Bishop Kee statue – and party – set for March 7

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

A ceremony honoring Bishop Albert Kee and unveiling a life-sized statue of one of Key West’s most famous goodwill ambassadors is set for Saturday, March 7.

 

Key West City Commissioners have approved a resolution declaring March 7 a “Conch Heritage Day” to celebrate the installation of the bronze statue. South Street between Duval Street and the Southermost Point will be closed from 10 am to 5 pm. Whitehead Street from United Street to the Point will also be closed for the ceremony.

 

Refreshments and entertainment, including a concert by Howard Livingston, will be a part of the day’s events. The actual unveiling ceremony will take place between 2:30 pm and 4:30 pm.

 

“This will be a chance to thank everyone who made the statue come true and to recognize the individual and business donations that supported the project,” said Bruce Neff, Executive Director of Historic Markers, Inc., the agency sponsoring the event.

 

The statue of Kee is meant to commemorate the late Bishop and other black families who used to sell fresh fish and assorted items near the corner of Whitehead and South streets. Kee was instrumental in maintaining the iconic Keys lifestyle and helped turned Southernmost Point into a tourist attraction by famously blowing a conch shell with one hand while waving to visitors with the other.

 

Considered a good-will ambassador for Key West, efforts to honor Kee and a lifestyle long gone from the Keys stalled due to a lack of funding to pay for the statue. But those efforts were jumpstarted by the city commission last August when it approved using Art in Public Places funds to pay approximately half of the cost of the $53,000 statue. They were taking advantage of a 2011 resolution allowing one percent of all new construction costs to go into a fund designated to help create public artwork around the city. Private donations were raised to fund the rest of the statue’s cost.

 

Kee, who was 62 when he died in 2003, was an active member of the Church of God and Prophecy, becoming a deacon, pastor and then a bishop of the church in 1999. His funeral attracted a huge crowd, led into the Key West Cemetery by a marching band from the Bahamas.

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