Despite rising to become one of the most well-known musicians of all time, Elvis Presley was not always wealthy. He was raised by working-class parents who had financial difficulties in a small two-room home in Tupelo, Mississippi. Even though he had a sibling at birth, he too was raised as an only kid. This is the heartbreaking tale of the twin brother of Elvis Presley.
On January 8, 1935, Elvis Presley was born in a two-room home in Tupelo, Mississippi.
Gladys and Vernon’s sole surviving child, he had lost his identical twin brother Jesse. Elvis was born and raised in Tupelo following the death of his sibling, and in 1948, his family relocated to his beloved Memphis.
He went on to become Elvis, the King of Rock & Roll, in the early 1950s.
On January 8, 1935, Gladys Presley, gave birth in the Presley household while expecting twins. Gladys first gave birth to a stillborn baby named Jesse Garon, according to History.com. She gave birth to Elvis, 35 minutes later, and was okay.
The next day, Jesse was buried by the heartbroken family in East Tupelo’s Princeville Cemetery. It’s said that Jesse was interred in a shoe box since the Presley family was unable to afford a coffin.
Elvis was raised as an only child following the tragic death of his twin. When Elvis was a young adolescent, the Presley family relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, and it was there that he first fell in love with music. Elvis’ mother gave him a guitar for his eleventh birthday, but because his parents could not afford it, he never had formal music instruction, according to Biography.com. Rather, he played the guitar and sang by ear while hanging out with local musicians.
Elvis eventually managed to accumulate enough cash to record many demo singles. He primarily performed covers of vintage bluegrass and blues tunes, such as “That’s All Right,” which turned into his breakthrough single. He started doing live performances and gained a little local fan base. When he signed a record contract with RCA and released the track “Heartbreak Hotel,” it was his big break in 1956. He shot to fame when the song immediately became a number-one hit.
Elvis never forgot about Jesse, no matter how famous he got. Numerous biographers of the legendary rock and roll singer claim that Presley was profoundly impacted by his brother’s passing.
According to Peter Whitmer, a clinical psychologist and the author of The Inner Elvis, the singer would regularly go to the grave of his late twin while he lived in Mississippi. Furthermore, Vernon Chadwick, the author of the book In Search of Elvis, asserts that Presley’s lack of a twin sister probably had a significant impact on his personality and shaped his need to perform.
Chadwick writes, “We do know that twins who lose their partner often suffer many problems and disorders in later life, The subject of Elvis’ twin can help us understand both the great power that Elvis had to connect with an audience as if he were reaching out to connect with his absent brother, as well as the emptiness of the so-called ‘black hole’ which single twins often experience.”
Chadwick also suggests that unresolved feelings over his late twin may have contributed to Elvis’s issues in later life, particularly his drug addiction. Chadwick said, “Relatives and friends of Elvis in Tupelo have stated that Elvis felt guilty about the death of his twin brother, It’s very likely this guilt played a role in Elvis’ later dysfunctional behavior.”