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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 25, 1992                   TAG: 9203250365
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

YOUNG ELVIS OR OLD, HE'S STILL LOVED

We remember Elvis as a small part of the American Dream. He started out poor, singing in church, then appeared on the "Ed Sullivan Show." He then became an overnight success.

He could pick his guitar and shake his hips like nothing we had ever seen before. He could sing "Love Me Tender" and melt your heart down like a candle. Elvis was different, and the country needed something different at that time.

His first big hit was "Hound Dog," and it played day and night for weeks and weeks. His records sold millions, and he made millions. Everybody loved him.

Then the sad part. He began to suffer from a dose of "too much." Too much money, too much public attention, too much pills. He took pills to make him sleep, he took pills to keep him awake. Until, finally, his heart could no longer work under the strain.

Young Elvis, old Elvis? It makes no difference. We loved him then, and we still do.

And - the American Dream lives on. RON PENLAND WYTHEVILLE