Off the Wall: Elvis Presley’s Last Name Was Almost Something Entirely Different
Great-Grandma Pressley Got Around
Elvis got his famous last name from his great-grandmother Rosella Presley who never married and gave all her children her own surname.
Practically everyone in the world knows the name Elvis Presley. But the King of Rock ’n’ Roll could just as easily have been named Elvis Wallace.
Elvis shared his famous last name with his father, Vernon Presley, and grandfather Jessie Presley, but his great-grandfather wasn’t a Presley at all. That surname instead came from Elvis’ great-grandmother Rosella Presley. A fiercely independent 19th century woman, Rosella never married but gave birth to several children from different fathers. And she gave all her kids her own last name.
Rosella never publicly revealed who Jessie’s father was, so for years the name of Elvis’ great-grandfather was unknown. But it was eventually revealed to be John Henry Wallace, a married man with a family of his own who had an affair with Rosella.
That means if Elvis had received his last name from his paternal great-grandfather, as is customary, then the household name we would all know today would be Elvis Wallace, not Elvis Presley. Meet the woman who’s responsible for one of the most well-known names in music history…