A
Anonymous
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Elvis was born in Tupelo, about 25 miles from where I live, and a ton of his kinfolk live in this area. I grew up with some of his cousins, know most of the Presleys that's over 40 years old and a lot that's younger. My wife's youngest sister married one of his 3rd cousins and we raised their two youngest daughters. Their father spent every penny he could scrape up on whiskey and dope, and take any money his wife made from her, by force if she didn't give it to him. Of all the Presleys I've known only a very few are/were worth a darn, all the rest were drunks, bootleggers, dopeheads or petty criminals. My Presley brother in law tried to kill himself once when he was doped up, he shot himself in the chest with a .38 pistol but missed his heart. Shouldn't say this but it would have saved a lot of people a lot of money, grief and trouble if he hadn't missed. He died when he was in his mid 30's anyway but if we hadn't raised Tanya and Toni and my wife hadn't paid their bills for several years they would have lost everything. His father, brothers and one of his two sisters were exactly the same way he was. Two of his uncles, "Soggy" and Herschel, were bootleggers and always in trouble with the law, both were huge men and would beat the crap out of anyone who looked at them funny. All of them were mean as bad yard dogs, a couple were shot and killed because they had a habit beating up people for little or no reason. Two were Lee county sheriffs, one was killed in a shootout while in office over a woman both were seeing on the side. That's not what the "official" version says, but that's actually what happened. He shot the other guy twice in the chest, and when the guy went down two deputies then beat him to death. Presleys brother won a special election to fill his place but was voted out the next election because of "suspected" corruption. One of the younger Presleys is mayor of Nettleton, a small town between here and Tupelo and he seems to be ok but he's one of the few. They got a lot of attention because of being related to Elvis, evidently that's what got the ones that ran for office elected as they surely didn't win because of their capabilities.
A footnote. The house Tupelo claims is the one Elvis was born in really isn't. There were three almost identical small houses in a row on Highway 6 going down Martins Hill into east Tupelo. Elvis was born in the middle house. The house on the south end rotted down, or at last to the point they pushed in down and hauled it away. The house Elvis was born in was moved about 20 miles northeast of Tupelo. When they built Elvis Presley Park as a tourist attraction about 30 years ago they got the house that was left, the one north of the house he was actually born in. Tupelo was my running around grounds back in late 50's and early 60's, when Elvis was so popular, and the house that was always pointed out as the one he was born in, including by his kinfolks, is now somewhere north of Mooreville. The story is they swapped the house that was left for the one that was moved. Yeah, right. If they did it was done at night. One night, and was finished by daylight the next day.
JB
A footnote. The house Tupelo claims is the one Elvis was born in really isn't. There were three almost identical small houses in a row on Highway 6 going down Martins Hill into east Tupelo. Elvis was born in the middle house. The house on the south end rotted down, or at last to the point they pushed in down and hauled it away. The house Elvis was born in was moved about 20 miles northeast of Tupelo. When they built Elvis Presley Park as a tourist attraction about 30 years ago they got the house that was left, the one north of the house he was actually born in. Tupelo was my running around grounds back in late 50's and early 60's, when Elvis was so popular, and the house that was always pointed out as the one he was born in, including by his kinfolks, is now somewhere north of Mooreville. The story is they swapped the house that was left for the one that was moved. Yeah, right. If they did it was done at night. One night, and was finished by daylight the next day.
JB