Elvis Presley is one of the best examples of a rags to riches story. His mother was making $2 a day working for a garment company seven months before his birth. His dad used a $180 loan from Orville Bean his boss at a dairy farm to build the house Elvis was to be born in the next year in Tupelo, Mississippi.
Gladys Presley gave birth to Jesse Garon Presley on January 8, 1935 who was born stillborn before Elvis was born later in the two room house built by his father.
Vernon Presley would be jailed only two years after Elvis was born for altering a check from Bean for a cow Vernon had sold him. He thought the $4 check was not close to what the value of the cow was so added some numbers to it and was charged for forgery. Nobody knows for sure but some say the check was altered to read for $14 or $40.
Vernon along with his brother-in-law Travis Smith and friend Lether Gable were charged with forgery. It is estimated that Vernon spent a total of 15 months in prison on the forgery charge since he couldn’t afford bond while awaiting trial.
With his wife Gladys unable to keep up the payments with Vernon in prison they lost the house and her and Elvis moved in with relatives and so ended the first four years of the life of the one of the most significant entertainers of the 20th century.
Elvis Presley went from living with relatives to being able to buy a $100,000 house named Graceland for his parents about 18 years later.