Searching for Little Wendy, Savannah’s Bird Girl
by Kim Michael
Deep in the jungle of costal Southern Georgia is a city unlike any other. A place where real voodoo exists and generations of families have lived and died for hundreds of years. Savannah, by its very nature, is a conundrum, a mix of old south conservatism and a sordid history of decadence, extravagance and indulgence; the last stop of Civil War Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman on his destructive march to the sea in which he burned everything in his path.
But is said that when Sherman came to Savannah he was so enamored by the care-free, self absorbed and often licentious lifestyle of the inhabitants that he spared the city.
Savannah is a strange melting pot of old southern aristocracy, voodoo, deep Afro American history, slave history and probably a host of other unique heritages, each refusing to totally assimilate with the other. What comes of it is a city with a unique set of fingerprints, steeped in eccentricity, surviving hundreds of years, deep in the southern rain forests of coastal Georgia.
When I first saw Savannah it struck me that the Garden of Eden itself could not be more beautiful. Rapped In lush gardens, fountains, palm trees, and massive Live Oak trees draped in Spanish Moss accenting the restored antebellum plantation homes that line the twenty two “squares” of city, perfectly disguising a city still smoldering from the mysteries of its past.
My first glimpse of the city was almost by accident. We were on vacation at Sea Island Georgia and decided to visit Savannah. We stayed only an afternoon but for me it was love at first sight. But it was enough to pique my interest. Then came the book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”, the story of Jim Williams and his murdered lover and house boy Danny Hansen.
I have always been fascinated with Savannah and particularly of one of its best known residents: “Little Wendy” Savannah’s Bird Girl. You may not know her by name, but you have likely seen her. Her haunting image adorns the book cover of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, written by John Berendt; a best seller in 1995 and hit movie produced and directed by Clint Eastwood. 
Last year I had the chance to visit Savannah and I went with two objectives in mind. One--to see the bench where Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) met and told his story to strangers (which is a story for another day): and to see the real Little Wendy.
The picture of Wendy was taken by Jack Leigh, a local Savannah photographer hired by Random House to find a haunting picture for the book’s cover, and at the suggestion of the author, Leigh decided to see if he could find and photograph Little Wendy, who stood in the Bonaventure Cemetery. It took him nearly two days to find her and at the end of the second day, with dusk quickly approaching, he hurriedly took the picture as the sun set behind her, giving her a kind of eerie glow. He had no idea what he had and was not even sure the picture was usable. When he finally developed the film he was mesmerized by the image; an image and a book cover that has since, intrigued millions. 
Little Wendy was created by sculptor Sylvia Shaw Judson in 1936 and only four statues were made from the original plaster mold before it was purposely destroyed. Little Wendy was commissioned for the Torsdale Family burial plot in the Bonaventure Cemetery to memorialize the death of their young daughter, and she stood there for over forty years unnoticed until the famous book cover was published. She was the fourth and last of the original statues to be cast, and the descendants of Sylvia Shaw Judson still own the copyright and rights of reproduction--rights that they vigorously defend even today. As a result, no replicas can be made to the same dimensions of the original Little Wendy, which stands 40 inches tall. Because of the sudden fascination (and several vandalizing attempts) the statue had to moved from the Torsdale burial plot and eventually to the Telfair Museum where she is on loan from the Torsdale family, and where I found her.
Perhaps one day--years, or even generations from now, her famous image on the cover of the last edition of the book “In The Garden of Good and Evil” will fade into the past, hidden away on some forgotten bookshelf as all great books eventually do, and she can be returned to the young girl’s grave that she had watched over for so many years. But for now, she will continue to fascinate thousands of visitors like me, watching the world pass by with her innocent, sightless eyes; and for those who pause just long enough to listen, she whispers— 
“Cherish what you may, forever is but a moment...and life is fleeting.”
Kim Michael
KIM MICHAEL Copyright January 2023