Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990                   TAG: 9007200417
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE PEOPLE COLUMN

Newton, 46, first appeared at the Fremont Hotel on May 16, 1959. In those 31 years and two months since, he's played to 15 million people.

He was toasted in the Elvis Presley Suite at the Las Vegas Hilton on Tuesday night as he began a new show there. He also appears in a new movie, "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane," and has a new record, "At This Moment."

This week also is the first time the Wayne Newton International Fan Club Inc., based in Grand Rapids, Mich., has brought together all its chapters for an annual convention. About 150 members plan to be in the audience for Newton's shows this week.

Carole Stewart, a spokeswoman for the Hilton, said Tuesday was the first chance the hotel had to celebrate Newton's three decades in show business.

\ Nelson Mandela, celebrating his 72nd birthday upon his return to Johannesburg, South Africa, from a triumphant international tour, said he feels half his age.

"I feel like a boy of 36, and the present I would like to have is votes for all," said Mandela, who looked tired after his six-week tour of 14 nations, including the United States.

Mandela was greeted by about 200 supporters and relatives on Wednesday, his first birthday in freedom after 27 years in a South African prison for fighting the country's white-minority government.

The African National Congress leader said he hoped to see President F.W. de Klerk in a few days to set up talks leading to full-scale negotiations on ending apartheid.

"There is no doubt that apartheid is crumbling," he said.

\ Rose Kennedy, matriarch of the Kennedy family, was honored Thursday when a social services center in Brooklyn was named for her. It was part of the family's observance of her 100th birthday.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the late U.S. senator and host of the event, said the center was inspired by his grandmother's "long-lasting commitment to the family and the values that are derived from a caring and nurturing environment."

The Brooklyn center will serve elderly women and homeless young mothers when it opens in 1991. It is in the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration area, a project backed by the late senator.

Rose Kennedy turns 100 Sunday.