Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 30, 1993 TAG: 9304300269
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
In this room of his parents' home lives Cecil R. Layell Jr., 39. By night, Layell is a dishwasher at the TruckStops of America on Interstate 95 in Ashland.
When his midnight shift ends at 8 a.m., Layell often drives his Ford Escort 80 miles west, grabbing a two-hour nap at a rest stop, to Jefferson's mountaintop home, Monticello.
Since 1990, Layell has toured the home 136 times. He paid $8 each for the first 47 tours. Then the management at Monticello gave him a lifetime free pass.
They don't keep records, but Layell appears to have visited Monticello more than anyone else (except the Great Man himself, of course).
"We kept wondering why he came up here all those times," said Agnes Houchens, who works at the Monticello ticket window. "He was always just as nice and smiling and pleasant, but he didn't volunteer any information."
What could he volunteer? "It's really hard to say why I did it," Layell says. "It's like I fell in love my first trip there. And I just kept going and going."
Layell can't help himself. He is a Fan, with capital F, and not just of Monticello.
He wears one of his loyalties in his hair, which is onyx-black and swept into an Elvisian ducktail, complete with chin-hugging black sideburns. Even the way he talks - he'll start loud then trail off, into a slur - is like the King.
Layell's mother, Lucy, liked Elvis in high school, and the son has been a devoted follower as long as he can remember. He has cassette tapes of all of Elvis' 1970s recordings, and they are the only music he enjoys, except for a tape of "The Last Date" by piano tickler Floyd Cramer.
Layell owns videotapes of all of Elvis' movies. But by far his most impressive tribute is his room.
Not more than 12 feet square, it consists of a bright red carpet, a double bed with white spread and, from floor to ceiling and across the ceiling, a collage of 600 Elvis Presley photographs. Elvis in the Army, Elvis stepping off an airplane, Elvis in Hawaii, Elvis with fans, Elvis in white jumpsuits, Elvis in red jumpsuits, Elvis in sequined jumpsuits.
"I just like the look," Layell said.
He removed about 100 Elvis photographs from the corner by the air conditioner to display about 50 of his Monticello pamphlets. On that side of the room, Elvis and Jefferson meet, each with great hair, each with a spell over the room's lanky inhabitant.
"It's the looks and sounds," Layell said. "I like to see and hear Elvis, and I like to see Monticello and hear the tour guides talking about Thomas Jefferson."
Jobs come and go - highway department, Army, shoe salesman, Army again and now truck stop - but casual interests have always gripped Layell with more than casual interest.
As a child, he became Zorro to duel imaginary villians.
In high school, he became a distance runner to honor Finnish champion Paavo Nurmi, of whom he also collected pictures and stories.
He once learned that actor Richard Burton read the complete works of Shakespeare every six months, so Layell bought his own copy and read it straight through two and a half times before losing interest.
Lately he finds himself addicted to romance novels; on a shelf in his room he has arranged a display of some favorite titles, including "Beyond Fantasy," "Passion's Domain" and the Silhouette Desire series.
"He's always been a loner, never had many close friends," said his mother. "He'd rather keep to himself and his interests."
Raised in the Richmond area, Layell never visited Monticello until a truck-stop waitress recommended it.
When he goes, he likes to get different tour guides to hear their different anecdotes - elderly Jefferson being carried up the mountain by faithful slaves, Jefferson calling the landscape to the east his "sea view."
"You go out a little ways and it's flat, and you can see out over the mountains. First thing in the morning there's kind of a blue haze, and it kind of looks like the sun coming up over the ocean," Layell said.
Year before last, Layell did all his Christmas shopping at the Monticello gift shop. He bought a $250 Jefferson print for his parents.
After a visit, Layell will stop at a nearby Ponderosa steakhouse for lunch or dinner. One time he took his mother and two nephews.
"They even gave him a discount because every time he went up he ate there," Lucy Layell said proudly. "The waitresses in there all knew him, too. I couldn't get over how they waited on him, bringing him more rolls, anything he wanted."
Over the winter, Layell stayed away from Monticello. The visits had been eating into work time, he said. But Jefferson's 250th birthday has drawn him back, once or twice a week.
When the big birthday celebration arrived, Monticello's greatest fan made his own plans. He stayed home.
"I went the day after his birthday," Layell said. "I didn't want to go up with all the crowds."
by CNB