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# She’s on a quest for a piece of Elvis history, before it’s lost in the rubble of the Richmond Coliseum
- URL: https://www.richmonder.org/shes-on-a-quest-for-a-piece-of-elvis-history-before-its-lost-in-the-rubble-of-the-richmond-coliseum/
- Published: 2026-10-29T22:01:43.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-29T22:01:43.000Z
- Description: In the Richmond Coliseum’s first year of operation, the Elvis performance was one of just two sellout shows.
- Author: Graham Moomaw
- Tags: Local News, #lead

The bronze artifact Debbie Peters is searching for isn’t quite as old as the ones you might see in an Indiana Jones movie.

The long-gone society that created it was the local chapter of the Taking Care of Business Elvis Presley Fan Club. 

The object’s last known location? Somewhere in the ruins of the Richmond Coliseum.

With the arena set to be demolished, Peters is racing against time to find a plaque commemorating four sellout Elvis shows that happened in Richmond during the 1970s. The plaque lists the four show dates. 

Riffing on a famous Elvis lyric, an inscription reads: “MEMORIES… PRESSED BETWEEN THE PAGES OF OUR MINDS.”

For Peters, a 73-year-old former nurse, the quest is about ensuring the plaque itself is remembered and won’t disappear into the scrap pile of history when the coliseum comes down.

“I want the mayor to let someone go in and search for the plaque and take it down. And I will personally guarantee its travel to Graceland,” Peters said in an interview at her Chesterfield County home, where Elvis memorabilia adorns many walls and bookshelves and a jumbo-sized CD player has Elvis music in all 60 slots.

Peters began her search after coming across a photo of the plaque in a Reddit social media community dedicated to Elvis, where someone else was also asking if anyone knew what happened to it. So far, she’s mostly hit dead ends.

> [What happened To This Elvis Plaque in The Richmond Coliseum?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Elvis/comments/1misya0/what%5Fhappened%5Fto%5Fthis%5Felvis%5Fplaque%5Fin%5Fthe/)  
> by [u/Midnight-Madness26](https://www.reddit.com/user/Midnight-Madness26/) in [Elvis](https://www.reddit.com/r/Elvis/) 

Emails Peters sent to numerous city and state officials, including Mayor Danny Avula’s office, have produced little solid intel. The coliseum has been closed since 2019, but some adventure-seekers hoping to explore the abandoned building have found their way in. Peters worries someone might’ve already taken the plaque, but hopes it was too heavy to be carried off.

She has said she’ll personally go in to look for it, if only city officials would let her past the fence, razor wire and locked doors.

“I'll take somebody in there with me to take the plaque off the wall if they'll allow me to go in,” Peters said. “But I get no response to that.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/10/316B4025-7383-44B0-8675-5A57C5200686_1_201_a.jpg)

The Richmond Coliseum is slated for demolition in the coming months. (File photo)

### ‘**I’m not letting go’**

To try to find out what might’ve already been pulled out of the coliseum, Peters sent City Hall a Freedom of Information Act request late last month seeking any “inventory logs, asset lists, or salvage manifests” detailing any “historic artifacts, signage, or plaques” removed from the building. The city said it had no such records.

“As the next steps for the demolition projects move forward, we will keep you informed should we come across any information or details concerning the TCB Elvis Presley Bronze Plaque,” Lia Williams, a senior executive assistant in the city’s Department of Economic Development, said in an emailed response to Peters earlier this month.

Peters wasn’t satisfied with that answer.

“I’m like a dog with a bone. I’m not letting go,” Peters said. “I’m General Patton, let’s keep fighting, you know? Never give up.”

Through online groups devoted to Elvis history, she’s tried to enlist other superfans to the cause of the Richmond plaque. She heard back from two people in England who said they too hope someone finds it.

“So I wrote them back and I said, ‘Let's turn this into an international incident,’” Peters said. “‘I think you need to write to the mayor of Richmond, and here's his information. Maybe he'll respond to you since he doesn't want to respond to me.’”

Richmond spokesperson Michael Hinkle said the city is currently planning ways to preserve historically significant items from the coliseum and how to host a “thoughtful send-off to a building that has meant so much to so many people.”

“As Richmonders, we feel similarly conflicted — excited about new beginnings, but sad to see something go that has been so central to our lived experience here,” Hinkle said in an email, noting that the mayor’s action plan calls for Richmond to be “a city that tells its stories.”

The city currently has no info about the plaque’s whereabouts, Hinkle said, but will include it among a list of significant items that could be of interest in an upcoming “walkthrough.” Asked if the city would let Peters or an outside group look for it, Hinkle said access to the building “must be carefully evaluated due to safety and liability considerations.” 

But, he added, the city is “exploring opportunities for access as part of the preservation and memorialization process prior to demolition.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/10/Debbie-Peters_Elvis-Super-fan_JTH-2.JPG)

Peters shows a book from Graceland on Thursday. (Julianne Tripp Hillian for The Richmonder)

### **‘Didn’t shake quite like he used to’**

When Elvis performed at the Richmond Coliseum, the venue was still new. The arena opened to the public in the summer of 1971\. At an opening ceremony, then-Gov. Linwood Holton shot a basketball through an oversized hoop and declared the $24 million arena “a symbol of the renewed spirit of Richmond.” At the time, the coliseum was seen as the anchor for a revitalized downtown.

In the coliseum’s first year of operation, the Elvis performance was one of just two sellout shows. The other act was The Jackson 5.

Though Elvis was in the later stages of his career by the time the coliseum opened, a review of the April 1972 show in the Richmond Times-Dispatch called him “a personification of what rock n’ roll is all about.”

“Elvis didn’t shake quite like he used to, and took proper care in those leg splits,” wrote reviewer A.B. Thames. “But when he opened his mouth, it might as well have been 1957.”

It’s been a while since the coliseum drew world-famous superstars. Today, it’s treated as an eyesore and an impediment to revitalization. Its demolition has been planned for years to make way for the [City Center redevelopment project.](https://richmond.com/news/local/government-politics/article%5Fa1c476c4-a267-4e8d-bdd4-cebeda451ac4.html)

The city hasn’t set an exact date for the coliseum demolition, but officials recently told the City Council it’s expected to happen sometime next year.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/10/2G7FC43.jpg)

Elvis Presley performs in 1970\. (File photo)

### ‘**The best-looking man in the world’**

A Waynesboro native born in 1953 (the same year Elvis recorded his first song), Peters still has an Elvis portrait that she hung on the wall of her childhood bedroom.

“I thought he was the most best-looking man in the world,” Peters said. “It wasn't just that he was a good-looking actor and a great singer. He had a heart. He had a soul. And that's what drew me to him.”

She never got a chance to see him perform live.

A friend stood in line overnight to get tickets to one of the Richmond shows, Peters said, but she and her husband couldn’t afford them.

“We were poor as church mice,” she said. “My husband was a VCU student and I was working.”

Her husband once promised that, after he graduated college, they’d go see Elvis in Las Vegas. Before that trip could happen, Elvis died in the summer of 1977.

Mortality is part of what’s driving her sense of urgency.

Her husband passed away about a year ago. As a widow now living alone, she’s reconnected with the version of herself that came before a lifetime of marriage and the loss of the man she loved most. Rekindling her Elvis fandom, she said, helped her push through at least some of the grief.

“The person I was before I met my husband was a 14-year-old kid that loved Elvis Presley,” she said. “And that’s kind of who I have gone back to. My kids will tell you I’ve kind of gone off the deep end.”

Peters is racing a clock of her own. She’s a Stage 4 cancer patient also battling a heart condition. In her emails to city officials about her search, she opened by saying “I am on a quest before I die.”

“I want to know that it's going to be in a safe place where it will always be preserved, protected and loved before I leave,” Peters said of the plaque. “Because Elvis gave me peace and some solace.”

With no answer yet, Peters is scouring for information anywhere she can find it.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/10/Debbie-Peters_Elvis-Super-fan_JTH-7.JPG)

Debbie Peters has hit dead ends so far in her quest to find the Elvis plaque. (Julianne Tripp Hillian for The Richmonder)

When she saw a recent legal notice in the Henrico Citizen about The Valentine Museum taking ownership of certain property that had no other known owner, she zeroed in on a line that said “Plaque.” 

But it wasn’t *the* plaque, according to the Valentine. The notice was referring to a 1956 plaque about funding for one of the museum’s galleries.

The Valentine said it’s interested in “being involved in the conversation about objects being removed from the coliseum,” according to museum spokesperson Christina Swanson.

“Should removal move forward, our curators will evaluate potential acquisitions based on factors including size, condition, and opportunities to represent stories not currently reflected in our collection,” Swanson said.

Peters said she’s not going away until she gets an answer.

“If I think that I’m right on something, I’m going to keep fighting,” she said. “And I think I’m right on this.”

*Contact Reporter Graham Moomaw at* [*gmoomaw@richmonder.org*](mailto:gmoomaw@richmonder.org)