The centerpiece of the new Douglas County Memorial of Honor was lowered onto its pedestal Tuesday to the cheers of three dozen people gathered for the event.

“Did you see that?” exclaimed former Mayor Erv Hodges, who has led the memorial effort. “It fit!”

As the memorial statue From

Tuesday’s installation was a milestone capping five years of work by Hodges and other veterans.

The memorial honors 453 Douglas County soldiers, sailors, police officers and firefighters who died in the line of duty, going back to the Civil War.

The 19-foot sculpture was created by Lawrence artist Jim Brothers. Called “From the Ashes,” the sculpture depicts a half-man, half-phoenix rising from flames. It is at the center of a circle of concrete benches, before an American flag, located at the Lawrence Visitor Center, 402 N. Second St.

“I think it is all we wanted it to be,” Hodges said. “It is classical. It shows how man can rise up, strive from trouble. And it’s representative of our community.”

He said $215,000 had been raised for completion of the memorial.

“We have $5,000 left to go,” Hodges said.

Rain delayed the planned installation for three hours. The assembled crowd cheered several times: once when the sculpture was lowered into place, the next when workers removed blankets that had been covering the phoenix’s face.

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“Very pleased with it,” said Bernard Judge, a member of the memorial committee. He said the site would be good for future patriotic ceremonies. “We wanted something that would be a destination memorial.”

Brothers also created statues featured in the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Va., and one of President Eisenhower that stands in the U.S. Capitol.

“Glad it’s up,” Brothers said of the one-ton statue. “When you get mostly a good reception, you’re always glad.”

He said the sculpture was designed, in part, as tribute to the “agony of rebirth” that Lawrence experienced after being destroyed by Quantrill’s Raiders during the Civil War.

“I wanted it to symbolize Lawrence,” Brothers said. “We have come from strife.”

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