CTroyMathis
21 December 2002, 02:54 PM
Fort Worth's JFK memorial stalled
By Bud Kennedy
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Star-Telegram
Bud Kennedy
By now, President John F. Kennedy was supposed to be standing tall again in Fort Worth.,
Nearly 40 years after the downtown speech that would be his last, Kennedy was expected to tower again over the block at Main and Eighth streets -- this time 8 feet high and in bronze.
Instead, the statue looms above other works in the sculptor's cramped Houston studio. He hasn't been paid, and the statue's fate rests in a Houston court.
"It's just sitting here," said veteran sculptor Lawrence Ludtke, hired by a Dallas foundation to sculpt Kennedy as a gift for the site, now a city park.
Ludtke is suing the John F. Kennedy Museum Foundation of Dallas and its executive director, Kennedy collector Ferris Rookstool, for an overdue April 2001 payment.
Rookstool said Wednesday that the foundation fell short of raising the needed $150,000, but that he has been promised more gifts and still expects to deliver the statue.
With much fanfare and bombast -- including a visit by Prince Albert of Monaco -- Rookstool announced plans two years ago to give Fort Worth a fitting memorial for a president who slept his last night in what was then the Hotel Texas.
The Prince Albert luncheon raised only $4,200. Overall, the foundation raised less than half the $150,000, Rookstool said, including a $50,000 gift from the hotel, now the Radisson Plaza Fort Worth.
The Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau originally supported the project. Doug Harman, the bureau director, said Rookstool no longer keeps in touch.
Harman said the statue is still a "great concept," adding: "Obviously, the person involved has not been able to pull the resources together."
Rookstool, a former FBI employee, now works in Dallas as an events coordinator promoting authors' and musicians' appearances at Borders Books & Music stores.
"Do you want a very candid response?" he asked.
"Fort Worth has not been very helpful in supporting this cause, which to me is tragic. ... Dallas people have given all the money and done all the work."
It is difficult to tell exactly how hard Rookstool has been working. He is both the executive director of the foundation and chairman of his own overseeing board of directors. The foundation is not to be confused with the larger Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.
"We fell short," Rookstool said, adding that cutbacks in charity contributions after Sept. 11, 2001, hindered his effort. The foundation is "working out the details" to pay for the sculpture, he said, and is seeking more gifts.
Artist Peter Max recently agreed to donate an original artwork to anyone giving $30,000 or more, Rookstool said.
The foundation agreed to pay Ludtke $125,000 and has paid him $41,666, said the sculptor's attorney, Ronald Wardell of Houston. An August lawsuit filed in Harris County district court asks for an overdue third payment of $41,666, due April 14, 2001.
A trial date has not been set, Wardell said.
"This has been a major undertaking," Wardell said. The 8-foot-tall clay model -- ready for bronzing -- takes up one-fourth of Ludtke's studio, Wardell said.
"The piece is finished," said Ludtke, 73. "It is something that would look very good on the street in Fort Worth."
Ludtke would "welcome" offers from anyone else to step in and buy the statue, Wardell said.
The delay is yet another disappointment for the Radisson hotel, already facing new competition from a proposed Hilton hotel nearby to be financed with city money.
"That statue would have dressed up the hotel and the park," said Stan Kennedy, vice president of operations for the Radisson, owned by Dallas-based Remington Hotels. "We have guests all the time asking about where President Kennedy slept and where he made his last speech."
The hotel itself is marked with a plaque and a small exhibit in the lobby.
Yet after 39 years, there still is no marker telling Americans where John F. Kennedy made the last of his energetic speeches: on a downtown block in Fort Worth.
By Bud Kennedy
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Star-Telegram
Bud Kennedy
By now, President John F. Kennedy was supposed to be standing tall again in Fort Worth.,
Nearly 40 years after the downtown speech that would be his last, Kennedy was expected to tower again over the block at Main and Eighth streets -- this time 8 feet high and in bronze.
Instead, the statue looms above other works in the sculptor's cramped Houston studio. He hasn't been paid, and the statue's fate rests in a Houston court.
"It's just sitting here," said veteran sculptor Lawrence Ludtke, hired by a Dallas foundation to sculpt Kennedy as a gift for the site, now a city park.
Ludtke is suing the John F. Kennedy Museum Foundation of Dallas and its executive director, Kennedy collector Ferris Rookstool, for an overdue April 2001 payment.
Rookstool said Wednesday that the foundation fell short of raising the needed $150,000, but that he has been promised more gifts and still expects to deliver the statue.
With much fanfare and bombast -- including a visit by Prince Albert of Monaco -- Rookstool announced plans two years ago to give Fort Worth a fitting memorial for a president who slept his last night in what was then the Hotel Texas.
The Prince Albert luncheon raised only $4,200. Overall, the foundation raised less than half the $150,000, Rookstool said, including a $50,000 gift from the hotel, now the Radisson Plaza Fort Worth.
The Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau originally supported the project. Doug Harman, the bureau director, said Rookstool no longer keeps in touch.
Harman said the statue is still a "great concept," adding: "Obviously, the person involved has not been able to pull the resources together."
Rookstool, a former FBI employee, now works in Dallas as an events coordinator promoting authors' and musicians' appearances at Borders Books & Music stores.
"Do you want a very candid response?" he asked.
"Fort Worth has not been very helpful in supporting this cause, which to me is tragic. ... Dallas people have given all the money and done all the work."
It is difficult to tell exactly how hard Rookstool has been working. He is both the executive director of the foundation and chairman of his own overseeing board of directors. The foundation is not to be confused with the larger Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.
"We fell short," Rookstool said, adding that cutbacks in charity contributions after Sept. 11, 2001, hindered his effort. The foundation is "working out the details" to pay for the sculpture, he said, and is seeking more gifts.
Artist Peter Max recently agreed to donate an original artwork to anyone giving $30,000 or more, Rookstool said.
The foundation agreed to pay Ludtke $125,000 and has paid him $41,666, said the sculptor's attorney, Ronald Wardell of Houston. An August lawsuit filed in Harris County district court asks for an overdue third payment of $41,666, due April 14, 2001.
A trial date has not been set, Wardell said.
"This has been a major undertaking," Wardell said. The 8-foot-tall clay model -- ready for bronzing -- takes up one-fourth of Ludtke's studio, Wardell said.
"The piece is finished," said Ludtke, 73. "It is something that would look very good on the street in Fort Worth."
Ludtke would "welcome" offers from anyone else to step in and buy the statue, Wardell said.
The delay is yet another disappointment for the Radisson hotel, already facing new competition from a proposed Hilton hotel nearby to be financed with city money.
"That statue would have dressed up the hotel and the park," said Stan Kennedy, vice president of operations for the Radisson, owned by Dallas-based Remington Hotels. "We have guests all the time asking about where President Kennedy slept and where he made his last speech."
The hotel itself is marked with a plaque and a small exhibit in the lobby.
Yet after 39 years, there still is no marker telling Americans where John F. Kennedy made the last of his energetic speeches: on a downtown block in Fort Worth.