OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – After close to a decade of work and collecting donations, organizers finally have a home for a statue of Omaha\u2019s Broom Man.<\/p>\n
Rev. Livingston Wills walked the streets of Omaha selling brooms and spreading joy. The statue will memorialize the positive spirit and work ethic of the Omaha icon.<\/p>\n
Omaha artist John Lajba is working on a project he started years ago. He has created a statue of Wills and is preparing it to be covered in bronze.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis eyes under his lids you\u2019ll see that they\u2019re concentrating on something,\u201d Lajba said. \u201cYou know they\u2019re very alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Artist captures details of Rev. Wills\u2019 blindness<\/p>\n
Wills was without sight. Lajba puts details in his work that point out that fact.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not like grabbing like maybe someone with sight might do,\u201d Lajba said. \u201cEven the way he holds the brooms, he has to feel each balance of the brooms with his hands and with his shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lajba said he thinks making the statue life-size rather than larger than life makes it stronger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the ideal of him not being larger than life but him being life makes it stronger I think it\u2019s better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Committee formed to preserve Rev. Wills\u2019 memory<\/p>\n
Jim Backens of the Broom Man Committee said Rev. Wills had to work selling brooms to support himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you are a reverend and your congregation is 17 people you have to do something else in order to live,\u201d Backens said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Backens said Wills was an icon for Omaha and the committee became more aware of that truth as they worked on the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were afraid he would be forgotten when he passed away and that\u2019s why we thought, let\u2019s erect a sculpture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Statue location chosen<\/p>\n
The Broom Man Committee and the nonprofit Omaha Parks Foundation have selected a location to place the statue.<\/p>\n
Tiffany Regan, executive director of the Omaha Parks Foundation, said the statue will face southeast on Turner Boulevard at Farnam Street.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost as if he\u2019s walking to cross the street like many of us saw over the years,\u201d Regan said.<\/p>\n
For Regan, the project brings back memories.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom enjoyed Livingston very much and so she\u2019d always buy a broom from him and that\u2019s what we used at our house growing up were the brooms that he sold,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
More than artwork<\/p>\n
The people working on this project say the statue is more than a piece of artwork.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would meet people and talk to them and respect them and they would learn to respect him and we just need more people like the rev,\u201d Backens said.<\/p>\n