Sarah Ostman/Sun Post 

TIME TO GO: Raelana Wittmeier, pictured above, will sell her mother's "Elvis room" at an estate sale this weekend. Included are dozens of posters, eight-tracks, a pop-up book, and newspapers,  from the weeks following the rock and roll star's death.

A Manteca homemaker's Elvis Presley collection to be sold at estate sale 

MANTECA — Manteca homemaker June Wittmeier collected Elvis — Elvis calendars, Elvis mugs, an Elvis whiskey decanter. She amassed a stack of well-worn Elvis paperbacks and boxes of eight-tracks that fast became outdated. She saved fraying tabloids, soft with wear, promising the “untold story” of his 1977 death.

The “Elvis Room,” lined with some 40 framed posters of the star, has sat largely untouched since its owner died in 2000. Her son moved into the house, but kept the collection undisturbed as a memorial to his mother until he, too, passed away two months ago.

With her mother and brother gone, Raelana Wittmeier is now charged with selling the estate — including her mother's beloved Elvis collection. She has put the contents of the room up for sale online and will hold an estate sale this Saturday.

Raelana Wittmeier hopes that, under the hearty layer of dust blanketing the room, one Elvis fan will find a treasure trove.

She had hopes of selling the collection for $2,500 when she came across two items bearing the King’s signature, but lowered her hopes to $1,000 when she learned they are both likely reproductions. The money will help with piles of medical bills from her brother’s unsuccessful battle with cancer.

Raelana Wittmeier isn’t sure why her mother loved the sweet-voiced, pelvis-thrusting heartthrob so much, but she suspects the room was more a tribute to another, long-deceased son than to the rock and roll sensation.

“They looked identical,” Raelana Wittmeier said, holding up a black and white photograph of brother, Bobby, who died in a motorcycle crash at 15 when she was just a baby.

The estate sale will be from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, March 8 at 869 Edythe St., in Manteca.