Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 9, 1993 TAG: 9301090045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
STAMP'S GOT 'EM ALL SHOOK UP
Before Roanoke's main post office started selling Elvis Presley commemorative stamps, the lobby was filled with his renditions of "Kentucky Rain" and "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You."It seemed a fitting musical tribute to this much ballyhooed day, when the U.S. Postal Service paid homage to the late king of rock 'n' roll.
Instead of "Kentucky Rain," a Virginia drizzle welcomed the diehards who braved the elements to buy Elvis stamps.
The 40 or so fans who showed up couldn't help showing their love for the swivel-hipped singer.
"His looks. His voice. He was a special guy," said Vergie Ayers in expressing her undying devotion to Elvis, who would have been 58 Friday. "Every time he sings, he touches your heart. There has never been another one like him on earth."
She remembered a time more than two decades ago when she shook his hand at Woodrum Field.
"I remember that his hands were so soft and his eyes were so blue," she said. "They've been with me since 1972."
Ayers wore a straw hat with an "Elvis" hatband as she waited for noon to come and the stamps to go on sale.
Still, she was second in line. The first spot was held by James Bland, who was 7 years old when Elvis died in his Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tenn., in 1977.
Bland showed up at 7 a.m. because he really wasn't sure when the stamps would go on sale.
"I wanted to be first in line," he said. "It's a challenge. Everybody pushed to get to the concert first. I wanted to be the first to get the stamps."
Shortly after noon, he walked away from the stamp counter with 160 spanking new Elvis faces in a clear plastic folder and $46.40 less in his bank account.
He plans to give the stamps to his 2-year-old daughter, Brittany.
"He means a lot to me," Bland said. "He started out in Christian music. He moved on and became the greatest singer."
Those feelings of adoration are shared by Kim Epperly, whose devotion has led her to edit an Elvis newsletter and build a mini-Graceland in her yard to honor him.
"I feel ecstatic," she said after buying 200 Elvis stamps she's going to put on the newsletter she sends as far away as England and Russia. "I think it's going to be real good to have Elvis going around the world on a stamp."
Epperly said Elvis fans should be proud of the stamp.
"We have fought for so long," she said. "We were thrilled because they turned him down three or four times. This is his day."
"The public wanted Elvis on the stamp," Postmaster Billy Martin said. "If they want it, that's what we'll provide."
A nationwide election was held this summer to select artwork for the stamp, and more than 1 million ballots were cast. By a 3-to-1 margin, fans went for the trim, 1950s Presley instead of the chubby, jumpsuit-clad Elvis of the '70s.
The Postal Service has printed 500 million stamps, the largest issue of a commemorative stamp, but supplies were not expected to last.
Postal clerk Mike Evans sold 10,000 Elvis stamps in the first two hours they went on sale at the main post office in Roanoke. Postmaster Martin said the day had brought fewer customers than he expected. He said rain could have been a factor.
Spokeswoman Robin Minard said commemorative stamps generally sell out within 90 days and no other has stirred the hoopla this one has. The Postal Service conservatively predicted profits of $20 million from the stamp and related souvenirs like coffee mugs and T-shirts.
About 1,500 fans gathered for the stamp kickoff at the real Graceland got an unexpected treat when Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie Keough, showed up.
She gave a brief thank you and then watched the fireworks that marked the moment the 29-cent stamps went on sale there just after midnight Friday.
Elvis' ex-wife, Priscilla, the leading executor of The King's estate, also was on hand.
Back in the Roanoke Valley, postal clerk Tim Resnick put on a black pompadour wig and white jump suit to impersonate the older Elvis at Roanoke County's Hollins branch office.
"Elvis he's not, but the customers got a kick out of it," Martin said.
And in Roanoke's main post office, letter carrier David Deel was assigned to roam the post office's lobby as an Elvis look-alike. He got his daughter to do his hair like Elvis; put on aviator sunglasses; dressed like the young Elvis on the stamp, with a gold jacket, white shirt and dark tie; and used the King's own words when speaking to those who gathered in the lobby.
"Thank you very much," he said with a slow drawl in his best Elvis voice.
Staff writer Diane Simpson and The Associated Press to this story.