Statue of Cole Oyl
Chester, Illinois
The statue of Cole Oyl is one of 16 separate statues that the city of Chester is erecting around its downtown, part of a decades-long plan honoring the Popeye menagerie created by hometown cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar.
Cole Oyl is the father of Olive Oyl, and both characters actually predated Popeye by almost ten years. The bearded Oyl patriarch stands in front of the town library, not because he was bookish (he wasn't) but because the library property was donated by a man named Charles Cole.
According to Debbie Brooks, president of the Popeye Picnic Committee, the Cole Oyl statue was sculpted with his right arm raised as if he was waving at a statue of his wife, Nana Oyl, who was to stand across the street on the lawn of the town nursing home. But Nana was never sculpted, so Cole's upraised hand has been interpreted by visitors as a friendly greeting.