Tupelo, Mississippi
Encyclopedia : T : TU : TUP : Tupelo, Mississippi
Tupelo, birthplace of Elvis Presley and the seventh largest city in Mississippi, is located in northeast Mississippi between Memphis, Tennessee and Birmingham, Alabama.
The county seat of Lee County, Tupelo population was 34,211 as of the 2000 census.
U.S. Highway 78 passes through Tupelo, and is slated to become Interstate 22 within a few years.
History
The town was originally named Gum Pond prior to the American Civil War, supposedly due to the high number of tupelo trees, locally known as sweetgum, that grow in the area. The city still hosts the Gumtree Arts Festival each year. In the post-Civil War era, Tupelo became the northern Mississippi site for the crossing of a railroad, which brought industry to the town, establishing it as the center of commerce in the northern part of the state. Once the town began to grow, Gumpond took on the name Tupelo, naming the town after the small Civil War battle that took place on the site. That site is now designated as Tupelo National Battlefield. That Battle of Tupelo was in turn named for the tupelo trees of the area. Tupelo was incorporated in 1870 with a population of 618.
Tupelo made national history in 1934 as the first city in the United States to provide its citizens with electric power through the Tennessee Valley Authority. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited this First TVA City.
Significant Facts
- Tupelo is the headquarters of the historic Natchez Trace Parkway, connecting Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, while following the route of the original Natchez Trace trail.
- Tupelo is also home to satellite campuses of the University of Mississippi, Itawamba Community College, and the Mississippi University for Women.
- Tupelo is the headquarters of the North Mississippi Medical Center, not only the largest hospital in Mississippi but also the largest non-metropolitan hospital in the United States. It serves people in North Mississippi, northwest Alabama and portions of Tennessee.
- Tupelo is the headquarters of two banking institutions - BancorpSouth, with approximately $11.8 billion in assets (2006), and Renasant, with assets of approximately $2.4 billion (2006).
- The headquarters for the American Family Association (AFA), a conservative, fundamentalist Christian non-profit organization founded by Rev. Donald Wildmon in 1977, is based in Tupelo.
- One of the largest automobile museums in North America, the Tupelo Automobile Museum opened on December 7, 2002, Pearl Harbor Day, and was designated the official State of Mississippi automobile museum in the spring of 2003. The museum is home to more than 150 rare automobiles, all of which were the personal collection of WTVA founder Frank K. Spain.
- The Tupelo Symphony Orchestra's season runs from September-April with concerts held at the Tupelo Civic Auditorium. Special conductors and soloists appear regularly and the symphony also holds a free annual July 4th outdoor concert at Tupelo's Ballard Park that draws thousands of fans.
- Tupelo's coliseum, the BancorpSouth Center, opened in 1993 and has hosted concerts by entertainers such as The Eagles, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Aerosmith, Kiss, and Elton John.
- In 2005, under the leadership of the Tupelo Rotary Club, the city unveiled a statue of Chief Tishomingo, a leader of the Chickasaw people, in front of the new city hall.
- Tupelo's Oren Dunn City Museum displays relics from the American Civil War Battle of Tupelo as well as Indian artifacts and NASA exhibits.
- 2006 marked the 70th anniversary of the 1936 Tupelo Tornado, the fourth deadliest tornado in United States history and part of the Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak of tornadoes on April 5-6, 1936. Historian Martis D. Ramage, Jr.'s book, "Tupelo, Mississippi, Tornado of 1936," chronicles the devastation of the tornado, with many rare photographs.
- 2006 was the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Elvis Presley Homecoming in Tupelo, the highlight of which was the famous 1956 concert at the Mississippi-Alabama State Farm & Dairy Show. The event was recreated at the eighth Elvis Presley Festival in Tupelo on June 3, 2006. The original site of the concert, the fairgrounds, is now part of Tupelo's Fairpark District. Documentary filmmakers Roy Turner and Jim Palmer premiered their new Presley documentary, "The Homecoming: Tupelo Welcomes Elvis Home", at the 2006 festival.
- The city is a three-time "All-America City Award" winner and boasts one of the largest furniture manufacturing industries nationwide. As journalist Dennis Seid of The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal noted in the February, 2006 edition of The Northeast Mississippi Business Journal, furniture manufacturing is crucial to the economy of Northeast Mississippi, "providing some 22,000 jobs, or almost 13% of the region's employment... with a $732 million annual payroll... producing $2.25 billion worth of goods."
- Authors who have spoken at the Lee County Library's annual Helen Foster Lecture series since its inception in 1974 have included Shelby Foote, Alex Haley, John Grisham, Rick Bragg, Pat Conroy, Ernest Gaines, Willie Morris, Beverly Sills and Alice Walker.
- Built in 1937, Tupelo's beautiful Church Street Elementary School was hailed as one of the most outstanding designs of its time. A scale model of this Art Moderne structure was displayed at the 1939 New York World's Fair as "the ideal elementary school."
Politics
Tupelo's current mayor is Republican Ed Neelly. The president of the Tupelo City Council is Dick Hill.
Located in the First Congressional District of Mississippi, Tupelo has been represented in the U. S. House of Representatives since 1995 by Roger Wicker, a Tupelo Republican who was reelected in 2004 with 71% of the vote.
Media
The local daily newspaper is The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.
Tupelo is home to three television stations: WTVA (9), an NBC affiliate; WLOV (27), a FOX affiliate, and WKDH (45), an ABC affiliate. All three stations are located just outside the Tupelo city limits and were controlled by Frank K. Spain until his death on April 26, 2006.
Geography
Tupelo is located at (34.259585, -88.725885)[Geographic references#1GR1].According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 133.2 km² (51.4 mi²). 132.4 km² (51.1 mi²) of it is land and 0.8 km² (0.3 mi²) of it (0.62%) is water.
Demographics
As of the census[Geographic references#2GR2] of 2000, there were 34,211 people, 13,395 households, and 9,108 families residing in the city. The population density was 258.4/km² (669.4/mi²). There were 14,551 housing units at an average density of 109.9/km² (284.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 69.40% White, 28.28% African American, 0.10% Native American, 0.88% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.47% from other races, and 0.85% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.41% of the population.There were 13,395 households out of which 34.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.3% were married couples living together, 16.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.0% were non-families. 28.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.04.
In the city the population was spread out with 27.5% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 30.5% from 25 to 44, 21.4% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 88.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.6 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $38,401. Males had a median income of $35,027 versus $23,988 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,024.
Famous people
Elvis Presley was born in east Tupelo in 1935. There is a beautiful life-sized bronze statue of "Elvis at 13" by sculptor Michiel Van der Sommen close by the little wooden house where Elvis was born (which is open to the public). The annual Elvis Presley Festival held in early June attracts music lovers from all over the world. A photo of the statue is available [here]. Nearby is Johnny's Drive-in, a local eatery that was frequented by the singer, and has several menu items he was said to favor.Newspaper publisher George McLean bought Tupelo's Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in June, 1934 and remained publisher until his death in 1983. Using his newspaper to promote the cultural development of the area, he was one of the foremost community development figures in the United States, being named "Man of the Year" in 1937 by Nation Magazine at age 34.
Tupelo native Glenn L. McCullough Jr., a sixth-generation Mississippian, was named chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors by President George W. Bush on July 19, 2001. Serving until 2005, he was the first TVA chairman from Mississippi since the John F. Kennedy era. McCullough began serving on the TVA board in 1999 following his appointment by President Bill Clinton. In 1992, he had been appointed director of the Mississippi office of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) by Governor Kirk Fordice. In June, 1997, McCullough had been elected Tupelo's 23rd mayor, with 61 percent of the vote. During his administration, the genesis of the future downtown Fairpark District began as well as the rebirth and redevelopment of the Historic Downtown Tupelo Neighborhood and the city was also awarded "All-American City" status for the third time in its history.
Controversial U.S. Congressman John E. Rankin of Tupelo served his district for sixteen terms (1921-53), co-authoring the bill to create the Tennessee Valley Authority as well as being a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Singer Guy Hovis was born in Tupelo in 1941. In 1970, he joined his wife on the Lawrence Welk Show as one half of "Guy & Ralna," one of the show's most popular acts.
Actor John Dye (China Beach, Touched By An Angel) graduated from Tupelo High School in 1981.
Notorious outlaws Bonnie and Clyde spent a few days with a family in East Tupelo, across the tracks, while they attempted to elude federal and local authorities.
Tupelo was a "knock down spot", or place for hiding and relaxing for infamous State Line Mob and Dixie Mafia members like Carl Douglas "Towhead" White, Jack Hathcock, W.O. Hathcock, Kirksey Nix, and Louise Hathcock.
The New York Mets first round draft pick Kirk Presley, cousin to the King of Rock and Roll Elvis Presley, dominated the pitching mound for the famous Tupelo High School Golden Wave baseball team, that was ranked as one of the best teams in the United States in 1992 & 1993. The 1993 team held the National High School record for no-hitters. Presley was 17-0 his senior season and posted a .39 ERA.
Tupelo High School is considered the most dominant sports high school in the State of Mississippi, winning the state's heralded All-State Sports Award the first 9 times it was awarded and over 12 times in the awards history.
Tupelo trivia
Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote a song called "Porch Swing in Tupelo" for Peachtree Road, about the town (there's a porch swing in Tupelo/in the shape of the south).Emmylou Harris' beautiful song, "Boy from Tupelo," closes with - You don't love me, this I know/ Don't need a bible to tell me so/ It's a shame and it's a sin/ Everything I coulda been to you/ Your last chance Texaco/ Your sweetheart of the rodeo/ A Juliet to your Romeo/ The border you cross into Mexico/ I'll never understand why or how/ Oh but baby its too late now/ Just ask the boy from Tupelo/ He's the king and he oughta know.
Mark Knopfler's 2004 album 'Shangri-La' contains a song called "Back to Tupelo".
John Lee Hooker recorded a blues song titled "Tupelo" about a fictional flood of Tupelo, roughly corresponding to the flood of the Mississippi River that ravaged Greenville (190 miles WSW of Tupelo) and other Mississippi Delta cities in 1927. Tupelo, like other cities in Northeast Mississippi's hill country, has not flooded, but it was severely damaged in a 1936 tornado.
Richard Pryor's fictional character Mudbone was from Tupelo.
In her autobiography, Ava: My Story, actress Ava Gardner, a native Southerner, revealed a long memory for slights by recalling that when The Barefoot Contessa was released in 1954, "a lot of people thought it was either too talky or, like the good folks in Tupelo, Mississippi, who banned it from their town, too risqué for public consumption."
In her famous song, "Ode to Billie Joe," Bobbie Gentry wrote: "A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe/ And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo"
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds recorded a song called "Tupelo." It appeared as the opening track on the album The Firstborn Is Dead. The lyrics are notably dark, featuring such lines as "O go to sleep lil children, The sandman's on his way, But the lil children know, They listen to the beating of their blood" and "The Beast it cometh, cometh down, Wo wo wo-o-o, Tupelo bound."
Critically regarded as "the most authentic translation of a William Faulkner work" ever filmed, 1973's independent film, "Tomorrow," with Robert Duvall as Jackson Fentry, was shot on location in and around the Tupelo area. With a screenplay by Horton Foote, "Tomorrow" was fondly remembered over 25 years later by a beaming Duvall during an appearance on CNN's "Live with Larry King" as one of his favorite roles when a Tupelo viewer called in to inquire about the film.
Sikth, the British progressive metal band made a cover of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds "Tupelo" on their first album The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out Wait For Something Wild.
Uncle Tupelo drummer Mike Heidorn recalled the origin of his group's name to S. Renee Dechert in 2002: "We decided to write down a bunch of names on a table ... just one-word names. It filled up two columns, and we decided to pick a word from the left column and a word from the right column. I know 'uncle' was on the left; of course, 'Tupelo' was on the right. 'Tupelo' was put on there because, I think, loosely, Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo. Then we combined that with a drawing a friend of ours... of Elvis Presley if he would have lived. A picture of Elvis in a sofa-chair with bunny slippers on and a couple cans of beer in his hands. It seemed to us like that character was Uncle Tupelo".
10,000 Maniacs in "The Earth Pressed Flat": Monday I’ll be heading south/ New Orleans the cajun sound/ Tuesday’s Tupelo Elvis’s home . . ./ Try to press it flat inside of a few days/ What a wonderful stay,
The Proclaimers in "Sean":
- Sean I'd say the best one came from Tupelo, Mississippi
- I'll tell you now that grown men cry and Irish girls are pretty
External links
- [City of Tupelo] (official site)
- [Tupelo.net] Tupelo Convention & Visitors Bureau
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