X-Message-Number: 27055
Subject: SFGate: Artist Protests Ted Williams' Freezing
From: "John B. Krug" <>
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 08:37:36 -0700

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Thursday, September 15, 2005 (AP)
Artist Protests Ted Williams' Freezing
By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer


   (09-15) 08:50 PDT NEW YORK, (AP) --

   Ted Williams, decapitated and frozen in Arizona.

   And sculptor Daniel Edwards, protesting the state of the late baseball
great with what he calls "a little shrine to his head" &#8212; an exhibit
at First Street Gallery.

   "The fact is, he was decapitated and stored in the middle of Arizona
&#8212; it's an atrocious thing," Edwards said about the cryogenic process
that resulted in the Hall of Famer's head being surgically removed and
frozen at Scottsdale's Alcor Life Extension Foundation. The rest of
Williams' body is stored in a separate tank there.

   Alcor is preserving Williams and more than 60 other "patients" in hopes
that medical science one day will be so advanced that they can be revived.

   "They should free his remains," said Edwards as he put finishing touches
to his show, which opened last week and runs through Oct. 1. "I'm a huge
fan of Ted Williams. When I was a kid, the first bat I got was a Ted
Williams model."

   Edwards set up his show as a kind of sports collectibles exhibit, with a
sculpture of Williams' frozen head as the centerpiece. The sculptor said
he never saw Williams' actual head or a photograph of it; he worked off
photographs of the living man to form a "faithful portrait" of him in his
later years.

   The bust of the Boston Red Sox great rests alone in a glass case, his head
leaning back, eyes partly closed.

   The exhibit includes three copies of the sculpture, each in a glass case
surrounded by memorabilia such as a 1954 Life magazine cover featuring
Williams.

   Alcor said in a statement that the company had nothing to do with the work
of the 40-year-old artist, who specializes in sculpted portraits of great
Americans. Alcor CEO Joe Waynick said it was "unfortunate that anyone
feels they have to capitalize on the memory of Ted Williams for monetary
gain."

   Edwards is offering the Williams busts for $10,000 to $15,000 each.

   He said he was "shocked" when, about a year after Williams' death in July
2002, he read in Sports Illustrated that Williams' remains had been frozen
in liquid hydrogen at the Arizona lab.

   The only publicly known documentation suggesting that Williams wanted to
be cryogenically preserved was a piece of scrap paper, stained with motor
oil and dated Nov. 2, 2000, according to Sports Illustrated. That paper
states that Williams' son, John Henry Williams, his sister, Claudia
Williams, and their father desired to be put in "Bio-Stasis after we die"
on the chance they might be "together in the future."

   Williams' other daughter, Bobby-Jo Ferrell, filed a lawsuit contesting her
half-brother's decision to freeze their father's remains. In his 1996
will, Williams said he wanted to be cremated and have his ashes scattered
over his old fishing grounds in the Florida Keys.

   Ferrell later dropped the suit against John Henry Williams, who died last

year at 35. His body also is frozen at Alcor. 
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Copyright 2005 AP

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