Metro Roundup: Friends of Eddie Aldridge donate for bronze bust of nurseryman

Eddie Aldridge loved to sit on a bench at the public gardens off Lorna Road that bear his name and talk to people who were visiting there.

Even though Aldridge died more than two years ago, people again will soon get to see his face after coming through the entrance gate.

Mark Davis, a friend of Aldridge and member of the gardens’ advisory board, organized a fundraising drive to put a bronze bust of Aldridge just inside the entrance. Within 35 days, he collected $19,000 for the project.

People were very eager to donate once they learned about the effort, Davis said.

Another group that Davis helped create, the Alabama Fallen Warriors Project, took the lead on the Aldridge memorial bust. That group raises money to create bronze busts of military members from Alabama who died while on active duty since 9/11.

While Aldridge wasn’t on active duty when he died at the age of 85 in November 2018, he was a veteran. He served in the U.S. Army military police from 1953 to 1955.

While Aldridge was still alive, Davis originally wanted to create a life-size statue of Aldridge sitting on a bench at the gardens, but the nurseryman was completely against the idea, his wife, Kay, said.

Aldridge preferred for any money that would have gone to a statue of him to go to the gardens instead, she said.

Kay Aldridge said she thinks Davis’ idea for a bronze bust is a great alternative. “I’m just thrilled to death with it.”

The Alabama Hydrangea Society donated $3,000 to cover the cost of a bronze plaque to go with the bust, and there were 20 to 25 other donors, Davis said. Some paid $300 for a “Friends of Eddie Aldridge” brick paver that will go beside the bust.

Retired Marine Col. Lee Busby, a sculptor from Tuscaloosa, designed and is sculpting the bust, and it will be cast in bronze at the University of Alabama Foundry.