LEEDS, Utah — While workers put the finishing touches on St. George’s new City Hall, one of its focal points hasn’t been installed yet. It’s a sculpture.
But it isn't just a sculpture; it's a love story.
"Without her, I wouldn't do and be what I do," Jerry Anderson, the 90-year-old artist behind the piece, said of his wife. "Because she's promoted myself and she's done all the work while I'm out there playing in clay like a little boy."
Jerry has been married to his wife Fawn for 71 years. He met her when he was 17 and she was a cheerleader. She's cheered him on since in his artistic career, where he became known for his historical and Western-themed sculptures that have become known in southern Utah and worldwide. Even with a stroke a few months ago, she still handles his paperwork.
"It's a huge job to be married to an artist," Fawn Anderson said.
Fawn was there at the very beginning when Jerry first submitted an entry to a drawing contest.
"It said, 'Draw me,' and I drew it, and it was a picture of a beautiful girl, and just her face," Jerry said.
He says his love of Fawn is an inspiration behind his latest piece. That's because it's about the love story that was part of the beginning of St. George itself.
FOX 13 News was among the first to see the finished sculpture at the Andersons’ studio in Leeds, at the Silver Reef Historic Site. It will be formally revealed in January at the new city hall.
David and Wilhelmina Cannon were among the 311 families in 1861 that founded the Dixie Mission, which became St. George. Anderson has immortalized the couple — and their exchange of a flower — in bronze.
Richard Whitehead, a former city councilman, university administrator and historian, is helping fund the $115,000 sculpture — without public money. He's fond of the story of how David convinced his refined Eastern wife to make the move to St. George.
"And after they'd been here for a few months, she was tired of scorched scorpions and rattlesnake and sagebrush and heat. She just said, 'David, I can't do this. If you could just show me one thing of beauty in this forsaken land, I would be happy to stay,'" Whitehead said.
That May day, working in the field, Whitehead said David fell down a hill upon some sego lilies that only bloom in May. This story became the inspiration behind the sego lily becoming the state flower.
"When he pulled out the sego lily, that was it. And her conclusion was: if this area can grow beautiful flowers like this, it can grow beautiful people too," Whitehead said.
Like the Andersons, there was about a two to three-year difference in age between the Cannons. Jerry said it took 300 pounds of clay and six weeks on David and about five weeks on Wilhelmina. Jerry was inspired by what he said was to honor women pioneers like Wilhelmina and love.
"Every town has a hero, and every hero should be recognized in bronze because it's everlasting," Jerry said.
When I asked who his hero was, Jerry's answer was simple: "My hero? This girl."
