MORGANTOWN, West Virginia, July 25, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Don Knotts has been immortalized in bronze by artist Jamie Lester in his hometown of Morgantown, WV.
A bronze statue was unveiled of the legendary actor and comedian, best known for his role as the nervous and twitchy deputy, Barney Fife, on ” The Andy Griffith Show.”
The statue depicts Knotts sitting on a bench outside of Morgantown’s Metropolitan Theatre, Knotts, who died in February 2006, would have been 92 last week.
Knotts’ daughter Karen, attended the unveiling and chatted about her father to the press, share some personal insight to her father, saying he was nervous by nature and somewhat of a hypochondriac, “MetroNews” reported.
“I love Jamie Lester’s statue,” Karen told the news outlet. “It captures Don Knotts the person beautifully, while he holds Barney Fife’s hat.”
Artist Jamie Lester said the statue represented multiple works of Knotts.
“It’s a prop that is a symbol for the script for ‘The Ghost and Mr. Chicken’ which he did around the same time. So, it’s a nod to his film work in his left hand and nod to his TV work with ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ with the prop for the Barney Fife hat in his right hand,” Lester continued, according to “MetroNews.”
