Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 13, 1995 TAG: 9503130038
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They've replaced 10 of the 36 Barbies stolen last fall from Kim and Don Epperly's Miniature Graceland display in Southeast Roanoke. Northwest Hardware donated motion-detector lights to help prevent more thefts, and two Virginia Tech juniors are getting materials to build a fence. WSLS-TV, Channel 10, plans to do a "Spirit of Virginia" day at Mini-Graceland next month, and fans have donated $70 so far to fix up the display.
Don's multiple sclerosis and Kim's gallbladder surgery have kept them from maintaining Little Graceland's usual tidiness. They've welcomed strangers into their side yard at 605 Riverland Road S.E. for years to see the dollhouse-sized reproductions of Elvis' mansion, his childhood home in Mississippi and other venues. It's a well-known tourist site.
Tech communications majors Nick Guarino and Chris Rowland are helping the Epperlys and also making a documentary on Elvis sites and fans to be called "The King and Us." They've toured the United States - even going to South Dakota to see a Harley-Davidson once owned by Elvis. Guarino says Mini-Graceland is about the best Elvis shrine attraction anywhere. "Next to the actual Graceland," he said of Elvis' Memphis estate, "it's the best."
Taking stock of the enemy
Private-prison opponents are pondering a new strategy for fighting a plan by Corrections Corporation of America to build one near Wytheville: If you can't lick 'em, join 'em.
Members of Citizens Against the Prison discussed the possibility of some of its members buying a share of stock in CCA. Danny Shultz said it would cost about $80 but would be a way of keeping up with CCA activities and perhaps speaking out against the proposed 1,500-bed prison at stockholders' meetings.
The anti-prison group also is planning a big rally near the site, which CCA representatives have said is not visible to travelers passing by on Interstate 81-77.
``We're going to be quite visible from the interstate. We're going to be quite visible from the town, and we're going to have a ball,'' Linda Butt told the group at its meeting last week.
History vs. progress
Historic Gainsboro Preservation District Inc. has published a 25-page booklet on the old neighborhood's history and its current struggle against highway construction and other developments.
"Gainsboro: The Destruction of a Historic Community," by free-lance writer Mary Campagna-Hamlin, is on sale for $1.25 at various local bookstores.
The booklet profiles Ruth Gassett, an elderly beautician and business owner who died last year as Hotel Roanoke-related construction continued outside her Wells Avenue door; Evelyn Bethel, Historic Gainsboro's president and champion of neighborhood preservation and historic designation; retired Gainsboro dentist Dr. Walter Claytor; and Claudia Whitworth, editor and publisher of The Roanoke Tribune.
All four worked for years against the destruction of Gainsboro. Most of Gainsboro's oldest homes and businesses were torn down during 27 years of federally funded urban renewal.
Exercising on the road
Roanoke School Superintendent Wayne Harris still doesn't like the idea of the city offering driver education during the regular school year, but he might have to live with it.
The city School Board has requested that the superintendent and his staff study the possibility of switching the classroom portion of driver education to health and physical education classes in the 10th grade.
Board member Marsha Ellison said 116 of the state's school systems offer driver education as part of health and physical education classes.
Only Roanoke and 15 other school divisions have been offering driver education as an elective course, she said.
Harris set off a controversy this year by recommending that driver education be dropped from the regular school year and shifted to summer school. Philosophically, Harris doesn't believe the schools' academic time should be spent on courses such as driver education. Dropping school-year driver ed also would save $82,500 a year in salaries and other benefits for teachers, he said.
Because of opposition from some parents and board members, the board voted to keep driver education on a limited basis next year. It will be offered before and after school and will be taught by part-time teachers.
by CNB