Photo illustrations by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

This house on Gearhart Road in Garden City was home to Wayne Newton and his family in June 1949. The small bungalow recently sold.

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• The Wayne Newton boyhood homes tour

Of the three Roanoke houses his family lived in, Newton once said he remembered the 2-story Rutrough Road house (left) best of all.

Newton's humble beginnings are a far cry from his life today, as Mr. Las Vegas. At right, he and some feather-clad showgirls perform in Las Vegas before the start of the NBA All-Star basketball game in February.

"An evening with Wayne Newton"

• When: 7:30 p.m., Friday
• Where: Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre at the Roanoke Civic Center
• Cost: $39 and $49.25
• Want to have dinner before? Then make reservations for the “Wayne Newton Pre-Concert Buffet.”
• When: 5:30 p.m. Friday
• Where: The Encore Grille on the mezzanine level of the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre
• Cost: Reserved tables are $18.50 per person.
• Tickets for either event: Call 853-LIVE (5483).

Wayne Newton: Roanoker

A random sampling of Wayne Newton quotes from over the years that make reference to Roanoke.

• "My childhood years were very, very happy years. I had a radio show [on WDBJ] in the morning before going to school — Garden City Grade School." (1999, interview with The Roanoke Times)
• "You know everybody wants to say they came from a poor family and starved. We were poor, but we never starved." (1967, Associated Press)
• "I've always wanted to be an entertainer; it's the only thing that ever excited me. My brother and I used to pick up a couple of brooms and pretend they were guitars. That was back in Roanoke, Virginia. The main thing in our favor was that we had parents who loved us and sacrificed for us and encouraged us." (1966, Associated Press)
• "Tonight we could have done this show in my hotel suite." (1971, The Roanoke Times. Newton performed to an estimated crowd of 600 inside the Roanoke Civic Center on Oct. 16, 1971.)
• "I cannot tell you what a great thrill it is to finally come home." (1984, Roanoke Times & World-News. Newton performed to a crowd of 4,312 at the Roanoke Civic Center on Oct. 27, 1984. According to the newspaper's review, he told dumb jokes, accepted flowers and kisses from women, and maintained a running conversation with a couple from Buena Vista in the front row.)

So, you want to buy Wayne Newton's boyhood home?

I said, WAYNE NEWTON'S BOYHOOD HOME?!!!

You're too late. Just barely.

The small bungalow where the legendary entertainer lived when he was 7 years old just sold. The deal should close next week, just days before Newton makes his first concert appearance in Roanoke in 23 years.

The house sits on Gearhart Road, a quiet street in Garden City, where a sweet gum stands tall in the front yard and blocks the morning sun. The house is so unassuming, so nonglitzy, so un-Wayne-Newton-like, not even the real estate agent knew Newton had once lived there.

"I guess it could have increased the value," joked Roanoke real estate agent Marilyn Perdue, who brokered the sale. When asked if the value would have decreased had the buyer not been a Newton fan, Perdue said, "Oh no. Not a chance."

This is Roanoke, after all. We claim Newton -- Mister Las Vegas and, this fall, one of the stars of the prime-time hit "Dancing with the Stars" -- as a native son, even if he was born in Norfolk and only lived here briefly.

When you're a Virginian, "you're always a Virginian," Newton told The Roanoke Times in 1999. "There are certain states that are that way."

Newton's boyhood home listing in the real estate guides wasn't overly eye-catching: Built in 1940, 763 square feet, valued about $100,000, the house would make a good starter home for a family. That's exactly what it was when Patrick and Evelyn Newton moved in with their two sons in June 1949.

By the time the family moved to Arizona less than five years later, much had transpired. They lived in three different houses in four years. Little Wayne Newton and his brother, Jerry, learned to play musical instruments at the knee of the late, great Elmer Ridenhour, who taught thousands of students in 47 years and opened several music stores throughout the Roanoke Valley. Wayne Newton is the only one who made it big in Las Vegas.

Wayne and Jerry Newton got so good (Wayne Newton alone learned 11 different instruments), they played on WDBJ radio every morning before going to school at Garden City Elementary. The brothers' first public performance was a $10 gig at a union Christmas party at Hotel Roanoke. They wrote original songs, including "Mill Mountain Boogie."

Jim Meador played a few shows with the Newton boys back in the early days. Meador, 69, who lives in Moneta, was himself a child star with the Four Little Hillbillies, a youthful quartet that played bluegrass music on Roanoke radio and television in the 1950s. Meador remembered playing a show with the Newtons at the old American Legion Auditorium.

Wayne "played steel guitar and Jerry played guitar," Meador said. "They played sort of a blues, swing style of music. Wayne gave me a picture that he wrote a little note on."

Wayne had written on the back, "Thanks a lot, Jimmy. I think you all are the best entertainers in Roanoke, Va." On the front was a black-and-white shot of Wayne and Jerry, clad in dark shirts with tassels and cowboy hats.

Wayne Newton suffered from bronchial asthma, so the family moved to the arid climate of Phoenix about 1953. There, the brothers were discovered by Jackie Gleason, then Wayne Newton headed for Las Vegas, and quicker than you can say "Danke Schoen" he was "Mister Las Vegas." He now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and received the first star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars.

Only two of the three houses the Newtons lived in are still standing. The family sold the Garden City house in 1950 and rented a two-story home on Rutrough Road. In 1953, the family's last year in Roanoke, they lived in a long-gone residence that sat where the Sanco Drugstore stands at the intersection of Riverland Road and Garden City Boulevard.

Newton told The Roanoke Times in 1999 that he remembered the Rutrough Road house best of all, if for no other reason than the fact that he and his brother rolled the family car into the creek in the backyard.

Newton's father was a $48-per-week automobile mechanic at Wright Motor Corp. Evelyn Newton was a stay-at-home mom who made her sons cowboy outfits they wore when they performed.

Even though Wayne Newton, 65, has not called Roanoke home in more than 53 years, his performance Friday at the Roanoke Civic Center feels like a homecoming. He has returned to the Star City before -- coincidentally, Newton moved here the same year the Mill Mountain Star was erected, thus "the Star" and Roanoke's biggest star arrived at the same time -- but has played only two concerts here.

The 1971 show attracted a paltry crowd of 600 fans in the shiny, new and mostly empty Roanoke Civic Center, but the 1984 concert brought 4,312.

Tickets are still available for Friday's show. Too bad it wasn't scheduled sooner. Newton could have made an offer on his childhood home.

Instead, he will have to console himself in his 13,000-square-foot Casa de Shenandoah in the sands of Vegas.

A random sampling of Wayne Newton quotes from over the years that make reference to Roanoke.

"My childhood years were very, very happy years. I had a radio show [on WDBJ] in the morning before going to school -- Garden City Grade School."

(1999, interview with The Roanoke Times)

"You know everybody wants to say they came from a poor family and starved. We were poor, but we never starved."

(1967, Associated Press)

"I've always wanted to be an entertainer; it's the only thing that ever excited me. My brother and I used to pick up a couple of brooms and pretend they were guitars. That was back in Roanoke, Virginia. The main thing in our favor was that we had parents who loved us and sacrificed for us and encouraged us."

(1966, Associated Press)

"Tonight we could have done this show in my hotel suite."

(1971, The Roanoke Times. Newton performed to an estimated crowd of 600 inside the Roanoke Civic Center on Oct. 16, 1971.)

"I cannot tell you what a great thrill it is to finally come home."

(1984, Roanoke Times & World-News. Newton performed to a crowd of 4,312 at the Roanoke Civic Center on Oct. 27, 1984. According to the newspaper's review, he told dumb jokes, accepted flowers and kisses from women, and maintained a running conversation with a couple from Buena Vista in the front row.)