ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 15, 1996 TAG: 9608150076
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MEMPHIS, TENN.
SOURCE: WOODY BAIRD ASSOCIATED PRESS
NOTE: Below
IS THE SPIRIT of Elvis haunting a small brick house near Graceland? Some true believers think so.
The TV switches to football games, seemingly by itself, and banana nut muffins vanish in the night. Surely Elvis is nearby.
Then there's that foggy stain on the patio door that looks just like, well, a big smear. But for the true believers, it's an image of Elvis Presley.
Around the corner from Graceland, Elvis' white-columned mansion, is a small brick house where the King's spirit is said to drop by from time to time.
The house, which Elvis bought for a disabled friend in the 1960s, now belongs to Phyllis Collas, who moved from New Jersey to be close to Presley's mansion. She thinks the odd events are signs of Elvis' spirit, and so do some of the people visiting Memphis this week to commemorate the singer's death 19 years ago.
``They get good feelings and good energy,'' Collas said. ``They'll feel around the door and some of them feel it and some don't.''
Collas also contacted a school for psychics, who conducted something called an ``energy scan'' they said showed Elvis' ghost was visiting.
The back yard of the small, nondescript house brushes a part of the rear fence at Graceland, where Presley died at age 42 on Aug. 16, 1977.
Graceland gets more than 700,000 visitors a year and is the focal point of Elvis Week, a celebration including concerts, memorials, tours and an Elvis impersonator contest. The largest event, an annual candlelight procession past Presley's grave at Graceland, draws 10,000 to 15,000 people.
Smaller numbers of fans, however, take less traveled paths to places like Collas' house. She welcomes visitors, and doesn't charge admission. About 150 of the faithful knocked on her door during last year's Elvis Week.
Rosemary Repash, a fan club president from Bethlehem, Pa., and a small group of friends had no trouble seeing Presley's likeness on the patio door.
``It's hard to explain, but there's a lot of feeling in that door,'' Repash said.
Collas said there are other signs of a spiritual presence - including doors slamming and the toilet seat banging up and down. (Makes sense. After all, Presley died while on the toilet at Graceland.)
And there are reminders of Presley's big appetite.
``I have been finding a lot of food missing lately,'' said Collas.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB