day and sang a recent hit, "Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Me", in an effort to prove otherwise. A classmate later recalled that the teacher "agreed that Elvis was right when he said that she didn't appreciate his kind of singing". He was usually too shy to perform openly and was occasionally bullied by classmates who viewed him as a "mama's boy". In 1950, he began practicing guitar regularly under the tutelage of "Jesse Lee" Denson, a neighbor two-and-a-half years his senior. They and three other boys—including two future rockabilly pioneers, brothers Dorsey and Johnny Burnette—formed a loose musical collective that played frequently around the Courts. That September, he began ushering at Loew's State Theater. Other jobs followed: Precision Tool, Loew's again, and MARL Metal Products.
n August 1953, Presley walked into the offices of Sun Records. He aimed to pay for a few minutes of studio time to record a two-sided acetate disc: "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin". He would later claim that he intended the record as a gift for his mother, or that he was merely interested in what he "sounded like", although there was a much cheaper, amateur record-making service at a nearby general store. Biographer Peter Guralnick argues that he chose Sun in the hope of being discovered. Asked by receptionist Marion Keisker what kind of singer he was, Presley responded, "I sing all kinds." When she pressed him on who he sounded like, he repeatedly answered, "I don't sound like nobody." After he recorded, Sun boss Sam Phillips asked Keisker to note down the young man's name, which she did along with her own commentary: "Good ballad singer. Hold."
Presley, wearing a tight black leather jacket with Napoleonic standing collar, black leather wristbands, and black leather pants, holds a microphone with a long cord. His hair, which looks black as well, falls across his forehead. In front of him is an empty microphone stand. Behind, beginning below stage level and rising up, audience members watch him. A young woman with long black hair in the front row gazes up ecstatically.
Presley's only child, "Lisa Marie", was born on February 1, 1968, during a period when he had grown deeply unhappy with his career. Of the eight Presley singles released between January 1967 and May 1968, only two charted in the top 40, and none higher than number 28. His forthcoming soundtrack album, Speedway, would die at number 82 on the Billboard chart. Parker had already shifted his plans to television, where Presley had not appeared since the Sinatra Timex show in 1960. He maneuvered a deal with NBC that committed the network to both finance a theatrical feature and broadcast a Christmas special.
Presley and his wife, meanwhile, had become increasingly distant, barely cohabiting. In 1971, an affair he had with Joyce Bova resulted—unbeknownst to him—in her pregnancy and an abortion. He often raised the possibility of her moving into Graceland, saying that he was likely to leave Priscilla. The Presleys separated on February 23, 1972, after Priscilla disclosed her relationship with Mike Stone, a karate instructor Presley had recommended to her. Presley and his wife filed for divorce on August 18th finalized on October 9, 1973. Twice during the year, he overdosed on barbiturates, spending three days in a coma in his hotel suite after the first incident. Toward the end of 1973, he was hospitalized, semi comatose from the effects of pethidine addiction. death was pronounced at 3:30 p.m. death was officially pronounced at 3:30 p.m. at "Baptist Memorial Hospital" August 16, 1977.

Birth	8 Jan 1935	Tupelo, Lee County, Mississippi
Marriage	1 May 1967	Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada - Living
Death	16 Aug 1977	Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee

Spouse	Living
Child	Lisa Marie Presley (1968 - 2023)

Father	Vernon Elvis Presley (1916 - 1979)
Mother	Gladys Love Smith (1912 - 1958)
Sibling	Jesse Garon Presley (1935 - 1935)