The Last Stop

The sculpture’s pedestal carries a profound inscription from II Corinthians 5:8: “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

Sylvia Shaw Judson’s “Bird Girl,” sculpted in 1936, affectionately nicknamed “Little Wendy,” graced the Trosdal Family plot in Bonaventure Cemetery for over five decades.

In 1993, the sculpture attained widespread recognition when photographer Jack Leigh captured it for the cover of John Berendt’s bestselling novel, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” The book’s immense success propelled the sculpture into the limelight.

Judson, a distinguished sculptor who had previously showcased her art in esteemed locations such as the White House, passed away in 1978, never witnessing the fame of her “Bird Girl” sculpture. Jack Leigh died of colon cancer on May 19, 2004, and is buried in Bonaventure Cemetery, where he took his most famous photograph.

In 1997, the family relocated the statue from Bonaventure and generously donated it to the Telfair Museum of Art in downtown Savannah, where it still resides as of 2023, displayed in a dedicated exhibit room. Museum admission is $22.

– For more on Jack Leigh, visit – laneycontemporary.com

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