Mini-Mount-Rushmore of Florence Deeble

Lucas, Kansas

Florence Deeble, born in 1900, grew up in Lucas a block away from Sam Dinsmoor, and watched him build his mysterious Garden of Eden. Something about it stuck with her, and in the 1930s Florence began filling her own yard with colored concrete sculptures, just like Sam. But unlike Sam, Florence was noncontroversial; no bare-breasted women or political allegories. She liked to recreate places she'd seen on vacation. Her masterpiece was her mini-Mount-Rushmore, made of cement slathered over chicken wire and metal cans for the heads.

Florence died in 1999 and her family donated her house and yard to the Grassroots Art Center, which gives tours of her work. She'd probably enjoy that, but she wouldn't recognize the interior of her house, which is now a 21st century bizzaro art environment, "The Garden of Isis," by artist Mri-Pilar.