Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 1, 1992 TAG: 9203010118
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The official vote won't be taken for another five weeks but the early sentiments suggest the margin will be slim, said Art Shealy, spokesman for the Postal Service in Washington, D.C.
Shealy said his communications office had a difficult time narrowing 60 likenesses of The King to two finalist illustrations for the stamp to be issued next year.
It is the first time the postal service has taken a national vote on a proposed stamp and the postal service's headquarters phone lines jammed as news media sought details. "We couldn't have bought that kind of publicity," Shealy said.
Elvis fans can vote as often as they like, as long as they put a 19-cent stamp on each postcard ballot. Shealy said he hopes the 5 million ballots will be enough. The cards will be at post offices in time for the voting, scheduled from April 6 to 24.
The Elvis vote will bring no profit to the Postal Service, he said. The 19-cent stamp "very closely approximates the actual cost of delivery."
Voters can use only the official ballots because their bar codes allow tabulation at automated mail centers.
An accounting firm will certify the results and the choice will be announced at Graceland, Presley's former home in Memphis, in May.
Kim Epperly, perhaps Roanoke's best-known Elvis fan, made an early choice for the young Elvis. That's the way she remembers him when she was a teen-ager, Epperly said. "We're real proud finally to be able to put him on a letter," she said Friday.
Epperly, editor of a Presley newsletter mailed to about 200 members of The Wonder of You fan club, is widely known for the models of Graceland and Presley-related buildings in her Riverland Road yard.
Epperly said she can't wait to put the Elvis stamp on her newsletter, which is mailed to places throughout the country and as far away as Russia.
Another vote for the stamp with the young Elvis comes from Dr. Ranes Chakravorty, president of the Big Lick Stamp Club and the Virginia Philatelic Federation.
"The younger Elvis appeals to me more because he seemed to sing more for fun. Later, he became more of a recluse, there was a question of drugs and he was more into singing for money," Chakravorty said.
Two things are sure. Either the young or old Elvis will appear on more than 60 million stamps next year.
And the Postal Service appears to have officially settled the controversy over whether the rock'n'roll singer is still alive. Only people who have been dead for at least 10 years can appear on postage stamps.
by CNB