LEAVE YOUR BLUE SUEDE HOME: ELVIS FANS STAMP-EDE

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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 8, 1993                   TAG: 9301080207
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
LEAVE YOUR BLUE SUEDE HOME: ELVIS FANS STAMP-EDE
Thursday, David Deel was just another letter carrier in Roanoke. Today, he'll be King for a day.
Deel, 43, was selected by Roanoke postal officials to serve as an Elvis Presley impersonator at the main post office on Rutherford Avenue, the first day Elvis commemorative stamps go on sale.
"I'm embarrassed in a way. I know I'm going to get a lot of flak from the guys," said Deel, who said today will be his first imitating the late king of rock 'n' roll.
He's got the longish black hair and sideburns of Elvis, but admits he may have some shortcomings when compared to the young Elvis on the stamp.
"Of course, I've got a touch of gray," Deel said. "I've got the weight of the older Elvis. Too many doughnuts, I guess."
Still, postal officials are expecting a "hunka hunka" eager customers when Roanoke post offices start selling the 160,000 Elvis stamps they have on hand.
"It will be the largest sale of any commemorative stamp we've had here," said Roanoke Postmaster Billy Martin, who expects Elvis' latest appearance to be a sellout.
"It's fun. It's different," he said.
Besides Deel, the Elvis hype at the main post office will involve the music of the swivel-hipped legend piped into the lobby. A clerk will wear sunglasses with an "EP" emblazoned across the front.
Kim Epperly, the architect of Roanoke's mini-Graceland, is scheduled to make a guest appearance after the stamps go on sale at noon.
Nationwide, postal officials have ordered 500 million Elvis stamps, about twice the normal amount of commemorative stamps printed.
About 1.1 million people responded to a post office survey last year that asked patrons to vote on whether they favored a picture of the young Elvis or the King in the latter days of his career. Fans favored Elvis as he looked in the 1950s.
The stamp's release is scheduled for Presley's 58th birthday. Presley was born in Tupelo, Miss., Jan. 8, 1935, and died at his Graceland mansion in Memphis on Aug. 16, 1977.
A half-dozen mobile postal stations were set up at Graceland, where the stamp's release is the focus of a three-day celebration.
While the post office is new to the rock 'n' roll business, Roanoke Postmaster Martin said he's banning one song from the Elvis play list.
"I don't think you'll be hearing "Return To Sender," he said.
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB