Beloved MTM character Mary Richards tosses her hat.

Mary Tyler Moore Statue

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Mary Richards (played by Mary Tyler Moore) was a 1970 TV sitcom version of a liberated woman: 30 years old, contentedly single, confidently working as a television news producer in Minneapolis. Oprah Winfrey once claimed that as a teenager she was inspired to work in television by watching the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

In 2002 the cable channel TV Land unveiled a life-size bronze statue of Mary on the exact spot where, in the show's opening credits, she spun around and flung her hat joyfully into the air. Mary Tyler Moore attended the dedication, and countless women have since stood next to the statue and flung their hats into the air in solidarity.

Bronze Mary was unexpectedly placed in storage for sidewalk construction in 2015. This caused such an outcry that the statue was quickly moved into the city's downtown visitor center, so that Mary could still be seen by the public until she was finally returned to her normal spot.

Sculptor Gwendolyn Gillen once said that the Mary Tyler Moore statue was her favorite sculptural work. Mary died on January 25, 2017; Gwendolyn died two days later.