![220px-George_Julian_Zolnay_01[1]](https://gravelyspeaking.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/220px-george_julian_zolnay_011.jpg)
Hungarian-born sculptor George Julian Zolnay (July 4, 1863 – May 1, 1949) created monumental works of arts including the memorial at the edge of Centennial Park in Nashville, Tennessee, for fallen World War I soldiers. This sculpture shows the full force and emotion of his work. A young soldier, still clutching his rifle lies in the lap of a young woman who cradles him as he dies. Her cape covers them.
Just like other great artists of the time, Zolnay was commissioned to create cemetery memorials. The seated mourning figure was commissioned by David Rowland Francis (October 1, 1850 – January 15, 1927), who served in various political posts such as, Mayor of St. Louis, Governor of Missouri, United States Secretary of the Interior, and Ambassador to Russia. Zolnay’s mourning figure in the Bellefontaine Cemetery, at St. Louis, Missouri, wears a cloak that casts a shadow over her face giving the statue a haunting look.
The sculpture Zolnay created for Confederate President Jefferson Davis (June 3, 1807 – December 6, 1889) in the Hollywood Cemetery, at Richmond, Virginia, shows a proud and unrepentant man. Davis was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point served six years in the United States Army and fought in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). From 1853 to 1857 under President Franklin Pierce, Davis served as Secretary of War. He was also elected as the Democratic U.S. senator from Mississippi. But, Davis, a believer in each states’ right to secede from the Union, was inaugurated as the President of the Confederate States of America on February 18, 1861. He became inextricably linked to the Confederacy and a symbol of the lost cause.
Gravely Speaking 
I had taken a picture of David Francis’s grave stone and that haunting woman years ago. Francis was quite a well-known figure in St. Louis. Bellefontaine Cemetery is famous for a wonderful collection of sculptures commissioned by the most important St. Louis families years ago. The Clydesdales of Budweiser fame were originally brought to St. Louis to pull huge monuments, stones, and granite blocks from the river to the cemetery.
Another Zolnay statue is a bust of a pioneer which David Rowland Francis commissioned as a gift to Richmond, Madison County, Kentucky, which is located on the corner of Main Street and First Street, Richmond, Kentucky. Ambassador Francis was born across the street in what was known as “Francis Tavern.”