Elvis started elementary school at the East Tupelo Consolidated School on Lake Street.
He was termed “sweet and average” by his teacher.
His mother walked him the half mile to school each day.
He got his first guitar lesson from Frank Smith, the new young pastor at the church they attended, and apparently Elvis took to these lessons more than he did those at school.
A photograph taken in 1942 when he was seven shows Elvis and his parents looking straight into the camera, not posing or smiling, but rather looking with pride toward the photographer. Gladys Presley has a look of optimism. Vernon Presley, a handsome man, is wearing a leather jacket, his large, strong hand draped around the shoulder of a thin, growing Elvis.
The dashing Vernon may have been one of the inspirations for Elvis’s later flair.
(Elvis and Gladys author Elaine Dundy reports that Elvis was also a huge fan of the comic-book superhero Captain Marvel Jr., and copied his hairstyle and outfits.)
Oleta Grimes, one of his teachers, was impressed by Elvis’s musical talent and took him to the principal, who entered Elvis, age ten, in a radio talent contest at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair.
On the appointed date, Elvis surprised his mother by going onstage and climbing up on a chair to reach the microphone to sing “Old Shep” in front of several hundred people.
He won fifth prize, according to Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick.
The next year, when Elvis wanted a bicycle Gladys Presley talked him into a less expensive item, a guitar for $12.95 from the Tupelo Hardware Company, not only because of its price but also because the overly protective mother feared Elvis would hurt himself on a bicycle.
He began taking the guitar with him to school every day, sometimes playing a little music— gospel music—for his friends.
