Opal Walker 1954 photos --> "There is a story to be told."

[drjohncarpenter]

Just stumbled across a very interesting auction, three negatives from photographs taken by Memphis fan Opal Walker at one of Elvis' early big shows -- the Lamar Airways Shopping Center opening in Memphis on Wednesday, September 9, 1954.

Elvis, Scotty and Bill would perform on the back of a flatbed truck in front of Katz Drug Store.


Scotty Moore - Lamar Airways Shopping Center
http://scottymoore.net/katz.html


The images are high quality, evocative and thrilling. Here we have local teen-ager Elvis Presley, about to sing to an excited crowd, his debut single, Sun 209, barely two weeks old. It would capture the ear of perhaps every youth in town, both "That's All Right" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" getting substantial airplay. It sold more than anything Sun's Sam Phillips had put out in ages.

The auction site has nice copies of the negatives and photos. Don't think I can afford the opening bid, though. Regardless, I just noticed for the first time that a truck behind Presley has a TV ad written on its front bumper!

BRAND NEW
Series Starts
Sept. 26

HOPALONG CASSIDY
SPONSORED BY SEALTEST DAIRY PRODUCTS

Every Sunday
WMCT
4:30 PM

Yes, WMCT-TV Channel 5 was really pushing this new series.

540915_Memphis Press-Scimitar_p27.jpg

Memphis Press-Scimitar - Wednesday, September 15, 1954



Another wonderful addition on the site page is the full story of how Opal came to take these iconic photographs. One of her sons, possibly Ken, notes that he inherited the negatives after her passing. She left us in February 2020.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/207535853/opal-estelle-walker

All the stories and scans are below, another little piece of the puzzle.

As a good friend often says, "There is a story to be told."

LOT #2A:
Elvis Presley Original 1954 Negatives with Copyright

Minimum Bid: $100,000

Description

Barely two months after the release of his first record and less than a month before his first and only appearance on the Grand Ole Opry, 19 year old Elvis Presley, 23 year old Scotty Moore and 27 year old Bill Black were still playing mostly small gigs in and around Memphis.

Elvis, Scotty Moore & Bill Black were hired to perform at the grand opening of a Memphis shopping center on September 9, 1954. The stage was on the back of a flat bed truck.

Opal Walker a striking, confident 21 year old from Memphis was at the concert that night and took 3 photos. She lived in the bustling Russwood Park area about a mile from Sun Records and worked in downtown Memphis.

Her girlfriend knew DJ Dewey Phillips the most popular DJ in town, and they would go visit him at his studio up on the mezzanine lever of the Chisca Hotel on Main Street. In the summer of 1954 not long after Elvis Presley’s first record came out Dewey Phillips mentioned Elvis Presley and where he went to church.

She and her girlfriend went to his church that week, and after the service they met and flirted with him, and she recalled he teased her about her long blond hair.

When she heard about the concert she went early. Elvis arrived in Scotty Moore‘s car with Bill Black. She approached him, re-introduced herself and asked if she could take a few photos and he gladly agreed. In an interview years later with a journalist from Australia she recalled she had him all to herself.

Letter of Authenticity

My mother Opal Walker was born in 1932 in Flatwoods, Perry County, Tennessee near the Buffalo, and Tennessee Rivers and went to high school in Linden the county seat. She moved to Memphis after school around 1952, lived in the Russwood Park area about a mile from Sun Records and worked in the downtown area of Memphis. Her girlfriend knew DJ Dewey Daddy – O - Phillips the most popular DJ in town, and they would go visit him at his studio up on the mezzanine lever at the Chisca Hotel on Main Street. In the summer of 1954 not long after Elvis Presley’s first record came out Dewey Phillips mentioned Elvis Presley and where he went to church. She and her girlfriend went to his church that week, and after the service they met and flirted with him, and she recalled he teased her about her long blond hair.

In September Elvis Presley’s show was announced on Dewey’s radio show so she recalled riding a streetcar to the concert and took her camera a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash. She waited for him, and Elvis arrived with Scotty Moore and Bill Black in Scotty’s Chevrolet. She asked if she could take his photo and he seemed happy to oblige. She took two photos of Elvis and one photo of Elvis with Scotty and Bill.

The camera took 620 film, and the negative is larger than 35mm and about 2.25”x2.25”. My mother and my father got to meet other Memphis musicians such as Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins early on. They were fans of the music. Over the years she held on to the negatives as a special moment and time in her life. She received many requests from major magazines over the years and with the advent of the internet in the early 1990s her attorney advised her, and he filed the © on the three photographs.

My mother passed away recently, and I inherited the (3) negatives and ©. The negatives have been in my family for 68 years.

https://www.gottahaverockandroll.com/Elvis_Presley_Original_1954_Negatives_with_Copyrig-LOT49332.aspx

.

[drjohncarpenter]

BONUS SHOW COVERAGE


Thank you always, Opal Walker.

Elvis appeared in the local paper the day before this show, which also listed when he'd be playing. The editors chose a "moody" alternate portrait of him, taken the same late July visit when he came to the paper to promote his appearance at Overton Park a few days later.


Memphis Press-Scimitar - Wednesday, September 8, 1954
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/799523878/

• Neat to see the full page schedule for the Lamar-Airways Shopping Center opening, to learn that Elvis, Scotty and Bill appeared Thursday evening between nine and ten o'clock, the last act of the day.

• Both Johnny Cash (pre-Sun records) and future traveling pal George Klein (post-Humes High) were in the crowd that evening, as were Presley girlfriend Dixie Locke, and his parents, Gladys and Vernon.

'

[If_I_Can_Dream]

One of the people in attendance at Elvis' appearance in front of the Katz Drug Store was George Tidwell. Tidwell would later become a musician himself (trumpet) and he played on several overdub sessions of Elvis' from 1970-1974, as well as being a copyist and / or a session leader on some overdub sessions from 1969-1974. Tidwell was part of the Larry Owens and the King's Men Orchestra for the two concerts at Ellis Auditorium in Memphis on February 25, 1961. Tidwell was in the Joe Guercio Orchestra for the Tuscaloosa, Alabama concert on November 14, 1971 and all of the April 1972 tour. Tidwell was good friends with Ronnie Tutt, dating back to both of their days in Memphis. In 1963, Tidwell relocated from Memphis to Nashville. He also got to know Larry Muhoberac and Scotty Moore pretty well. And most importantly, Tidwell is still very much with us today and active on social media.

https://www.facebook.com/george.tidwell/about

[George Smith]

Utterly glorious, John, thanks for this.

The older I get, the more posts of this nature connect with something deeply sentimental and emotional within me.

[drjohncarpenter]

One of the people in attendance at Elvis' appearance in front of the Katz Drug Store was George Tidwell. Tidwell would later become a musician himself (trumpet) and he played on several overdub sessions of Elvis' from 1970-1974, as well as being a copyist and / or a session leader on some overdub sessions from 1969-1974. Tidwell was part of the Larry Owens and the King's Men Orchestra for the two concerts at Ellis Auditorium in Memphis on February 25, 1961. Tidwell was in the Joe Guercio Orchestra for the Tuscaloosa, Alabama concert on November 14, 1971 and all of the April 1972 tour. Tidwell was good friends with Ronnie Tutt, dating back to both of their days in Memphis. In 1963, Tidwell relocated from Memphis to Nashville. He also got to know Larry Muhoberac and Scotty Moore pretty well. And most importantly, Tidwell is still very much with us today and active on social media.

https://www.facebook.com/george.tidwell/about

Interesting. At the time of the September 1954 performance George Tidwell would have been 12 years old, having been born in December 1941. Neat he's still going strong at 81.

One thing you leave out is George's primary musical focus is jazz, even heading his own sextet.

https://www.google.com/search?q=george+tidwell+musician


His Presley session work was via Nashville overdub sessions, playing trumpet, with three known visits:


6-30-1970 (Tue)
7-20-1970 (Mon)

• Tracks for That's The Way It Is, Elvis Country, Love Letters From Elvis

1-15-1974 (Tue)

• Tracks for Good Times, Promised Land

We can say for certain Elvis, Scotty and Bill did both sides of Sun 209 during this performance, but there had to be a few more. They may've needed to fill up to thirty minutes of that one-hour time slot. What songs might they have been?


Definite
That's All Right
Blue Moon of Kentucky

Possible
Tiger Man (King of The Jungle)
I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')
Satisfied
Just Because
Good Rockin' Tonight
I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine


Would anyone here want to ask George if he remembers that long-ago night, and what he heard Elvis sing . . .

https://www.facebook.com/george.tidwell

[AndyDumas]

Wow! Those super-sharp images

[Greg1995]

I wrote George Tidwell.
Hope he will reply and possibly has something to share from that day!

[stevelecher]

Look at the confidence he oozes, draped between Scotty and Bill. Amazing.

[drjohncarpenter]

Utterly glorious, John, thanks for this.

The older I get, the more posts of this nature connect with something deeply sentimental and emotional within me.

You and me both, brother.

Might I remind our good members here that George recently published one of the most important and beautiful books on Elvis Presley, and American music, that I have ever read.

His chapter on "That's All Right" alone is worth having in your library. But there's so much more.

It's available at a price far more reasonable than some of the latest Elvis photo books popping up in 2023.

Highest recommendation:

Walk A Lonely Street: Elvis Presley, Country Music & The True Story of Heartbreak Hotel

by Tony Plews | Dec 13, 2020 | Paperback | $21.00

Heartbreak Hotel was the electrifying record that launched the career of the world’s most popular entertainer, Elvis Presley, and helped establish rock ‘n’ roll as a genuine musical force.

Recorded and released in January 1956 as the singer turned twenty-one and was breaking out of the claustrophobic country music scene, the song quickly became a worldwide hit and awakened an entire generation, launching the modern cultural era.

For sixty years a legend flourished around Presley’s hit record: the saga of how and why it was written became the most famous story-behind-the-song in music history. But the fabled scenario of an anonymous suicide victim and his enigmatic note —“I walk a lonely street”— posed more questions than it answered.

Walk A Lonely Street is the book that solves the last great mystery of rock ‘n’ roll, and tells the full story of the man whose death inspired Elvis Presley’s first hit record.

It is a saga that spans over one hundred years and involves scores of singers and their songs, uncovering the truth, placing events in context and revealing the astonishing depth of Presley’s artistic vision and achievements.

There is a tale to be told . . .

https://www.amazon.com/Walk-Lonely-Street-Presley-Heartbreak/dp/1999721829/

'

[raised_on_sofa]

If I remember correctly these photos were discovered at the time by Bill Burk who then used them for his book Elvis The Early Years. And if I'm not mistaken it was Bill Burk himself who bought the original photos. Opal Walker probably only kept the negatives. But the negatives are worthless as the photos have long been in the public domain. $100,000 for negatives is crazy and Opal went crazy at the time by selling the original photos. Opal had to keep both the photos and the negatives so the whole package would be worth a lot of money.

Just stumbled across a very interesting auction, three negatives from photographs taken by Memphis fan Opal Walker at one of Elvis' early big shows -- the Lamar Airways Shopping Center opening in Memphis on Wednesday, September 9, 1954.

Elvis, Scotty and Bill would perform on the back of a flatbed truck in front of Katz Drug Store.


Scotty Moore - Lamar Airways Shopping Center
http://scottymoore.net/katz.html


The images are high quality, evocative and thrilling. Here we have local teen-ager Elvis Presley, about to sing to an excited crowd, his debut single, Sun 209, barely two weeks old. It would capture the ear of perhaps every youth in town, both "That's All Right" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" getting substantial airplay. It sold more than anything Sun's Sam Phillips had put out in ages.

The auction site has nice copies of the negatives and photos. Don't think I can afford the opening bid, though. Regardless, I just noticed for the first time that a truck behind Presley has a TV ad written on its front bumper!

BRAND NEW
Series Starts
Sept. 26

HOPALONG CASSIDY
SPONSORED BY SEALTEST DAIRY PRODUCTS

Every Sunday
WMCT
4:30 PM

Yes, WMCT-TV Channel 5 was really pushing this new series.





Memphis Press-Scimitar - Wednesday, September 15, 1954



Another wonderful addition on the site page is the full story of how Opal came to take these iconic photographs. One of her sons, possibly Ken, notes that he inherited the negatives after her passing. She left us in February 2020.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/207535853/opal-estelle-walker

All the stories and scans are below, another little piece of the puzzle.

As a good friend often says, "There is a story to be told."

LOT #2A:
Elvis Presley Original 1954 Negatives with Copyright

Minimum Bid: $100,000

Description

Barely two months after the release of his first record and less than a month before his first and only appearance on the Grand Ole Opry, 19 year old Elvis Presley, 23 year old Scotty Moore and 27 year old Bill Black were still playing mostly small gigs in and around Memphis.

Elvis, Scotty Moore & Bill Black were hired to perform at the grand opening of a Memphis shopping center on September 9, 1954. The stage was on the back of a flat bed truck.

Opal Walker a striking, confident 21 year old from Memphis was at the concert that night and took 3 photos. She lived in the bustling Russwood Park area about a mile from Sun Records and worked in downtown Memphis.

Her girlfriend knew DJ Dewey Phillips the most popular DJ in town, and they would go visit him at his studio up on the mezzanine lever of the Chisca Hotel on Main Street. In the summer of 1954 not long after Elvis Presley’s first record came out Dewey Phillips mentioned Elvis Presley and where he went to church.

She and her girlfriend went to his church that week, and after the service they met and flirted with him, and she recalled he teased her about her long blond hair.

When she heard about the concert she went early. Elvis arrived in Scotty Moore‘s car with Bill Black. She approached him, re-introduced herself and asked if she could take a few photos and he gladly agreed. In an interview years later with a journalist from Australia she recalled she had him all to herself.

Letter of Authenticity

My mother Opal Walker was born in 1932 in Flatwoods, Perry County, Tennessee near the Buffalo, and Tennessee Rivers and went to high school in Linden the county seat. She moved to Memphis after school around 1952, lived in the Russwood Park area about a mile from Sun Records and worked in the downtown area of Memphis. Her girlfriend knew DJ Dewey Daddy – O - Phillips the most popular DJ in town, and they would go visit him at his studio up on the mezzanine lever at the Chisca Hotel on Main Street. In the summer of 1954 not long after Elvis Presley’s first record came out Dewey Phillips mentioned Elvis Presley and where he went to church. She and her girlfriend went to his church that week, and after the service they met and flirted with him, and she recalled he teased her about her long blond hair.

In September Elvis Presley’s show was announced on Dewey’s radio show so she recalled riding a streetcar to the concert and took her camera a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash. She waited for him, and Elvis arrived with Scotty Moore and Bill Black in Scotty’s Chevrolet. She asked if she could take his photo and he seemed happy to oblige. She took two photos of Elvis and one photo of Elvis with Scotty and Bill.

The camera took 620 film, and the negative is larger than 35mm and about 2.25”x2.25”. My mother and my father got to meet other Memphis musicians such as Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins early on. They were fans of the music. Over the years she held on to the negatives as a special moment and time in her life. She received many requests from major magazines over the years and with the advent of the internet in the early 1990s her attorney advised her, and he filed the © on the three photographs.

My mother passed away recently, and I inherited the (3) negatives and ©. The negatives have been in my family for 68 years.

https://www.gottahaverockandroll.com/Elvis_Presley_Original_1954_Negatives_with_Copyrig-LOT49332.aspx

.

[drjohncarpenter]

If I remember correctly these photos were discovered at the time by Bill Burk who then used them for his book Elvis The Early Years. And if I'm not mistaken it was Bill Burk himself who bought the original photos. Opal Walker probably only kept the negatives. But the negatives are worthless as the photos have long been in the public domain. $100,000 for negatives is crazy and Opal went crazy at the time by selling the original photos. Opal had to keep both the photos and the negatives so the whole package would be worth a lot of money.

Lots of hearsay in this post. It's far better to include credible sources if you're going to make such statements.

It also helps to have your facts straight. Bill Burk doesn't have a book by that title, although you may be thinking of Early Elvis: The Sun Years. However, that was published in 1997.

Three years earlier, in October 1994, critic and historian Peter Guralnick gave us Last Train To Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. And the first image you see when you begin to read it is Opal Walker's photo of Elvis from the Lamar Airways opening.

She gets full credit for it as well. Burk couldn't have "discovered" them in 1997.


'

[George Smith]

Utterly glorious, John, thanks for this.

The older I get, the more posts of this nature connect with something deeply sentimental and emotional within me.

You and me both, brother.

Might I remind our good members here that George recently published one of the most important and beautiful books on Elvis Presley, and American music, that I have ever read.

His chapter on "That's All Right" alone is worth having in your library. But there's so much more.

It's available at a price far more reasonable than some of the latest Elvis photo books popping up in 2023.

Highest recommendation:

I am humbled.

Thank you.

[raised_on_sofa]

Surely you're right Doc. Maybe I remembered wrong. Anyway I was referring to the book The Humes Years but double checking those pictures are not there.
But I still have a vague memory that those photos were published many years ago by Bill Burk somewhere. Bill Burk surely also interviewed Opal Walker and he certainly saw those photos. But I may be wrong because I have a rather nebulous recollection read somewhere maybe on Flynn's site or elsewhere. One thing I think is certain: Opal sold the photos and kept the originals,sold at this point to Guralnick ?

If I remember correctly these photos were discovered at the time by Bill Burk who then used them for his book Elvis The Early Years. And if I'm not mistaken it was Bill Burk himself who bought the original photos. Opal Walker probably only kept the negatives. But the negatives are worthless as the photos have long been in the public domain. $100,000 for negatives is crazy and Opal went crazy at the time by selling the original photos. Opal had to keep both the photos and the negatives so the whole package would be worth a lot of money.

Lots of hearsay in this post. It's far better to include credible sources if you're going to make such statements.

It also helps to have your facts straight. Bill Burk doesn't have a book by that title, although you may be thinking of Early Elvis: The Sun Years. However, that was published in 1997.

Three years earlier, in October 1994, critic and historian Peter Guralnick gave us Last Train To Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. And the first image you see when you begin to read it is Opal Walker's photo of Elvis from the Lamar Airways opening.

She gets full credit for it as well. Burk couldn't have "discovered" them in 1997.


'

[Rocker77]

Good post Doc. Enjoyed reading it and seeing this photo’s. But as It was said in the Sinatra Welcome home special in 1960 - Where the heck are his sideburns

[drjohncarpenter]

Good post Doc. Enjoyed reading it and seeing this photo’s. But as It was said in the Sinatra Welcome home special in 1960 - Where the heck are his sideburns

At one point that summer he cut them short to keep his employers happy.

But before 1954 was out he left that world to become a full-time musician. Good decision, methinks.

[drjohncarpenter]

I am humbled.

Thank you.

Deserved.

Hope some of you out there take the plunge. Walk A Lonely Street will bring hours of enjoyment to anyone who loves Elvis' music, his career and the world in which it all happened.

[drjohncarpenter]

Just a little more detail on the events of this long-ago evening were published in this wonderful book about 25 years ago:

970816_Memphis Elvis-Style.jpg

The lineup at the three-day festivities included an Indian band, the WDIA band, the Air Force marching band, and Elvis Presley performing with Scotty and Bill, who were dubbed Sleepy-Eyed John’s Eagle’s Nest Band. On the first day of the grand opening, Elvis arrived with Scotty and Bill. Opal Walker, who liked Elvis’s music after listening to Dewey Phillips’s radio show, snapped a couple of pictures as the band stood near their car. Elvis wore black pants with a pink stripe down the side of each leg and a pink shirt. He had a very faint mustache. She remembers how little fanfare there was before the show. “Nobody knew who he was,” she said.

That changed once he stepped onto the flatbed truck that served as a stage, she recalls. George Klein was the emcee who introduced Elvis. During the show, Bill rode his bass across the stage. She doesn’t remember exactly what Elvis sang, or for how long, but she does remember that everybody crowded around him after the show.

- Hazen and Freeman, Memphis, Elvis-Style, p. 77.

MORE ON OPAL


One thing I've realized is that it was not 21 year-old Opal Walker who, with some friends, had flirted with Elvis after a service at the First Assembly of God Church on 1084 East McLemore Avenue, nor was it Opal Walker who took these wonderful photos at the Lamar-Airways opening.

Walker was her married name. According to her husband's obituary in January 2000, they were wed "for 44 years." So she wasn't married in the summer of 1954, but sometime in late 1955 - early 1956.

I've yet to uncover Opal's maiden name. but if someone knows, do share it here.

BEN O. WALKER, 69, of Memphis, retired salesman for Golden Flake Snack Foods, died of heart failure Saturday at Methodist Hospital North. Services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Northridge/Woodhaven Chapel with burial in Northridge/Woodhaven Cemetery. He was a member of Scottish Rite, Mason, Shriner, American Legion, delegate-at-large for Northaven Community, and a Navy veteran. Mr. Walker, the husband of Opal Walker for 44 years, also leaves two sons, Ken Walker of Memphis and Greg Walker of Brighton, Tenn.; three sisters, Carmen James of McQueen, Tenn., JoEthel Forrester of Waverly, Tenn., and Leanora Baughman of Detroit, and a granddaughter.

Memphis Commercial Appeal - Tuesday, January 11, 2000
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/775459464/

Opal, young Memphian and early Elvis fan
(only known image of her online)
'

[Kanaka]

Just a little more detail on the events of this long-ago evening were published in this wonderful book about 25 years ago:

The lineup at the three-day festivities included an Indian band, the WDIA band, the Air Force marching band, and Elvis Presley performing with Scotty and Bill, who were dubbed Sleepy-Eyed John’s Eagle’s Nest Band. On the first day of the grand opening, Elvis arrived with Scotty and Bill. Opal Walker, who liked Elvis’s music after listening to Dewey Phillips’s radio show, snapped a couple of pictures as the band stood near their car. Elvis wore black pants with a pink stripe down the side of each leg and a pink shirt. He had a very faint mustache. She remembers how little fanfare there was before the show. “Nobody knew who he was,” she said.

That changed once he stepped onto the flatbed truck that served as a stage, she recalls. George Klein was the emcee who introduced Elvis. During the show, Bill rode his bass across the stage. She doesn’t remember exactly what Elvis sang, or for how long, but she does remember that everybody crowded around him after the show.

- Hazen and Freeman, Memphis, Elvis-Style, p. 77.

I found that Opal Estelle Treadwell Walker died in 2020. So Treadwell would have been her maiden name.



MORE ON OPAL


One thing I've realized is that it was not 21 year-old Opal Walker who, with some friends, had flirted with Elvis after a service at the First Assembly of God Church on 1084 East McLemore Avenue, nor was it Opal Walker who took these wonderful photos at the Lamar-Airways opening.

Walker was her married name. According to her husband's obituary in January 2000, they were wed "for 44 years." So she wasn't married in the summer of 1954, but sometime in late 1955 - early 1956.

I've yet to uncover Opal's maiden name. but if someone knows, do share it here.

BEN O. WALKER, 69, of Memphis, retired salesman for Golden Flake Snack Foods, died of heart failure Saturday at Methodist Hospital North. Services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Northridge/Woodhaven Chapel with burial in Northridge/Woodhaven Cemetery. He was a member of Scottish Rite, Mason, Shriner, American Legion, delegate-at-large for Northaven Community, and a Navy veteran. Mr. Walker, the husband of Opal Walker for 44 years, also leaves two sons, Ken Walker of Memphis and Greg Walker of Brighton, Tenn.; three sisters, Carmen James of McQueen, Tenn., JoEthel Forrester of Waverly, Tenn., and Leanora Baughman of Detroit, and a granddaughter.

Memphis Commercial Appeal - Tuesday, January 11, 2000
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/775459464/

Opal, young Memphian and early Elvis fan
(only known image of her online)
'

I found that Opal Estelle Treadwell Walker died in 2020 (Photo matches your photo). So, Treadwell would have been her maiden name.

Kanaka

[drjohncarpenter]

I found that Opal Estelle Treadwell Walker died in 2020 (Photo matches your photo). So, Treadwell would have been her maiden name.

Kanaka

That's interesting information. Where may it be found? I cannot find anything online.

[Kanaka]

I found that Opal Estelle Treadwell Walker died in 2020 (Photo matches your photo). So, Treadwell would have been her maiden name.

Kanaka

That's interesting information. Where may it be found? I cannot find anything online.

Ancestry.com

Kanaka

[drjohncarpenter]

Ancestry.com

Kanaka

Is there a direct link to a public page for this? I'd like to see the information they share.

There does not appear to be a marriage license for Opal and Ben in Shelby County, checked from 1948-1968:

https://search.register.shelby.tn.us/index.php?go=marriageRecords&title=Marriage%20Records%201820-1977

'

[Kanaka]

Ancestry.com

Kanaka

Is there a direct link to a public page for this? I'd like to see the information they share.

There does not appear to be a marriage license for Opal and Ben in Shelby County, checked from 1948-1968:

https://search.register.shelby.tn.us/index.php?go=marriageRecords&title=Marriage%20Records%201820-1977

'

You have to pay a subscription fee for most of the information that they have. I did a DNA test several years ago which also gave me a 1 year subscription. Even though my subscription ran out, I can still log in to get some information, which is very little.

Kanaka

[Kanaka]

Here is the 1950 U.S.A. Census for the Treadwell family in Wayne, TN. Check out Opal's father's first name,

Name Opal Treadwell
Age 16
Birth Date abt 1934
Gender Female
Race White
Birth Place Tennessee
Marital Status Never Married (Single)
Relation to Head of House Daughter
Residence Date 1950
Home in 1950 Wayne, Tennessee, USA
Apartment Number Aptt
Dwelling Number 64
Farm Yes
Inferred Previous Residence Place Civil Dis, Wayne, Tennessee
Father Birth Place USA
Mother Birth Place USA
Occupation Category Other
Worked Last Week No
Seeking Work No
Employment Status No
Same House Yes
School Completed S10
Grade Completed No
School Attendance Yes
Weeks Worked 8
Income none
Other Income none
Supplemental Income none
Relative Income 100
Relative Other Income none
Household Members (Name) Age Relationship
Elvis T Treadwell 47 Head
Elsie M Treadwell 40 Wife
Opal Treadwell 16 Daughter
Mattie S Treadwell 12 Daughter

[drjohncarpenter]

Here is the 1950 U.S.A. Census for the Treadwell family in Wayne, TN. Check out Opal's father's first name,

Name Opal Treadwell
Age 16
Birth Date abt 1934
Gender Female
Race White
Birth Place Tennessee
Marital Status Never Married (Single)
Relation to Head of House Daughter
Residence Date 1950
Home in 1950 Wayne, Tennessee, USA
Apartment Number Aptt
Dwelling Number 64
Farm Yes
Inferred Previous Residence Place Civil Dis, Wayne, Tennessee
Father Birth Place USA
Mother Birth Place USA
Occupation Category Other
Worked Last Week No
Seeking Work No
Employment Status No
Same House Yes
School Completed S10
Grade Completed No
School Attendance Yes
Weeks Worked 8
Income none
Other Income none
Supplemental Income none
Relative Income 100
Relative Other Income none
Household Members (Name) Age Relationship
Elvis T Treadwell 47 Head
Elsie M Treadwell 40 Wife
Opal Treadwell 16 Daughter
Mattie S Treadwell 12 Daughter

Thanks for the additional information. The age is right and the location pretty close to Memphis. Wayne County, Tennessee is located on the south bank of the Tennessee River, nearly halfway between Memphis and Nashville.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_County,_Tennessee

This has got to be our young Elvis fan. Hugely ironic her dad's name was Elvis, although we know it was not an uncommon name in the South back then.

A site I found shows birth and death dates for her parents:

Treadwell, Elsie M., May 31, 1909-Aug. 17, 2001, "Mother" footstone
Treadwell, Elvis C., May 14, 1902-Apr. 3, 1976, "Father" footstone

Flatwoods Cemetery, Perry County, Tennessee
https://www.tngenweb.org/records/perry/cemeteries/flatcem.htm

Elsie also mentioned here:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tennessean-obituary-for-elsie-mae-a/69348401/



So, finally, at long last, for the very first time, we know who took these wonderful photos in September 1954.


Opal Treadwell, young Memphian and early Elvis fan
(only known image of her online)

'

[drjohncarpenter]

It's the anniversary of a very dark day in our country, the death of young Emmett Till at the hands of racists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till

Eight years later, on the same day, something very good, inspired by this tragedy, happened.

As we remember, from this topic I see something in a tweet today from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s daughter, Bernice.









Do you notice the small connection between our 19 year-old fledgling musician, and dear 14 year-old Emmett?

I do.


'