April 25, 1912, Gladys Love Smith is born. Twenty and one years later, June 17, 1933 she marries Vernon Elvis Presley, born on April 10, 1916.
Gladys and Vernon live in immense poverty. Vernon builds a small house out of wood in Tupelo, Mississippi. It is high above ground-level on cement piles and bricks. It has no running water. In 1936 a catastrophic tornado fell down on Tupelo. This tornado destroyed many houses, killed several hundreds of people but the small Presley home remained intact.
The life is hard in Tupelo, Gladys works as dressmaker for about sixty dollars per week and Vernon is a farm laborer.
January 8, 1935, Gladys gives birth to twins: Elvis Aaron and Jessie Garon. Jessie Garon is still-born.
In 1946, Elvis’ parents cannot afford a bicycle that Elvis wants, so Gladys talks him into accepting a guitar instead. Elvis' first guitar costs $12.95 and is purchased at the Tupelo Hardware Company. The bicycle would have to wait until Christmas of 1947. Little did they know how that guitar would change their lives and the world.
In March 1957, Elvis buys Graceland Mansion for himself, his parents, and his paternal grandmother to live in. It will be ready for them to move into in early April.
March 29, 1958, after Elvis Presley is inducted into the U.S. Army, Private Presley arrives at Fort Hood, Texas for basic training and is stationed there for six months. His parents soon move to a temporary home near the base.
In August, 1958, Gladys Presley becomes ill and returns to Memphis to be hospitalized with acute hepatitis. Elvis is granted emergency leave and arrives in Memphis on the afternoon of August 12th. He visits her that night, and the next day and night. A few hours after Elvis goes home to Graceland to rest, she dies in the early hours of August 14 at age 46. Her body lies in state at Graceland that afternoon. Services are at the Memphis Funeral Home on the 15th, with the Blackwood Brothers singing "Precious Memories" and "Rock of Ages," two of Gladys Presley’s favorite hymns. She is laid to rest at Forest Hill Cemetery, a few miles down the road from Graceland.
On July 3, 1960, Vernon Presley marries divorcee and mother of three sons, Davada (Dee) Stanley, an American whom he met in Germany, where she had been stationed with her military husband. They live at Graceland briefly, then move to a home nearby. Their marriage ended in a disastrous divorce in 1977 after three years of separation.
Vernon Presley died on June 26 1979, 2 years after his son Elvis died which was on August 16, 1977.
**Click below to hear an interview with Vernon and Gladys Presley.**
(wait until the duet with LMP & Elvis you are hearing stops or pause the player at the very end of this page)
(you will need a Windows Media Player to hear the interview. Click HERE to download a free player)
(double click play button)
BACK TO:
ABOUT LISA
(double click play button to pause/start)