FORT SMITH — A group of Fort Smith residents announced a fundraising effort Friday to establish a monument honoring William Orlando Darby, a Fort Smith native and World War II hero.
Liz Armstrong, one of the organizers of the General Darby Legacy Project, made the announcement on Darby’s 102nd birthday in the William O. Darby Memorial Room, a permanent exhibit at the Fort Smith Museum of History since 1989. With Armstrong at the podium were students of Darby Junior High School who joined about 15 others for the announcement.
The committee, which will be headed by Darby Junior High School Principal Darren McKinney, will seek to raise about $200,000 for a statue of Darby seated on a motorcycle to be displayed at the southeast corner of Cisterna Park at 10th Street and Garrison Avenue in downtown Fort Smith.
Cisterna Park is named after the Italian city that adopted Fort Smith as a sister city in honor of Darby and the many Army Rangers who died in a battle trying to liberate Cisterna during the war. Darby was the commander and organizer of the first Army Ranger battalion formed in World War II.
Among the committee members, Armstrong said, are three surviving members of Darby’s family, Dr. Sylvia Ryan and Darby and Preston Watkins.
Armstrong said it will take up to 2 1/2 years to raise the money and create the statue.
Artists have been solicited to submit proposals for the project and the committee will begin reviewing them after the March 31 deadline, Armstrong said.
Armstrong said the committee will be counting on support from Ranger veterans who she said have a strong emotional attachment to Darby. She also said she plans to apply for a grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation to help fund the statue project.
She said in the coming months committee members will be speaking to civic groups and anyone who wants to hear about the project. The committee has established a website, darbylegacyproject.com
Darby attended Fort Smith High School, which is now Darby Junior High School, graduated from West Point and joined the Army, where he had a number of assignments from 1933 until the war began in 1941.
In 1942, he was assigned to organize and command the Army’s first Ranger battalion and led his troops in fighting in North Africa in 1942, Sicily in 1943 and Italy in 1944.
In April 1944, Darby was promoted to colonel and was transferred to Washington, D.C. In March 1945, he returned to Italy where he became the assistant commander of the 10th Mountain Division.
During an operation on April 30, 1945, Darby was standing among a group of officers in northern Italy when a German artillery round exploded over them, killing Darby.
He was promoted posthumously to brigadier general and is buried at Fort Smith National Cemetery.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 02/09/2013