Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935. He was the second of twins being born that day. His brother, named Jesse Garon, died a few minutes before Elvis was born. Some have claimed that this upset Elvis and he felt that it was his fault that his brother died at birth. This could be the reason Elvis was so close to his mother as well.


Now, there is really nothing I can say in this article about him, about his life, that we pretty much don’t know about him, especially the Elvis fanatics. Article length will also prevent me from getting to in depth about him; however, I would be remiss if I didn’t write something about him for the History site, here at Bellaonline, because he is a big part of entertainment history, here in America and all over the world. He is a vast part of generational culture from the late 1950’s to the 1970’s and even today, there probably isn’t one person in the world who will not know who you are talking about when you mention “Elvis Presley”.

There is a much public knowledge of the history between him and his mother, Gladys. They had a very close bond. He would move Heaven and Earth for her, if he could. She passed away while Elvis had come home on emergency leave from the Army. An interesting note here that she died at the age of 42, the same age that Elvis was, when he died. The very first car he purchased when he had the money was a pink Cadillac for his mother. He also bought the old church called Graceland and turned it into a mansion. He did this for his mother as well and hired a staff so she could just relax from now on.

Elvis Presley was also very generous and was not afraid to spend money and lavish gifts on his friends and family and has been generous to just us “regular people” too. There is one incredible story of his generosity where this young teen-age boy, who was also heavyset, jumped the five-foot wall around Graceland, with his Elvis record collection under his arm. He managed to sneak past the guards and made it to a door of the mansion. He talked with one of the bodyguards and the bodyguard got Elvis and brought him to the door. Elvis laughed when he heard the story of how he got onto the mansion grounds.

He had said he was impressed that this “little fat kid” could scale the fence when no one else has ever tried that. The soon-to-be King of Rock and Roll was so impressed with this young man, that Elvis signed every album in the collection. He also asked the youth to hang around and he eventually became part of Elvis’s entourage and also became very good friends with him. His name is Lamar Fike.

Elvis Presley had earned only three Grammy awards in his recording career and all three were for his Gospel recordings. One he received for the song, “He Touched Me” and received Grammy awards for “How Great Thou Art”, twice, in two different years. Elvis receive numerous nominations for Grammys, but only walked away with three.

Elvis Presley has left an indelible mark on music and entertainment history and a legacy that will never be matched again. He left us far too soon on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42.

Where were you when you heard the news of his passing?