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Molly, namesake of Marion County's animal abuser registry, will be honored with statue

Ocala Star-Banner

A Marion County icon will soon receive a tribute from a prominent Florida sculptor in honor of the footprint — or pawprint — she has left on the community.

Molly, a 14-year-old American boxer mix, smiled for visitors Thursday at the Marion Theatre, posing for pictures and looking like a celebrity in her silver sparkling collar.

The canine, which has become an ambassador against animal abuse since being brutally beaten in 2014, will be the subject of Nilda Comas’ next sculpture following the completion of her Mary McLeod Bethune statue for the United States Capitol’s National Statuary Hall.

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Molly inspired the creation of an animal abuse registry

Lilly Baron, right, talks about Molly, an American boxer and lab mix who was brutally abused and tortured, as artist Nilda Comas listens Thursday afternoon at the Marion Theatre.

Molly is best known as the namesake of “Molly’s Law,” an ordinance that created a county animal abuse registry to prevent convicted abusers from owning, living or working with animals.

“Molly was severely beaten with a bat, stabbed in the head with a knife, and Marion County residents got so angry at the abuse that she had gone through that they joined together, and they went before our commissioners and they got it passed,” SPCA President Lilly Baron, who adopted Molly after the attack, told around 40 guests at the event.

Baron commended the registry for having teeth and no loopholes.

“Our goal right now is to get a statewide animal abuser registry passed, but in the end, we would love to see it go nationwide,” Baron said.

Sculptor Nilda Comas, center, has a laugh with her brother Tito Comas, right, and Marion County Animal Services Director Jim Sweet Thursday at the Marion Theatre before announcing a new sculpture of Molly, a dog whose abuse lead to the creation of a county animal abuser registry.

The sculpture, meant to raise awareness of animal abuse, has been sponsored by an initial donation from the Richard and Patricia Gustafson Trust Foundation, and additional funding will be raised through private donations.

“The unfortunate events that Molly went through and survived through led to something that’s going to help so many countless animals in our community,” Marion County Animal Services Director Jim Sweet said at the event. “Molly is awesome. She is a success story, and she is a survivor, and she’s enjoying her life that she has now.”

Molly's statue will be sculpted in Italy

Comas revealed that the sculpture will be life-sized and depict Molly laying down. It will be made out of porcelain.

“I am so honored to have been commissioned to do a sculpture of Molly because sculpture if very powerful. It is three-dimensional. You can walk around it just like we walk around Molly now. You can look at it, you can touch it, and it can go on forever,” she said. “The spirit of Molly can be felt, and all that she’s doing as an ambassador will continue.”

Comas met Molly on Wednesday to complete measurements and take pictures that will help her capture the dog's spirit.

At the Marion Theatre on Thursday, Lilly Baron showed a few clips from the documentary about Molly, right, an American boxer and lab mix who was brutally abused and tortured.

“She’s such a doll. I have many, many photographs. I was able to see her so close and feel her and see her expressions,” Comas said. “I’m already in love with her, so that makes it a lot easier. I’ve got a certain image of her in my mind already.”

There is no timeline on completion of the statue, but it will be placed in a location where it creates a lasting tribute and encourages other communities to enact similar laws.

Comas, who splits her time between Fort Lauderdale and Pietrasanta, Italy, will complete the sculpture of Molly in her Italian studio, where she also sculpted Bethune.

Comas and Bethune make history in the National Statuary Hall

After announcing the new commission on Thursday, Comas took time to discuss her history-making sculpture of Bethune, a Black educator and civil rights activist who founded a school for African American girls that went on to become Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach.

Each state has two statues in the National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C. Until now, Florida’s representatives have been Edmund Kirby Smith, a Confederate Army general, and John Gorrie, father of refrigeration and air conditioning.

The Florida Legislature voted 111-1 in 2018 to replace Smith with Bethune, a founder of multiple civil rights organizations and an adviser to Franklin Roosevelt and other presidents.

Comas was selected from 1,600 individuals to sculpt Bethune, a daughter of former slaves. She researched Bethune for months, visiting her birthplace in Mayesville, South Carolina, meeting her family, and learning about her from Library of Congress documents.

“Since we were small kids, she always wanted to be a sculptor. She always wanted to be an artist,” Comas’ brother Tito Comas said at the event. “She’s one of the best in the world.”

Tito Comas, left, brother to Nilda Comas, right, the groundbreaking artist whose recently completed sculpture of civil rights leader and educator Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune will represent Florida in the National Statuary Hall, said how proud he was of his older sister.

Nilda Comas will be the first Hispanic person to have a state-commissioned statue in Statuary Hall

Comas was born in Puerto Rico in 1953, two years before Bethune’s death. Comas will make history as the first Hispanic person, male or female, to have a state-commissioned statue in the Statuary Hall. Bethune will make history as the first Black person, male or female, to be honored with a statue there.

Comas made four models of Bethune before creating the final sculpture, carved from a slab of marble out of the same quarry Michelangelo used to sculpt “David” over 500 years ago.

Projects that leave a legacy

She discussed her artistic choices with guests on Thursday, saying she wanted the 11-foot Bethune to look strong but kind.

“She has one foot forward because she was always moving forward,” Comas said.

In the statue, Bethune wears a cap and gown to convey her lifelong commitment to education. A stack of books represents her love of learning. She holds a carved wooden cane given to her by the Roosevelts in one hand and a black rose in the other, which symbolized the diversity and beauty among people.

“She was showing so much love and care for everyone,” Comas said. “She has this humility even though she was such an important person.”

Nilda Comas, the groundbreaking artist whose recently completed sculpture of civil rights leader and educator Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, will represent Florida in the National Statuary Hall, shows the poster of the sculpture after talking about the experience of creating the marble sculpture Thursday afternoon at the Marion Theatre in Ocala.

The Bethune statue is on display at the News-Journal Center in Daytona Beach until Dec. 12. A motorcade will escort the statue past the log cabin where Bethune was born on its way to Washington, D.C., in February.

Comas has visited Marion County for various workshops and events since the 1970s. She has sculpted many statues of humans, horses and other figures over the years, but she likes projects such as those honoring Bethune and Molly because of their important legacies.

“I would like to leave projects and sculptures that have a meaning to the public and that will be there forever because sculpture is so powerful,” Comas said.

Contact reporter Danielle Johnson at djohnson@gannett.com.