Elvis Presley Family Facts

Vernon's Arrest: Leaving their home

On November 16, 1937, Vernon along with Gladys' brother, Travis Smith and a friend Lether Gable were indicted for forgery.
A check that Orville Bean had made out to Vernon had been altered and the culprits stood accused by Bean.
Vernon had sold Bean a hog and received for it, a check for only $4 - a sum much less than he had expected.
Vernon was furious; as the hog was worth much more, and he had been counting on the money.
There is no record of how the deal was arranged or for how much.

Vernon talked it over with Travis and Lether and an idea emerged, since Vernon 'had been sold short', why not make the check closer to the amount deserved?
Courthouse records do not include details of how large a sum of money the check was altered to, but in her book, Elvis and Gladys, Elaine Dundy says that based on the memories of the people she talked with, it was either fourteen or forty dollars.

According to Vernon's old friend, Aaron Kennedy, he thinks the check was not altered but forged by putting a blank check over Orville Bean's and tracing his writing on to it.
In any case obviously none of the men had any idea of how a bank operates to prevent such fraud.
Great pressure was put on Orville Bean by the community of East Tupelo to show leniency toward the offenders, to no avail.

A bond for bail was fixed at $500 each. On January 4, 1938 only two bonds were filed for Travis and Lether Gable. Oddly the records show, Vernon's father, JD Presley and JG Brown stood sureties for Travis Smith but not Vernon.
At least there is no record of such so it appears that Vernon spent six months in custody awaiting trial.
JD had apparently never liked Vernon.
He had kicked him out of home at 16.

It was Elaine Dundy that uncovered this evidence but it is not possible to know the truth as there not finding a record does not prove Jessie did not bail his son. Elaine Dundy does conclude the worst.
It should be pointed out (As Elaine Dundy does in her book) that J.D. was farming on Orville Bean's land; Orville Bean was his landlord so it may have encouraged J.D. to stay on the 'right side' of the landowner.

So it was inevitable that on May 25 1938, Vernon, Travis and Lether were sentenced to three years in the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman for forging the check.

In his book, Day By Day, Ernst Jorgensen states, 'Gladys is unable to maintain the repayment schedule on their home causing the family to lose this house, and she and Elvis are forced to move in with relatives'.

In his book, Last Train to Memphis, Peter Guralnick states that 'During the brief time time Vernon was in prison, Gladys lost the house and moved in briefly with her in-laws next door.

Elaine Dundy in her critically acclaimed book, Elvis and Gladys, states; These are hard times for mother and son.
Understandably, in view of Jesse Presley's attitude toward his son, Gladys had grown more and more uncomfortable living next door to her father in law.
At some point during Vernon's prison sentence, Gladys moved out and stayed with her first cousin, Frank Richards.
Whatever the reason, the Presleys never return to the house Vernon built, stories differ as to the reason and how the house left their ownership.

On February 6 1939, Vernon was released from Prison with a six month suspension of their sentence, granted on condition of continued good behaviour.
This leniency is the result of a 'petition of the citizens of Lee County and on a letter from Mr. O. S. Bean, the party on whom the checks were forged'.
The document is signed by Governor Hugh White.

Evidently, if Vernon ever was angry with Orville Bean, he didn't seen to hold a grudge as he brought a new house from him in Tupelo in 1945.

[Ironically, Elvis' fifth grade teacher, would be Mrs Oleta Grimes, Orville Bean's daughter.
And it was Mrs Grimes who was highly impressed with Elvis' classroom performance of 'Old Shep'.
'He sang it so sweetly'.
She took him to the school Principal, Mr Cole, and again Elvis sang 'Old Shep'.
Mr Cole was similarly impressed.
This was a few weeks before the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, held in Tupelo.
Elvis was promptly entered.]

In 1940, Vernon was granted an indefinite suspension of his sentence.

During World War II, while Vernon was away helping to build a prisoner of War camp for the WPA, Gladys was admitted to hospital.
In the words of Mrs Leona Moore, now a retired nurse, who was working at the Tupelo hospital at the time, 'The truth is she had a miscarriage'.
This explains why Gladys never had another child, she had tried, and unfortunately failed.

Soon after Vernon returned, his father J.D. suddenly took off again. This time for good.
He left Tupelo, working his way northwards, ending up in Kentucky where he later became a night watchman at a Pepsi Cola plant in Louiseville.

On August 18, 1945, Vernon purchased a new four room house in Berry Street, East Tupelo from Orvile Bean.
The price is $2000, with a down payment of $200 and monthly installments of $30 plus 6% interest.

On July 18, 1946, just eleven months after purchasing the house on Berry Street Vernon 'sold' - actually transferred the deed over to his friend Aaron Kennedy for $3,000 to avoid foreclosure proceedings.
Immediately then, Aaron Kennedy gave Orville Bean a deed of trust, which is the same thing as a mortgage.

The Presleys move into Tupelo, first to Commerce Street, then to Mulberry Alley, a small lane running beside the fairgrounds, just opposite the town's black neighbourhood, 'Shake Rag'.