Tupelo Elvis Fan Club

Elvis parents were regular attendees of the First Assembly of God Church, first in Tupelo (where they met) on Adams Street, then in Memphis, at 1084 E. McLemore. Elvis’ uncles on his mothers’ side preached in Tupelo.

The Church was an important community focus in the Presley’s family life, especially when they fell on hard times in the late Thirties. Elvis’ family would also travel to other churches that held all-day services to sing and have a good time.

The church tradition to which Elvis’ family belonged has been disparagingly referred to by some as “Holy Rollers,” for the enraptured congregants’ shouts, speaking in tongues and violent body movements.

Elvis was baptized at the age of nine or ten in Tupelo. Rick Stanley says that Elvis attended Harrisburg Baptist Church in Tupelo when he was ten.

In his late teens, Elvis and his cousin Gene Smith became avid churchgoers because of the possibilities it offered to meet girls. Elvis regularly heard nationally-famous gospel quartet the Blackwood Brothers at his Memphis church.

When he was 19, Elvis, girlfriend Dixie and pals would go to hear the Rev W. Herbert Brewster at the “colored” Baptist Church on EastTrigg, in Memphis. Racial segregation was still on the statute books at this time.

In early interviews, Elvis said that the only reason why he had stopped regularly attending church was because he was on the road so much and often played shows on a Sunday.

Elvis would have attended Sunday services at the Army chapel in Germany but for the fact that his presence would have been a problem.

Elvis and girlfriend Anita Wood had to beat a hasty retreat from the First Assembly of God Church in Memphis at Easter 1960 because his presence created such a commotion.

In later life, when he embarked upon a more eclectic spiritual quest, Elvis began to believe that the church was wrong to operate on a basis of fear rather than love, and that in the wrong hands religion could be a dangerous weapon.

After Elvis died, fan and friend Janelle McComb raised money to build a chapel for fans to meditate near Elvis birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi.

The Elvis Encyclopedia
Adam Victor

We are so proud of you Dawson!👏❤️