Tupelo (IPA: [tu:pəlo]) is the largest city in and the county seat of Lee
County
, Mississippi
, United
States
. It is the seventh largest city in the state
of Mississippi
, smaller than Meridian
, and larger than Greenville
. The Tupelo area — specifically the nearby
village of Blue Springs
— was selected during the spring of 2007 as the
site for Toyota's eleventh U.S. automobile
manufacturing plant. As of the
2000 United States Census, the
city's population was 34,211. By 2008, the population was 36,223,
with a
micropolitan area
population of 133,318, encompassing Lee, Pontotoc and Itawamba
counties.
The city is best known as the birthplace of
Elvis Presley Situated in northeast
Mississippi, the city lies between Memphis, Tennessee
, and Birmingham, Alabama
, along U.S.
Highway 78 — 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
blackgum, 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 encouraged industry in the
town. Once the town began to grow, Gum Pond 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.
In 1934 Tupelo was electrified by the new
Tennessee Valley Authority. In
1935, President
Franklin D.
Roosevelt visited this "First
TVA City".
Cultural and attractions
- 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.
- The
Civil War battlefields include:
Tupelo National
Battlefield
and Brices
Cross Roads National Battlefield
.
- 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.
- Tupelo Community Theatre was founded in 1969 with 8 board of
directors, now at 16, with Steve McAlilly the chairman, and has
produced over 200 productions. In 2001 and 2004 it was the winner
of the Mississippi Theatre Association Community Theatre festival
and was a winner at the Southeastern Theatre Conference in 2004
with its production of Bel Canto. TCT's home is the historic Lyric
Theatre, built in 1912.
- 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 4 outdoor concert at
Tupelo's Ballard Park that draws thousands of fans.
- The Tupelo Buffalo Park
and Zoo home to hundreds of animals and a large buffalo
herd.
- Tupelo's coliseum, the BancorpSouth
Arena
, opened in 1993 and has hosted concerts by
entertainers such as The Eagles, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan,
Widespread Panic, Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers, Aerosmith, Kiss, Lynyrd
Skynyrd, Elton John, Kelly Clarkson,
and Creed.
- In
2005, under the leadership of the Tupelo Rotary Club
, the city unveiled a statue of Chief Piomingo, 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.
- April 2006 marked the 70th anniversary of the 1936 Tupelo
Tornado, the fourth deadliest tornado in United States history and
part of the Tupelo-Gainesville tornado
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.
- June 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 Fair & 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.
- 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."
Industry
- Tupelo is the headquarters of the North Mississippi Medical
Center, the largest non-metropolitan hospital in the United States
. It serves people in North Mississippi,
northwest Alabama and portions of Tennessee. The medical center was
a winner of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award in 2006.
- 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 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."
- Tupelo had the first Comcast cable system.
- Tecumseh, Furniture Brands International, Hancock Fabrics Inc.,
Magnolia Fabrics, Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Mississippi, H.M.
Richards, JESCO Construction, MTD Products, Savings Oil Company
(Dodge's Stores), and Cooper Tire & Rubber Company all operate
or are headquartered in Tupelo & Lee County.
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there are 34,211
people, 13,395 households, and 9,108 families residing in the city.
The
population density is 669.4
people per square mile (258.4/km²). There are 14,551 housing units
at an average density of 284.7/sq mi (109.9/km²). The racial
makeup of the city is 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. 1.41% of the population are
Hispanic or
Latino of any race.
There are 13,395 households out of which 34.9% have children under
the age of 18 living with them, 48.3% are
married couples living together, 16.2% have a
female householder with no husband present, and 32.0% are
non-families. 28.0% of all households are made up of individuals
and 8.8% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older.
The average household size is 2.47 and the average family size is
3.04.
In the city the population is spread out with 27.5% under the age
of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 25, 30.5% from 25 to 45, 21.4% from 45 to
65, and 12.4% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is
35 years. For every 100 females there are 88.7 males. For every 100
females age 18 and over, there are 82.6 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $38,401. Males
have a median income of $35,027 versus $23,988 for females. The
per capita income for the city is
$22,024.
Government
Tupelo's current mayor is
Republican Jack Reed Jr.. The president of the Tupelo
City Council is Fred Pitts. The other six council members are
Markel Whittenton, Jim Newll, Nettie Davis, Johnny Davis, Mike
Bryan, and Willie Jennings.
In December 2007, Sen.
Trent Lott retired
leaving a vacancy in his unfinished six-year term. Governor
Haley Barbour appointed Rep.
Roger Wicker as Lott's replacement.
Mississippi's First Congressional District seat was open and a
special election was held. After a much heated campaign,
Travis Childers (D) was elected to represent
Mississippi's
First Congressional
District.
Media
The local daily newspaper is The
Northeast Mississippi Daily
Journal.
Tupelo is
home to three television stations serving the 133rd-ranked
designated market area among 210 markets nationwide as determined
by Nielsen Media Research:
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 25,
2006.
Tupelo is included in the chorus of
The
Proclaimers' songs
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."
Geography
Tupelo is
located in northeast Mississippi, north of Columbus
, on Highway 78 mid way between Memphis,
Tennessee
(northwest) and Birmingham, Alabama
(southeast).
According to the
United
States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of
51.4
square miles
(133.2
km²), of which,
51.1 square miles (132.4 km²) of it is land and
0.3 square miles (0.8 km²) of it (0.62%) is water.
Climate
Monthly
Normal and Record High and Low Temperatures |
Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
Rec
High °F |
77 |
84 |
85 |
93 |
94 |
101 |
105 |
106 |
103 |
92 |
87 |
79 |
Norm
High °F |
50.3 |
56 |
64.8 |
73.5 |
81 |
88 |
91.4 |
90.9 |
84.9 |
74.9 |
63 |
53.6 |
Norm
Low °F |
30.5 |
33.5 |
41.4 |
48.2 |
57.7 |
65.7 |
69.8 |
68.2 |
61.7 |
48.8 |
40 |
33.2 |
Rec
Low °F |
-6 |
4 |
16 |
29 |
40 |
49 |
58 |
52 |
40 |
29 |
19 |
-3 |
Precip
(in) |
5.14 |
4.68 |
6.3 |
4.94 |
5.8 |
4.82 |
3.65 |
2.67 |
3.35 |
3.38 |
5.01 |
6.12 |
Source: USTravelWeather.com |
Education
The Tupelo is served by the
Tupelo Public School District.
The 2008 Tupelo Golden Wave high school baseball team was ranked #1
in the nation for 2 weeks. The Tupelo High School Athletic
department was ranked #3 in the nation in 2008 by Sports
Illustrated as best athletic department.
Tupelo is
home to satellite campuses of the University
of Mississippi
, Itawamba
Community College, and the Mississippi University for
Women.
Notable people

Elvis' birthplace in Tupelo,
Mississippi
Elvis Presley was born in east Tupelo
in 1935. There is a 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. Nearby is
Johnnie's Drive-in, a
local eatery that was frequented by the singer, and has several
menu items he was said to favor. Tupelo has received a Mississippi
Blues Trail marker commemorating it as a site on the
Mississippi Blues Trail for being
the birthplace of
Elvis Presley.
John Michael McCarthy's
Teenage Tupelo is a film
about the sex life of the filmmaker's mother, who believes he was
fathered by Presley.
John Lee Hooker released a song
called "Tupelo", about a flood in Tupelo in the 1930s.Inspired by
John Lee Hooker's song,
Nick
Cave And The Bad Seeds recorded a song titled "Tupelo", mixing
imagery of the flood and birth of Elvis Presley.
Rockabilly singer-songwriter
Jumpin' Gene Simmons, who had a hit in
1964 with the song "Haunted House" was born and died in Tupelo. He
also co-wrote the Tim McGraw hit "Indian Outlaw" with Tommy Barnes
and John Loudermilk.
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. In December,
2004, Congress passed Public Law No. 108-447, which stripped the
TVA Board of its full-time status and required management
experience for future members of the Board. 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.
Allie Grant (actress) -
The Suite Life of Zack and
Cody.
Jim Fraiser (author) - "Majesty of
Eatern Mississippi and the Coast" (2004), "The French Quarter of
New Orleans" (2003), "Vanished Mississippi Gulf Coast" (2007) and
"Shadow Seed: A Novel" (1997) are four of his 12 books; (actor) -
"My Dog Skip" (2000), "BLind Vengeance" (1989) and "Good Ole Boy"
(1990) are his three feature films.
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.
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.
Singer/songwriter
Paul Thorn hails from
Tupelo and always introduces himself at shows as being from the
birthplace of Elvis Presley.
Famous prohibition-era gangster
Machine Gun Kelly's last known bank
robbery occurred on November 30, 1932 at the Citizen’s State Bank
in Tupelo netting his gang $38,000. After the robbery the bank’s
chief teller would say of Kelly, “He was the kind of guy that, if
you looked at him, you would never thought he was a bank
robber.”
1987 Playboy Bunny of the year, Madi Martin, was born in
Tupelo.
Notes
- "About the City of Tupelo" (2006), City of Tupelo website, web:
TupeloMS-About: for Elvis, the Natchez Trace Parkway,
and Tupelo Automobile Museum.
- "City of Tupelo - Attractions" (2006), City of Tupelo website,
web: TupeloMS-Attractions: for Symphony, Elvis
Presley Lake, Bancorpsouth Center, Lyric Theatre, and Gumtree
Museum of Art.
-
http://www.ustravelweather.com/weather-mississippi/tupelo-weather.asp
- Teenage Tupelo (1995)
External links