Elvis Aron Presley ("Aron" on his state-issued birth certificate, "Aaron" on his gravestone) was born to Vernon and Gladys Presley in a two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi, on Jan. 8, 1935.
Elvis was actually born 35 minutes after his identical twin brother, Jesse Garon. Jesse Garon, however, was stillborn, leaving Elvis to grow up as an only child.
At the time, Presley family was impoverished and unable to afford a coffin. Jesse was buried in a shoebox, tied with a red ribbon, and laid to rest at Priceville Memorial Gardens in Tupelo. His final resting place is next to the graves of his great aunt, Susan Presley, and great uncle, Noah Presley.
A memorial gravestone
for Jesse Garon can be found in the Meditation Garden at Graceland. (His memorial gravestone at Graceland reads "Jessie Garon Presley.")
According to Larry Geller, Elvis’ friend, hairstylist and “spiritual advisor,” Presley often thought about his twin brother. Geller would write on his website that “the life and death of his stillborn twin brother, Jesse Garon, was a precious mystery to Elvis, an indelible part of his life.”
In Geller’s first meeting with the King, Elvis “wanted to bare his soul about Jesse Garon,” wrote Geller. “I learned over the years that this was one aspect of his life he rarely if ever spoke about. But on this particular afternoon he opened the floodgates freely, revealing something so intimate that it was obvious that he was deeply burdened by the notion that he might have survived at the expense of his twin.”
According to Geller, Elvis said: “Being a twin has always been a mystery for me. I mean, we were in our mother’s womb together, so why was he born dead and not me? He never even got his chance to live. Think about it, why me? Why was I the one that was chosen? An’ I’ve always wondered what would’ve been if he had lived, I really have. These kinds of questions tear my head up."
Bob Mehr is the music writer at The Commercial Appeal. Contact him at bob.mehr@commercialappeal.com.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: What happened to Elvis Presley's twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley?
