Barbara Deweese Day was a seventh-grader at Irving Junior High School when she watched the Sower as it was hoisted from its bed in a train car to its perch atop the Capitol.
Standing on a first-floor parapet, she looked down at the giant lying in the train car and watched as the sculpture was winched slowly up to the top, where it has stood for almost 82 years, looking northwest across the Nebraska landscape.
Day, who will be 93 this month, has a number of Capitol connections and Nebraska stories.
Martin-Day Construction, her father-in-law's construction company, did the excavation work for the Capitol in the early 1920s.
Her grandfather's stately home -- and barn for the horse team and pony -- stood across the street from the Capitol at the northeast corner of 16th and J streets.
Day is among the hundreds of Nebraskans who donated to the Centennial Mall renovation during the early, silent campaign that raised about $5.7 million from government and private sources.
Thursday morning, the Centennial Mall campaign kicks off its public fundraising drive, seeking the rest of the $9.6 million needed for renovation and an endowment for future maintenance.
The redesign of the entire seven-block mall will celebrate Nebraska's legacy of stewardship and will include three fountains, new walkways and landscaping and a pathway of Nebraska names and stories.
The Spirit of Nebraska Pathway will be a series of granite and bronze plaques placed along the twin walkways that frame all seven blocks.
Individuals and businesses can buy tiles or sponsor tiles for notable Nebraskans.
It is envisioned that these blocks will become a "mosaic of Nebraskans" and tell their stories.
Part of the Day contribution, funded through a family memorial fund, will be used for a plaque honoring Day's husband, George, who died three years ago.
George Day loved fountains, his wife said. He thought there should be a fountain in the center of Oak Park for people to enjoy during their drive into Lincoln.
About 20 years ago, a $50,000 gift from the Edith R. Day Memorial Fund honoring Barbara Day's mother-in-law was used to repair the K Street fountain.
The George Day plaque likely will say "He loved fountains" and be placed near one of the new fountains.
Construction on the middle three blocks of the mall from M to P streets will be done this summer, in connection with a separate downtown street rehabilitation project.
The rest of the renovation will begin after the $9.6 million goal is reached.
Donations so far include $1.5 million from private donors, $3 million from the city, $550,000 from Windstream, $500,000 from the Lincoln Community Foundation on behalf of the Sheila Dickinson Dinsmore Graf Fund and $500,000 from the Lancaster County Visitor's Improvement Fund. Other funding partners include the Nebraska Environmental Trust, State Farm, the Cope Foundation of Kearney and the Junior League of Lincoln.
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