Smyrna unveils four finalists' designs for Fanny Williams memorial

May 6—Less than two months after the four finalists for a monument to Fanny Williams were announced by the city of Smyrna, their proposed designs for the memorial are now on display at the Smyrna Library.

Williams, a cook and maid for Smyrna's Campbell family in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, has been credited as an early civil rights icon in Cobb County who took on the Ku Klux Klan and helped found the Cobb Cooperative in Marietta, the state's first all-Black hospital. She also helped establish the restaurant that came to be known for its mouthwatering home cooking and glorification of the Old South, Aunt Fanny's Cabin.

The Committee to Honor Fanny Williams, chaired by Smyrna Mayor Pro Tem Tim Gould, budgeted $125,000 for the memorial, which Gould said in March would be adjacent to the Smyrna History Museum on Atlanta Road. The four finalists for the project, in no particular order, are:

Vinnie Bagwell

Bagwell is a Yonkers, New York-based sculptor whose work includes a Sojourner Truth statue in Highland, New York.

David Wilson, Stephen Hayes and Michael Gonzalez

Wilson, Hayes and Gonzalez have worked on memorials together in North Carolina and Texas.

Frederick Hightower

Hightower, who grew up and was educated in West Virginia, is still based there. He is also a painter.

Martin Dawe, Cherrylion Studios

Martin Dawe's Atlanta-based Cherrylion Studios is responsible for the bronze Martin Luther King Jr. statue at the Georgia State Capitol.

Smyrna residents can provide feedback to the council on the different finalists' renderings on the city's Fanny Williams Legacy Project webpage.

Gould said the council will consider the different proposals at its Thursday, May 11 work session and plans to pick a design that will be voted on at the City Council meeting on Monday, May 15.

The finalists' proposals are on display at the Smyrna Library from Saturday, May 6 through May 12.