MOUNT DORA BUZZ
  • Home
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Business & Real Estate
    • Outdoor Life
    • Government & Education
    • Real Estate Buzz
    • Kindness Matters
    • Health & Wellness
    • Profiles
    • Newsworthy
    • What's Hot...
    • Who Knew?
  • Calendar
  • Festivals & Events
    • Holiday Event Guide
    • Annual Festivals
    • Monthly Events
  • The Best of....
    • Best of Mount Dora
    • Best of Eustis
    • Best of Tavares
    • Best of Mount Dora Take-out
  • Things to Do
  • Dining
  • Live Music
  • Lodging
  • Photos
    • Doors of Mount Dora
    • City Scenes
    • Views from Above
    • Palm Island Boardwalk
    • July 4th Americana
    • Vintage Photos
    • Donnelly House
    • Sydonie Mansion
    • The Howey Mansion
  • History
  • Mobile App
  • COVID-19 Resources
  • Contact
    • News Desk
    • Advertising Inquiries
    • Writing Services & Content Marketing
    • Design Services
    • Submit Pic of the Day
  • Subscribe

Arts & Entertainment

SCULPTURE CELEBRATES MOUNT DORA HEROINE

8/14/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Having first gained national recognition in the 1950s as one of America’s most courageous journalists, Mount Dora’s Mabel Norris Reese will soon be recognized with a bust sculpted in her honor. 
 
The effort to create a lasting tribute to Reese followed the 2018 Mount Dora appearance by author Gilbert King whose Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Devil in the Grove,” and its follow-up, “Beneath a Ruthless Sun,” brought Reese to the attention of readers around the world.  Soon thereafter, Gary McKechnie, a local historian, and others founded the non-profit Mabel Norris Reese Tribute Fund to raise funds for the sculpted portrait. 

King’s “Devil in the Grove” describes how Reese’s focus on local news changed from social events and city council meetings to the life and death struggles of the Groveland Four, four African-American men who in 1949 were falsely accused of raping a white teenager. When Reese began to challenge the brutal authority of Lake County sheriff Willis McCall, she became a target of his wrath. Bombs were detonated at her Sylvan Shores home, her newspaper office vandalized, a cross burned in her yard, and her dog poisoned. Using every resource at his disposal to intimidate Reese, McCall even launched a rival newspaper and warned advertisers not to buy space in Reese’s Mount Dora Topic.
 
From her small town newspaper, Reese continued to expose the corruption of McCall and his deputies. In columns that gained national and international attention, she revealed his use of torture to coerce confessions and reliance on manufactured evidence to gain convictions. In 1954, she led the effort to find justice for the Platt children,  judged by McCall and the county school board to be “negroes” and thus ineligible to attend Mount Dora’s whites-only schools.

In 1957 McCall and Lake County prosecutor Gordon Oldham framed Jesse Daniels, a mentally disabled 19-year-old, for rape and had him committed without trial to the state hospital for the insane in Chattahoochee. Their crime, documented in King’s “Beneath a Ruthless Sun,”  prompted Reese and Jesse’s mother, Pearl, to launch a fourteen-year quest to secure his release.

The initial terra cotta sculpture of Reese is being sculpted by Jim McNalis, an artist recognized internationally for sculpting men and women of extraordinary courage.  Reese will be one of the few women in the United States to be honored with a sculpture. In the feature “Breaking the Bronze Ceiling,”, CBS News reported that of more than 5,000 statues in America, fewer than ten percent are dedicated to women. The sculpture honor will be added to her December 2018 induction as the 40th woman named to the Lake County Women’s Hall of Fame.
 
Donations can be made to the project here. For more news and events in Mount Dora, Tavares & Eustis, this month, click here.  Also download the area's free mobile app.  ​​​
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

    Categories

    All

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    February 2015

    RSS Feed

Terms of Use
Copyright Mount Dora Buzz 2021



  • Home
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Business & Real Estate
    • Outdoor Life
    • Government & Education
    • Real Estate Buzz
    • Kindness Matters
    • Health & Wellness
    • Profiles
    • Newsworthy
    • What's Hot...
    • Who Knew?
  • Calendar
  • Festivals & Events
    • Holiday Event Guide
    • Annual Festivals
    • Monthly Events
  • The Best of....
    • Best of Mount Dora
    • Best of Eustis
    • Best of Tavares
    • Best of Mount Dora Take-out
  • Things to Do
  • Dining
  • Live Music
  • Lodging
  • Photos
    • Doors of Mount Dora
    • City Scenes
    • Views from Above
    • Palm Island Boardwalk
    • July 4th Americana
    • Vintage Photos
    • Donnelly House
    • Sydonie Mansion
    • The Howey Mansion
  • History
  • Mobile App
  • COVID-19 Resources
  • Contact
    • News Desk
    • Advertising Inquiries
    • Writing Services & Content Marketing
    • Design Services
    • Submit Pic of the Day
  • Subscribe