Kansas City, Mo. ? Give ’em a hello, Harry.

Organizers of a drive to place a statue of Harry S. Truman outside historic Union Station unveiled the winning design Friday, showing the 33rd president raising his trademark Homburg hat in a wave.

Sculptor Bruce Wolfe said he wanted to capture the “friendliness, the gregariousness of Mr. Truman. I’ve looked through a zillion photographs of him, and a lot of them had the hat up like that.”

The 26-foot sculpture is expected to be dedicated May 8, 2006, Truman’s birthday. It will stand on a 20-foot pedestal that has been vacant since Union Station was built in 1914. The building, renovated and reopened in 1999 after years of disuse, is now a working train station as well as a tourist destination.

Clifton Daniel, Truman’s grandson, said he was asked what his grandfather – famous for his plain-spoken, modest nature – would have thought of the tribute.

“The first thing that popped into my head that he’d say is, ‘That’s pretty damn big,'” Daniel said.

But both Daniel and the director of Truman’s presidential library said Truman would have appreciated the gesture.

Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., looks at an artist's rendering of a planned statue outside Union Station on Friday in Kansas City, Mo. The 26-foot statue of Harry Truman is planned for placement in 2006.

“Although he didn’t promote himself, he wasn’t about to hurt anybody’s feelings for doing something kind,” said Daniel, who was 15 when Truman died in 1972. “If he was embarrassed, he wouldn’t show it. He would certainly be grateful, and he would certainly make sure that the people who built it for him knew that he appreciated it.”

Michael Devine, director of the Truman Presidential Museum and Library in Independence, said Truman wouldn’t have wanted the statue placed while he was alive.

“Several times during his lifetime, people offered to name things after him or erect statues, and he discouraged it,” Devine said. “He said you should never do anything like that until after the person’s dead, because you never know what kind of foolishness they might get into.”

“But I guess he’s been gone long enough, and his story’s pretty well out there,” Devine said. “I think he would be shocked and amazed that such a huge statue of him would be erected, but I think he’d be proud of it.”

Congress has already appropriated $50,000 for the sculpture, under a measure introduced in 2003 by Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo. Members of the Native Sons of Kansas City and the Native Sons Scouts, the groups behind the statue drive, hope to raise another $400,000 from public donations.

Truman, who grew up in the Kansas City area and remained in Independence after leaving the presidency, was a member of the Native Sons even during his White House years.

“He deserves to be honored,” Talent said Friday.