Elvis had a Twin: How Tupelo Shaped the King

Jenn: 00:00:00

. And he's born in January of: 1935

Scott: 00:00:09

So think about 90 years ago.

Jenn: 00:00:12

Yeah.

Scott: 00:00:12

Which is crazy to think.

Jenn: 00:00:14

aby. He returned to Tupelo in: 1956

Scott: 00:00:31

And girls are just freaking out. They're just screaming their brains out.

Jenn: 00:00:35

So Tupelo is a very influential part of Elvis's life.

Scott: 00:00:48

Welcome to Talk with History. I'm your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian, Jen.

Jenn: 00:00:52

Hello.

Scott: 00:00:53

On this podcast, we give you insights to our history Inspired World Travels YouTube channel Journey and examine history through deeper conversations with the curious, the explorers and the history lovers out there. Now, Jen, we got just a quick shout out today.

We have a new member over on thehistoryroadtrip.com that's where if you want to support the podcast directly, you can go over there, do a annual thing. We do have some occasional exclusive content that we're trying to put over at the History Road Trip.

We're trying to build that kind of newsletter and site up where we're gonna have more maps, links, things like that. So as well as podcast show notes, in these podcast episodes, we put a little bit more. I'm trying to put a little bit more.

We'll do the occasional History After Dark exclusive podcast episodes over there. We have one that actually we're gonna do, we wanna do on Elvis and all of his supposed lovers. So.

So if you want to hear that in the future, that is not a podcast episode that we put here on the main feed of Talk with History, but we would put it over on History After Dark. And we actually already have one of our first ones over there, so we'll get around to that eventually. But we want to shout out Christy Coates.

She recently became an annual member over there. So, Christy, we really appreciate your support and I was chatting with her in the Substack app because that's what I use for our newsletter.

And it's just fun for our members to go over there for us to be able to interact with them.

Jenn: 00:02:21

So, yeah, thank you very much. All that support goes right back into supporting our travels, our trips, the gas and all those things, ticket prices.

So everything that is given to us goes right back into the show. So we're so grateful for all the support.

Scott: 00:02:38

Yeah. So thank you so much.

the history road trip.com In: 1935

Their father Vernon, too poor to afford a proper burial, placed Jesse's tiny body in a shoebox tied with red ribbon and buried him in the Priceville cemetery. Despite the loss, Elvis thrived in Tupelo. The church became a cornerstone of his early life where the community embraced the grieving family.

His mother Gladys would often say that Elvis had received the strength of both twins. In their simple home. Young Elvis experienced the blend of gospel, country and blues music that would later influence his iconic sound.

At age 11, in a moment that would change music history, Gladys bought Elvis first guitar at Tupelo hardware store. The family remained in Tupelo until Elvis was 13. Yet Tupelo remained significant in Elvis's heart. He returned years later, now a rising star.

So join us as we walk in the footsteps of the Presley family and discover how this small Mississippi town played a crucial role in the Elvis story. All right, Jen. Elvis, always a popular topic here on the walk with history. Talk with history channel.

So we live not too far away from Elvis's hometown, original hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi.

Jenn: 00:04:30

Yeah, so Tupelo is about an hour and a half from Memphis. It's kind of in the center of Mississippi, South Center Mississippi. And Elvis always remembered his roots and where he came from.

And Tupelo is where he came from. This small rural community. East Tupelo is really where he's from. And that was the poor white area of Tupelo.

see, he's born in January of: 1935

And Vernon has to take out $180 loan to build this home. And it's the land is his father's land. So he's building the house right beside his father. Vernon's father Jesse owns this land.

And so that's kind of where they're building it and that vicinity.

Scott: 00:05:34

going on at the time? This is: 1935

a ton in Tupelo even today in: 2025

So think about 90 years ago, which is crazy to think it's almost 100 years ago that this happened.

Jenn: 00:06:03

It's kind of like a. A sharecropper kind of area and very poor.

And when you think they built this home in preparation for the birth, it's a two room shotgun house and it's on old Saltillo Road. And what's interesting is I have so many people ask me after we posted this, did they move the house is its original location.

And all the sources I could find it is its original location.

Scott: 00:06:32

Oh, really?

Jenn: 00:06:32

Now they changed the name of the road. Oh, right. Because now it's named after Elvis Presley. But that was the original location.

about this, comes back in the: 1950

And it has turned into a museum, more so today.

Scott: 00:07:03

Okay. I thought, I thought it was one of those kind of like Davy Crockett, you know, that we talked about in a video.

We haven't talked about that on the podcast yet, but where they kind of took original pieces of the house and used that to recreate it. But this was probably the actual area.

Jenn: 00:07:17

It was the actual area. And I don't know how much original things are in the home. From what I hear, it's just the chimney and the stove.

Scott: 00:07:25

Okay.

Jenn: 00:07:26

Although I think the wood is mostly the same wood, although it's been treated and fixed and things along that nature. But the location is the same. If you know something different, let me know.

But from what all I could find and research online, everybody says this is the original location of the house. Now the church has been moved. That building, they moved there.

Scott: 00:07:45

Oh, they did.

Jenn: 00:07:46

Although it's the original church building, they did move it there.

Scott: 00:07:49

And you know what, that makes sense because even in, in the, the biography that, that you read, it does state that, you know, after, you know, Jesse and Elvis were.

Were born, you know, that Vernon took, you know, Jesse in the shoebox and walked to Priceville and Priceville when we drove there from where the museum and the home recreation is, it's like a mile and a half, maybe. Yeah, like if that between a mile and two, it's not far away. So it wouldn't be a long walk.

Jenn: 00:08:19

It wouldn't be a long walk. And from what I read there used to be like a pasture there where there was like a bull and they had to walk around it.

But that the area was not as built up as it is today. It was very rural. But they built this two room shotgun house next to his parents. Four bedroom big house.

And I said with the help of his father and his older brother Vester and he would marry Gladys's sister. So they're kind of all related there.

Scott: 00:08:47

Mississippi family.

Jenn: 00:08:48

Yeah, he took out a mortgage, $180 from Orville Bean, great name on whose dairy farm he and his father occasionally worked. So this is a true shotgun house. And we've talked about shotgun houses before with our New Orleans video.

And people like to ask about shotgun houses or give their two cents about a shotgun house. I want it clear. This is just two rooms. When you walk in the front door, it's two big rooms. There's no hallway. It's a room attached to another room.

And then you're out the back door.

Scott: 00:09:22

Yeah, you can walk straight from one door all the way through the house.

Jenn: 00:09:24

All the way through the house. There's no hallway, there's no bathroom. People use outhouses at the time.

So the first room when you walk in where the porch is, is the room where she gave birth to Elvis and Jesse. And then the second room is basically a kitchen and that's it. Those are the two rooms there.

And so Gladys goes into labor early morning, it's January 8th, and a 68 year old William Robert Hunt is going to be the doctor who's called to help deliver the baby. Four in the morning, as you said, he delivered a baby stillborn. And then 35 minutes later, another boy.

Now the twins were named Jesse Guerin, Jesse without an I, Garen and Elvis Aaron, no double A.

Now the double A was eventually changed and when I see birth certificates, the changed birth certificate that Elvis will update later in life will have the double A because it's more biblical.

Scott: 00:10:23

Oh, so did he add that himself?

Jenn: 00:10:25

He added that himself. And his gravestone also has the double A. But the reason, and Vernon was asked about it one time at the gates why he used Aaron with one A.

And he said, because at the time, Vernon says, I wasn't well learned. And we just wanted their names to kind of rhyme. And so the Garon and the Aaron, it's like without the G, it's The same.

Scott: 00:10:51

Oh, okay. And I think you even said, too, and even when I was making the video, that rhyming middle names was kind of a trend at the time for. For siblings.

Jenn: 00:10:59

Yeah. And that's. Aaron comes from Vernon's friend. Elvis was Vernon's middle name, and Jesse was for Vernon's father.

So that's kind of all the names are family names.

Scott: 00:11:12

Family names.

Jenn: 00:11:14

And so were they identical? There was no testing. I've had people ask me that question.

Uh, Elvis claims to have premonitions of seeing himself, his twin, and it looked like him, but he had a better voice. Burnin says they. He wasn't sure they looked alike. So were they identical? There's no way to know for sure, but they definitely are twins.

So I just want that clear. Again, it's hard to put any definitive answer on this when people ask me those questions. But this is what we do know now.

We do know that per the commercial appeal, per couple news articles, Vernon says he put Jesse's body in a shoebox and tied it with a red ribbon, walked it to Priceville Cemetery and buried him there in an unmarked grave. But there is a Presley family plot there, and he says he buried it in the corner of the Presley family plot.

Scott: 00:12:20

And I think there was. It must have been his relatives that I think there was, like they were buried in the 20s or something like that.

Jenn: 00:12:28

So there's one relative who died before Elvis, before Jesse, and that is a grandmother, I think.

Scott: 00:12:36

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:12:36

And so beside her, there's. There's an aunt and an uncle who are buried there now. But if you look at the dates, that's after Jesse.

So when people give that benchmark, like Jesse's buried beside his aunt and his uncle, they would not have been there when Jesse was buried. So you do have conflicting stories. Vernon says a corner of Priceville Memorial park, then he says a corner of the family plot. No one.

So for sure, I would say only Vernon really knows and Gladys really knew and Elvis really knew.

Scott: 00:13:11

And it's not like if you see in our video, there's not a ton of Presley graves there. It's not a huge family plot.

So like, okay, so you don't know the exact location, but within probably 10 square feet, you can probably say he was buried in this area.

Jenn: 00:13:25

Yes. And why. And the other questions I get is why wasn't Jesse moved?

So why wasn't Jesse moved when Graceland becomes a burial location for Elvis and then his mother is moved there, and then when Elvis's grandmother dies, she's buried there when Elvis's father dies, he's buried there.

And my best assumption as a historian, because I can't ask Vernon why he didn't move or Elvis why he didn't move, Jesse, is because there was nothing really to move. By the time Elvis passes away at 42 in the 70s, Jesse had had been buried all that time in a cardboard box.

And by that time the deterioration there would not be much to find or to move.

Scott: 00:14:13

Yeah. So I actually, like, while I was making the video, I thought about that and I looked it up online and I just, you know, not a historian. Right.

But I kind of did a little bit of Internet sleuthing and just kind of googled, hey, how long would it take for a body to dissolve that's not in a casket? And I think it said like maybe 10 years. Right. So think about. That's probably an adult now. Maybe it's a little longer, maybe it's a little less.

Right, whatever. But 40 years for a stillborn infant, probably. Probably nothing that the Presley family in the 70s is going to be able to find.

Jenn: 00:14:48

Yeah. Like, and that's in a casket. Like he's buried in a cardboard box. Which would, I think would deteriorate faster than a body.

Scott: 00:14:55

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:14:56

So I would believe they didn't want to disturb that area. They didn't want to even look for what could still be there. And they just wanted to. If you go to Graceland today, there's a memorial marker to Jesse.

And then if you go to Priceville, if you watch our video, there's a marker to Jesse where they believe the general location where he is buried as well. I've gotten some criticism about this story because people are mad that I go in search of Jesse's story.

And they're mad that because Jesse doesn't have a story because he was born stillborn.

Scott: 00:15:31

Well, and part of it too was the title of the video is the Forgotten Story or the Forgotten Twin Brother or something like that. And you know, the story is one thing, but forgotten. A lot of people said like, oh, I didn't know that Elvis ever had a twin brother.

And that's why we kind of phrased that way. Yes. There's some YouTube kind of, you gotta, gotta play the game a little bit. But we're, there's plenty of people.

We had lots of comments saying, I never knew Elvis had a brother.

Jenn: 00:15:59

Yes. And just because a child is stillborn doesn't mean they don't have a story. And Jesse is going to influence Elvis's life for the rest of his life.

Elvis will talk about him up until his death. So there is a story there. Whether or not you feel there's a story there, there is a story there.

And so I just want people to understand even if someone dies, their story still goes on. We're talking about Elvis Presley now And it's like 47 years after his death. So. So I just want that to be reiterated. Also.

I had one, I wouldn't know if it's a credible source or not. I had one source that said there was a receipt for a coffin for Jesse. Yeah, someone commented that yes, I could find no, nothing.

I couldn't find any reference to that. I couldn't find any primary source of that. I couldn't find it any anywhere. So just one person saying it.

I couldn't find it in any archive of Priceville Cemetery. I couldn't find it in any archive of a mortuary or funeral home or anything like that. So could it be true? Maybe.

But you would feel like that source, that fact since it is an artifact that you could touch tangible, it's a receipt, it would be out there.

Scott: 00:17:26

And the thing is, because Elvis is who he is and he was so incredibly famous and even to this day, like still so popular, I'm always, I'm not a surprise anymore.

But he is such a popular topic on our channel and just on YouTube in general, you can find multiple copies of multiple replications of his birth certificate and all this. Like you can find basically anything with a quick Google search. And I could not find that receipt.

Jenn: 00:17:50

No.

Scott: 00:17:51

Right, like, so I'm a little skeptical.

Jenn: 00:17:53

I'm skeptical too because if they couldn't afford to even afford their house, they'll eventually be evicted from this two bedroom house that they built because they can't afford the mortgage. I don't think they could have afforded a coffin.

Scott: 00:18:06

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:18:07

Now Gladys, after she gives birth to Elvis, she's going to go into distress and she's taken to the hospital. So Elvis and Gladys will go to the hospital after she gives birth in the house.

And it's at the hospital that to save her life, Gladys is never able to have another child. So that's why Elvis will forever be an only child. And then the doctor's 15 fee is paid by welfare so they can't even afford that money.

Scott: 00:18:36

Wow.

Jenn: 00:18:36

Now we talk about the church when we go to this location in Tupelo. They have moved the assembly of God church there.

And that church is going to be very influence, influential in Elvis's life because this is where he's going to when he gets his first guitar, learn how to play the guitar. And music is such an influence on him. And the way that it's assembly of God, so it's Pentecostal.

So the way you kind of move to the music and you can feel the Holy Spirit through you is also influential in Elvis Presley. But the reason why the church becomes such an influence in their life is when the.

Gladys comes home with Elvis, it will be the church that rallies around her and brings food for those first couple weeks and items for Elvis for the baby. They don't even have the money to pay the doctor. They do not have the money for basic needs for a baby and for Gladys who's recovering.

So the church rallies around her. And the Presley's never forget that kind of devotion and what was given to them. So they always.

Church is such an influence in their life and in Elvis's life.

Scott: 00:19:42

And it always. Right. Obviously I. I learned of Elvis much later in life. He was. He had already passed by the time I was born.

But he struck me as someone who never forgot that kind of kindness because he tended to do that for others as well.

Jenn: 00:20:00

Yes. And so much so that when. When Elvis and his family leaves Tupelo at 13 years old, they. They all will move to Memphis for a better opportunity.

Opportunity. Circumstances. Right. He never forgets Tupelo.

And so he comes back in the: 1950

Scott: 00:20:26

56, 57. 56, 57.

Jenn: 00:20:28

We'll get that.

Scott: 00:20:29

Right. And one of the things I thought was neat too was, you know, he started performing relatively young. Didn't he like compete?

He was he on like a radio competition or something like that.

Jenn: 00:20:41

So he's. He's there at the fairgrounds again and does like a talent show.

Scott: 00:20:46

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:20:46

This is when he's like 11.

Scott: 00:20:48

11. That's right.

Jenn: 00:20:49

And he wins, I think, second place.

Scott: 00:20:53

I'll put it in the show notes. I think it was like fifth. But it was like his. His introduction. His introduction to competing into this public performance.

Jenn: 00:21:03

re that he returned to Tupelo: 1956

And that's when the City purchased the 15 acres to include the house where Elvis was born. Did so much of that. It was like he came there, performed in Tupelo very famous picture.

The statue is in reminiscence of the very famous picture of him reaching out to the crowd.

Scott: 00:21:33

And they were. And they. They got the entire thing on tape.

Jenn: 00:21:37

Yeah.

Scott: 00:21:38

So you can go on YouTube. And I put. I put clips of it into our video, which I was very surprised of.

But someone as famous as him going back to his hometown, like, it kind of makes sense. But they, they recorded like the whole thing.

Jenn: 00:21:52

Yes. And so it's very. He's in the black outfit. It's a very famous concert about early concert development.

Scott: 00:21:58

I think it was actually like a dark blue.

Jenn: 00:22:01

Oh, but it looks black and white.

Scott: 00:22:02

It look. Cause it's black and white. But I looked it up. What he was wearing was actually a gift from like some other celebrity.

It was some, like, suit, some like, kind of like blue, not like suede, but that kind of that ish material. But it was like this dark blue. But it's super iconic pose. And if you like, go watch our video because you'll see it in the video, like when he's.

He's kind of doing that reaching down.

Jenn: 00:22:26

Reaching down to girls.

Scott: 00:22:27

And girls are just freaking out. Right. They're just screaming their brains out. And I just watching that was. Was so neat because here he is like in his prime. This is Prime Elvis 57.

Like, he's. He's skyrocketing to the top of everything. And here he comes back to Tupelo, Mississippi, his hometown, and gives this kind of benefit concert.

It was just. It's really neat to see.

Jenn: 00:22:51

And so I think he always appreciated his roots.

Scott: 00:22:54

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:22:54

And he wanted. He wanted that to be a place where kids could go. And like, it was supposed to be like a community center at first. It's grown into a museum now.

But it definitely, with the 15 acres, is like a park so people can go and walk around it. It's still a park today. It's kind of like a trail feature.

Scott: 00:23:11

They have like right out. Right out front of the. The home. I'll call it a recreation. Out of the. Out front of the home. Recreation.

They have like a little marker for like each year that he was there. And they kind of call out like a significant event where he started going to church or he started playing the guitar because he.

His mom bought it for him for like 7 bucks or something like that.

Jenn: 00:23:31

Yeah. So we'll talk about that. We'll talk about that next. But I wanted to. Because we're going to talk about the Tupel hardware store and we go there.

But just know if you go To Tupelo. This is an east Tupelo. Tupelo is not very big. So this is going to be on the east side of Tupelo.

Then as you get to the center of the city the fairgrounds right in the middle is now like a big park in front of like the city hall. And that's where the Elvis statue is. You're going to see it like oh my gosh. It's kind of right in the middle of the grassy area.

And then if you go a little bit farther to the west you'll see Tupelo hardware store and that's where you'll want to park because that's where we're going to tell you the story of Elvis's first guitar.

Scott: 00:24:10

Yeah it was, it was really neat because we walked. I mean we kind of walked right in there and we're just kind of obviously we're. You could. They could tell what we were doing.

The guy that working inside I had my camera and Jen's walking around. She just walked in and asked. But they've got this whole little spot.

They've got an X on the floor like where Gladys would have spin would have stood when she was buying the guitar. And they have all these like Elvis memorabilia and all this stuff and they still sell guitars at the Tupelo hardware.

Jenn: 00:24:38

Store and very famous people want to buy guitars there just to buy one. So we were there and I think they had articles of Steve Tyler buying guitars there and Joe Perry Ryan guitar is there.

Aerosmith's guitarist but in: 1946

She buys him a guitar and Gladys persuaded Elvis to look at the guitars which the store allowed him to try out and he decided he wanted the guitars guitar which his mother purchased for him and his pastor taught him how to play. Elvis could often be seen around town playing his guitar and then that's. You can stand on the X where he actually purchased the guitar.

They still have a pictures of what that guitar looked like because they don't have the original guitar anymore but they have what those guitars look like and then they sell guitars there. But it's a wonderful place to visit and like I said they love to tell the story there and you can stand there be a part of American.

Scott: 00:25:39

And the gentleman inside. I can't remember his name off the top of my head. I may have written it down. He was more than willing to chat about Elvis and all that stuff.

And he's talking about how whenever he travels somewhere and he tells people he's from Tupelo, like the immediate association is Elvis. And so it was really fun to just kind of go in and talk to him and look around.

And actually there's some fun little shops like dessert place, coffee place.

Jenn: 00:26:05

Yeah, there was good places, you know.

Scott: 00:26:07

Not, not too far.

Jenn: 00:26:08

And there was a little playground there for our kids to play in.

Scott: 00:26:10

Yeah, in the, in the park.

Jenn: 00:26:11

So in: 1945

So that was his first radio broadcast.

Scott: 00:26:25

So, yeah, that, that was his first. And I think he, I, I'm pretty sure he placed fifth. I, I'll put it a note, a kind of a text call out when I edit this video. I'll look it up.

Jenn: 00:26:33

So Tupelo is a very influential part of Elvis's life. So much so that his granddaughter Riley has named her daughter Tupelo.

Scott: 00:26:44

So his, his great granddaughter, his great.

Jenn: 00:26:45

Granddaughter is named Tupelo. Now, I got a lot of information from this book. I want to make sure people know. It's called the Last Train to Memphis, the Rise of Elvis Presley.

So it's basically Elvis's life as he goes to Memphis. And it's by Peter Guralnick. It's a great book. That's what I use for reference for most of this research. It's all there waiting for you.

I want you to know, like I said, that Elvis talked about his twin up until the end of his life, had dreams about Jesse. His mother's belief was that when one twin died, the other got all the strength of both.

And Vernon always said that the only child we need, that they got the only child they need. So he was always, he wanted to reinforce their satisfaction with being, you know, and him being an only child.

Elvis, when he had his dreams about his brother, he would say, I'll tell you something, Jesse had a better voice than me.

Scott: 00:27:45

And that's one thing, you know, because, because Elvis is such, you know, this, this video is doing way better than average on our channel. And there's so many people that watch it and they comment and everybody's an Elvis expert.

But, you know, a lot of people say, oh, Jesse, Jesse was never forgotten. Well, and we specifically state that because Elvis did talk about his brother relatively often, and so did Gladys.

But there are plenty of people who didn't ever know today you know that.

Jenn: 00:28:12

He had a brother, as much as people claim to. People know this, usually they're Elvis fans and there are people who are like us who love Elvis but don't know a lot about his life.

Who wouldn't know about Jesse? Another thing that's influential is Uncle Jesse on Full House is named for Jesse.

Scott: 00:28:36

Oh, I didn't know that.

Jenn: 00:28:37

Presley. And so much so that he only had, he doesn't have an eye in his name.

And if you go to Graceland, it's going to be, you're going to have a, an iPad with you and it's going to be John Stamos is the host of the tour. And so because he did love Elvis, he almost kind of portrays him a little in full house. And his name is Jesse after Elvis's brother.

He's the one who will give you the tour of Graceland via the, the iPad and everything. So just some pope culture that Jesse does influence today as men.

As much as people may not know or know much about his, his short life and, and, but his story does exist and it's out there for you.

Scott: 00:29:22

Yeah. And this, this video and this podcast was focused on those first 13 years. We've got other videos and podcasts about Elvis in his later years.

We encourage you guys to go check those out. I'll link them down below. Tupelo is more than just the birthplace of Elvis.

It's where a poor Mississippi family's tragedy and triumph laid the foundation for a musical revolution. From the loss of Jesse to Elvis's first guitar, these early years shaped not just a performer, but the very soul of rock and roll.

The humble two room house where Elvis took his first breath still stands today. Proof that the greatest stories often have the simplest beginnings.

And while Elvis left Tupelo for Memphis at 13, the spirit of the small Mississippi town, its music, its faith in its heart, never left him. The next time you hear an Elvis song, remember Tupelo. Remember the twin who never was, the mother who believed her son carried the strength of two.

And the little hardware store where a $7.75 guitar changed music history forever. This has been a Walk with History production. Talk with his history is created and hosted by me, Scott Benny. Episode researched by Jennifer Benny.

Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode. Talk with History is supported by our fans@thehistoryroadtrip.com and Returnal. Thanks go out to those providing funding to help keep us going.

Jenn: 00:30:58

Thank you to Liberty, Larry Myers Cooper and Christy Coates.

Scott: 00:31:04

Make sure you hit following that podcast player, and we'll talk to you next time.