Rockin' with the King
Couple can't help falling in love with sight of Elvis in stone
Justin Coons, Rocky Mountain News
Published June 16, 2007 at midnight
ESTES PARK - The first time Lynn Alexander saw Elvis Presley was at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in 1974. And when The King died in 1977, Alexander, now 63, thought he'd never get to see him again.
That is, until his wife decided to scrub off their collection of river rocks.
"I had a box full of rocks, and I was rinsing them off," said Alexander's wife, LaDell.
Scrubbing away at the grime covering one of the rocks, she found something that left her all shook up.
The top left corner of the 23- pound chunk of granite bore a striking resemblance to the profile of the rock 'n' roll great. At least to her, it did. "I picked up the rock, turned it around and I saw Elvis right away," said LaDell Alexander, 60.
Making sure that she hadn't lost her mind, she asked her husband's opinion. "And from across the room, he found it right away," she said.
The Alexanders have shown the rock to friends in Estes Park, where they spend their summers, and family back home in Richards, Texas.
"We found that about seven out of 10 could see it." Lynn Alexander said.
"Three or four said they could see a horse or they couldn't see anything at all."
Lynn Alexander features the rock in the historic city tours he leads during the summers in Colorado.
He ends his tours with an unveiling of Estes Park's Elvis rock.
"More people take pictures of it than anything else on the tour," Lynn Alexander said.
Hoping to follow in the footsteps of the Florida woman who sold a grilled cheese sandwich with an image of the Virgin Mary for $28,000, the Alexanders plan to put their hunka hunka igneous rock on eBay.
But they are waiting until Aug. 10, six days before the 30th anniversary of The King's death, to list the item.
Reaction to Elvis rock
Asked if they saw any resemblance in the stone to The King, random strangers had this to say about the Andersons' Elvis rock:
• "At first, I thought it was George Washington, but, oh my God, the sideburns." Marcy Hardy, 57, of Estes Park
• "I see something big. I see a face. It looks like Elvis. Yeah, that's so cool." Shelly Hein, 35, of Rochester, Minn.
• "I see a French aristocrat with sideburns, Like Louis XV." Edee Nuetzel, of Estes Park
• "It looks like Christ."
Peter MacGill, 57, of Pinewood Springs
• "Elvis is alive!" Jim Redman, 47, of Tulsa, Okla., passing by the rock
coonsj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5617
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