CC Turney works with Kiwanis club
Marietta, Ga. Kiwanis Club members, Sally Macaulay, left, and CC Victoria Turney place a smaller-scale copy of a statue called ‘Forever Remember’ to honor the families of Americas heroes at the Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art. Macaulay, the museum’s executive director, and Turney, president of the Kiwanis Club of Marietta, are part of a club project to put a full-size version of the statue in a park on Roswell Street in downtown Marietta. (Photo by Staff/Mike Jacoby)
by Joe Kirby
Marietta Daily Journal Columnist
Marietta, Ga. is the final resting place of thousands of dead from the country’s wars of the past 150 years, and the county also is home to a national park that preserves the scene of one of the Civil War’s bloodier battles. Smyrna and Acworth have veterans’ memorials. But Cobb’s uniformed heroes of past and present – as well as their loved ones who have waited, watched and worried – will soon be honored with a singular, central and highly visible memorial.
British poet John Milton wrote that “They also serve who only stand and wait.” His reference was to the wives and families of those who go to war, but his remarks are just as apt about those whose loved ones are serving as police officers, firefighters, EMTs or ambulance drivers. And they – the families of our military, past and present, and those whose family members are “first responders” – are those who will be honored by a memorial statue to be erected next year on Roswell Street by the Marietta Kiwanis Club.
The life-sized bronze statue, to be known as “Forever Remember,” depicts a young woman watchfully waiting – and hoping – with a partially folded flag clutched to her breast. Her dress and hairstyle are somewhat contemporary, but are not meant to depict any particular time or war.
“She represents everyone and anyone, from any era and any of the services,” explains Club President Victoria Turney. “She just ‘is,’ and she’s meant to be whoever you want her to be.”
The statue’s placement has been approved by the Marietta Council for a triangular-shaped “pocket park” on the triangle of land bounded by Roswell, Anderson and Waddell streets.
The city was already planning to create a park on the site as part of the Roswell Street streetscape improvement project, and quickly agreed to the club’s “Forever Remember” statue proposal. The little park will be landscaped in such a way as to complement the statue, which probably will be oriented toward the nearby Marietta National Cemetery. The statue will be easily visible to passing traffic on Roswell Street, which not coincidentally for the club’s choice of a site, is also the route traveled by the city’s annual July Fourth parade. And the statue is tentatively slated to be dedicated on next year’s July Fourth weekend.
The statue was sculpted by Dennis V. Smith of Utah, based on consultations with Turney.
“The name for the statue – ‘Forever Remember’ – was chosen to embrace and help us to forever remember the who or what in our lives that represents freedom, liberties or patriotism,” Turney said.
The Kiwanis Club of Marietta, which will mark its 80th birthday in March, has a long-standing tradition of embarking upon a special project selected by each year’s president. The “Forever Remember” statue has become a labor of love for Turney, a retired Marine gunnery sergeant and current director of corporate relations for Prime Power in Austell, who took over as president Oct. 1. Her son, Sgt. Chris Conkel, is also a Marine and is in the midst of his second deployment to Iraq.
“I reflected last year after Chris returned from his first deployment and about his service affected me and his extended family,” she said. “You hear about the ultimate sacrifice, but there are other types of sacrifices which are also tough. The moms who say an extra prayer for ‘their 24-year old baby’ so very far away, the young bride as she sees his civilian clothes hanging in the closet every morning or the toddler who points to the picture on the refrigerator of ‘Da-Da’ – those, too, are sacrifices.”
“I remember wanting to talk more to my son or how just an e-mail made me feel closer to him. A saved voice mail helped me ‘know’ he was OK. He had to go to Iraq for me to imagine what my family sacrificed when I went to Desert Storm.”
A miniature, two-feet-tall bronze version of the statue is on display in the Cobb/Marietta Museum of Art. It can be viewed by the public without paying the museum’s admission fee, and will be presented as part of a display showing how statues are made, and the progress of the actual full-size statue, Turney said.
While the city is providing the land for the statue (which will be mounted atop a pedestal), the project’s cost will be borne by the club and other private donors, not taxpayers.
If you would like to be part of the fundraising drive, contact info@foreverremember.us.
“I see the statue being a destination for people, including myself, to go and reflect and remember the people in our lives who have sacrificed at any level to contribute to maintaining our freedom,” Turney said.
“I envision, ‘Forever remember’ to be a reminder for each of us of those who have served before, currently serving or will choose to take the oath to defend and protect our nation, and those who safeguard our community.”
As Milton said: “They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Joe Kirby is Editorial Page editor of the Marietta Daily Journal and co-author of the new book “Marietta Revisited: Then & Now.”