Freedom Rock

Maryville Daily Forum: “Community rallies behind ‘Freedom Rock’” By Tony Brown, Staff Writer – February 4, 2017 While Iowa muralist Ray “Bubba” Sorensen II of Greenfield, Iowa, is the man painting the “Freedom Rock” monument in Franklin Park north of the Maryville Square, the project is really a group effort embracing dozens of Nodaway Countians who have lined up in support of the Lions Club-sponsored project. Sorensen arrived Friday to begin work on the rock, a massive granite boulder moved to the park on a county-owned lowboy trailer from the Bernard Gast farm just north of Burlington Junction. Over the next two weeks, Sorensen, who has completed nearly 60 similar projects in his home state as well as a recent Freedom Rock installation in Michigan, will cover the stone’s surface with images of local war heroes and a Nodaway County sheriff killed in the line of duty. Members of the five area Lions Clubs commissioning the project were on hand Friday afternoon to welcome Sorensen, who immediately began applying a special masonry primer to the rock. Both Jeanine Montgomery, a member of the Pride Lions Club and Freedom Rock chair, and Robert Westfall of the Host Lions Club noted that the effort has attracted a high level of community support. Montgomery and Westfall said the large, windowed tent erected over the rock as a temporary studio was provided by Northwest Missouri State University, and that the cost of Sorensen’s lodging is being covered by the local Holiday Inn Express. Other contributors include Consumers Oil Co., which is donating the propane used to heat the tent, and Orscheln Farm & Home, which has provided a couple of gas-fueled space heaters. As for Sorensen, the trim, boyishly handsome artist arrived in a red, white, and blue truck advertising his “Freedom Rock Tour” and its stated goal of “thanking our veterans one painting at a time.” Dressed in paint-spattered jeans and a “Vets 4 Vets” T-shirt, Sorensen told of how he was inspired to paint the first Freedom Rock in 1999 after seeing the World War II movie “Saving Private Ryan,” an experience that led him to cover a “graffiti rock” near his hometown with images paying tribute to veterans. The rock proved immensely popular and attracted visitors from all over the country and several foreign nations. So, after graduating from college with a degree in art and design — and getting married, having a couple of kids, and starting a photography business in Greenfield with his wife, Maria — Sorensen decided to take his rock art on the road. “At first, I wanted to feed my family, thank our veterans, and promote Iowa tourism,” he said, adding that he has been gratified at how his murals have brought visitors to small towns like Greenfield and other “backroad” communities. But the project just kept growing, and Sorensen’s goals along with it. Ultimately, he said, he would like to create Freedom Rocks in Iowa’s 99 counties and two each in the remaining 49 states — all of them telling true stories about people who have served in uniform. The artists said he has no interest in creating “cookie-cutter” images generically representing each branch of military service and other patriotic clichés, a process he described as “clip art.” “That’s been overdone,” he said. “I’m interested in telling stories that maybe haven’t been told for a while.” The images Sorensen is creating in Maryville will preserve the stories of Lt. Albert David, who won the Medal of Honor during World War II for leading efforts to capture a German submarine, and Capt. Harry Truman, later President Truman, who commanded Battery D of the Army’s 129th Field Artillery Regiment — still based in Maryville — during World War I. Additional depictions are to comprise Civil War veteran Nathaniel Sisson and Nodaway County Sheriff Earl Anderson. Sisson, who lived in Maryville, is believed to have blown the bugle call signaling the final charge of Union troops at Appomattox Court House on the morning of April 9, 1865, a battle that effectively ended the war. Sheriff Anderson was killed in a car wreck in 1958 near Clarinda, Iowa, while participating in the pursuit of a suspected armed robber. Historical research for the local Freedom Rock project was conducted by Pride Lions member Larry Anderson. While Sorensen is obviously passionate about his Freedom Rock crusade and the importance of giving veterans and first-responders their due, he admits that his artistic crusade carries a price in the form of too much time away from his young family, which includes a 2-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter. “My wife still wants to know why I couldn’t have been smart enough to start this before we had kids,” he said with a wry smile. But, though Sorensen will get to go back home in a couple of weeks — at least for a while — efforts by local Lions to create a full-fledged Freedom Rock plaza are likely to continue for some time. Montgomery said the groups, which also include clubs in Graham, Hopkins, and Pickering, are about a third of the way toward collecting the $30,000 or so needed to complete the project. In addition to the rock itself, the Lions hope to construct a landscaped flag plaza that will fly the national and state standards in addition to banners representing POW/MIAs and all six branches of the U.S. military, including the National Guard. The Lions’ fundraising efforts include selling commemorative pavers. Three sizes are available: 4-by-8 inch with three lines of text at a cost of $50; 8-by-8 inch with four lines of text, $100; and 8-by-16-inch with four lines of text, $200. Paver purchase forms are available from all five clubs as well as several Maryville businesses, including Consumers Oil, American Electric, the Maryville Daily Forum, and the Nodaway News Leader. Reference: Brown, Tony. “Community rallies behind ‘Freedom Rock.’” Maryville Daily Forum. February 4, 2017