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 had a total population of 34,211 as of the 2000 census.

Tupelo is a three time "All-American City" and boasts one of the largest furniture manufacturing industries nationwide. The city is home to 50 Fortune 500 or national/international companies.

The town was originally named Gumpond 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, now designated as Tupelo National Battlefield. That Battle of Tupelo was in turn named for the tupelo trees of the area.

U.S. Highway 78 passes through Tupelo, and is slated to become Interstate 22 within a few years.

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 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.

Tupelo is also home to a satellite campus of the University of Mississippi, Itawamba Community College, and the Mississippi University for Women.

Public library services, including bookmobile service, are provided by the Lee County Library, the Wi-Fi headquarters of the Lee-Itawamba Library System. The library's Mississippi Room collection, which includes a large number of past articles from local & regional newspapers about Elvis Presley, attracts Presley researchers and fans from around the world during their visits to Tupelo.

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.

The local daily newspaper is the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, the fastest growing newspaper in Mississippi.

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.

Tupelo's coliseum, now known as the BancorpSouth Center,opened in 1993 and has the seating capacity to host concerts by entertainers such as The Eagles, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Aerosmith, Kiss, and Elton John as well as events such as Disney on Ice and the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Built in 1937, Tupelo's 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 idea elementary school."

The city's current mayor is Republican Ed Neelly. President of the Tupelo City Council is Dick Hill. The new city hall building is located in downtown Tupelo's Fairpark District.

The Oren Dunn City Museum displays relics frm the Civil War Battle of Tupelo as well as Indian artifacts and NASA exhibits.

2006 marks 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 Ramage, Jr.'s book, Tupelo, Mississippi,Tornado of 1936, chronicles the devastation of the tornado, with many rare photographs.

2006 will also be the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Elvis Presley Homecoming in Tupelo, the highlight of which was the famous concert at the Mississippi-Alabama State Farm & Dairy Show. The event will be recreated at the eighth Elvis Presley Festival in Tupelo on June 2-4, 2006. The original site of the concert, the fairgrounds, is now part of Tupelo's Fairpark District. Documentary filmmakers Roy Turner and Jim Palmer will premiere their new Presley documentary, The Homecoming: Tupelo Welcomes Elvis Home, at the 2006 festival.

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.

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).

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, roughtly 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 Mississsippi's hill country, has not flooded, but it was severely damaged in a 1936 tornado.

Richard Pryor's fictional character "Mudbone" was from Tupelo.

Gil Stovall was born in Tupelo. Stovall was an Olympic Trials qualifier, placing 9th in the nation in the 200m Butterfly. Stovall currently swims for the University of Georgia, where he holds school records in the 200y butterfly and 800y freestyle relay. Also holds Tennessee state records in the 100y butterfly and 100y freestyle. Holds Southeastern records in Open 200y Medley relay, 17-18 100y Butterfly and 200y Butterfly, 15-16 200y butterfly, 17-18 100m Butterfly, 17-18 200m Butterfly, 17-18 200m Individual Medley.

Geography

Tupelo is located at 34°15'35" North, 88°43'33" West (34.259585, -88.725885)Template:GR.

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 is water. The total area is 0.62% water.

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there are 34,211 people, 13,395 households, and 9,108 families residing in the city. The population density is 258.4/km² (669.4/mi²). There are 14,551 housing units at an average density of 109.9/km² (284.7/mi²). 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 24, 30.5% from 25 to 44, 21.4% from 45 to 64, 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.