Although retired from doing commissioned work, Hansen still spends time on creative projects in her home. <\/p>\n
Of all the work she\u2019s created through the years, Hansen counts her depiction of Billy Coleman and his dogs from the book \u201cWhere the Red Fern Grows\u201d as one of her favorites. The sculpture sits on the northeast side of the Idaho Falls Public Library and was created over the course of several months back in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
![\"Memorial](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/billy-coleman-statue.jpg\")
Memorial of Wilson Rawls depicting Billy Coleman and his dogs from \u201cWhere the Red Fern Grows.\u201d | Rett Nelson, EastIdahoNews.com<\/p>\n
Hansen recalls how the project came about.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe principal at Temple View Elementary asked me if I\u2019d do a memorial for Wilson Rawls (the author of \u2018Where the Red Fern Grows.\u2019). The fifth grade is reading that book, he said, and how many cookies would it take (for me to make a sculpture),\u201d says Hansen.<\/p>\n
Rawls lived in Idaho Falls when he wrote the book, and they wanted a memorial paying tribute to him.<\/p>\n
Hansen recalls initially making a small model of the current statue for the school. It \u201ctoured around town for a year\u201d before the city got involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city got behind that and said they\u2019d like to have me do that piece,\u201d says Hansen. <\/p>\n
RELATED | Rigby painter proud to carry on his mentor\u2019s legacy 40 years after his death<\/a><\/p>\n The models for the dogs were a pair of red tick hounds in Blackfoot. She used multiple grandchildren as the model for Billy, one of which is her granddaughter, Amanda Ward, who now works as an Idaho State Police trooper.<\/p>\n During that time, busloads of students, teachers and librarians watched her make the sculpture.<\/p>\n \u201cI gave each person a little wad of clay and said \u2018You can put this anywhere you like. You know I\u2019ll have to move your clay but you\u2019ll know your clay is in this sculpture.\u2019 I never worried about vandalism because they owned that piece,\u201d Hansen says.<\/p>\n The statue was installed in front of the library in 1999. A dedication ceremony was held on Aug. 12, 1999, according to the Museum of Idaho. Hansen says it was well-attended by the community.<\/p>\n They knew him before he was famous <\/p>\n Decades before Hansen constructed her memorial, Rawls had come to Idaho seeking work for what was then the Atomic Energy Commission on the Arco desert. He lived in Idaho Falls and would take a bus to Arco. He eventually tired of the long bus ride and got a job working for Jimmy Stewart, a sheep rancher in Monteview.<\/p>\n Before coming to Idaho, Rawls had spent some time in prison \u2014 twice in Oklahoma and once in New Mexico. The Bear Grease Podcast reports<\/a> that in 1933, Rawls was convicted of stealing chickens and served 18 months in prison. Seven years later in New Mexico, he was sentenced to two to three years for breaking and entering. <\/p>\n He spent time writing during this time.<\/p>\n RELATED | The man who paved the way for Idaho Falls becoming the home of Idaho National Lab<\/a><\/p>\n Stewart passed away last year<\/a> at age 95, but his daughter, Karen Stoddart, shared her memories of Rawls\u2019 time on the family farm in an interview with EastIdahoNews.com<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n \u201cHe came in the summers with the threshing crew,\u201d Stoddart says. \u201cHe lived and worked in Arizona part of the year. He was a carpenter by trade. He (helped harvest) our second hay crop and grain and built many of our wooden head gates.\u201d<\/p>\n Rawls worked at the Stewart farm every summer for about six years. The house he lived in during that time still exists.<\/p>\n After several summers, Stoddart\u2019s mom introduced Rawls to Sophie Styczinski, a family friend and AEC budget analyst who eventually became his wife.<\/p>\n Rawls had previously written the story that became \u201cWhere the Red Fern Grows\u201d before coming to Idaho. It had been Rawls\u2019 dream to be a writer since reading \u201cCall of the Wild\u201d as a kid, but he had a limited education. At 16, Rawls left home to find work to support his family during the Great Depression.<\/p>\n Rawls worked all over the country and returned home to Oklahoma \u201ceach fall to hunt and work with his family,\u201d says a written history about Rawls obtained from the Mud Lake Museum. \u201cHe took the stories he had written and locked them in an old trunk.\u201d<\/p>\n As Rawls worked on the Stewart farm, Stoddart\u2019s mom heard about his manuscript, which reportedly had numerous grammatical and other errors. Stoddart recalls her mom reading it and providing corrections.<\/p>\n Rawls and Styczinski were married at the First Presbyterian Church in Idaho Falls. Stewart was Rawls\u2019 best man, according to Stoddart. <\/p>\n Embarassed by his lack of education, Rawls had burned his manuscript days before the wedding and given up on his dream. When he confided in Styczinski about it, she helped him rewrite it, edit it and get it published.<\/p>\n The story was originally published in 1961 for The Saturday Evening Post. It was printed in three installments under the title, \u201cThe Hounds of Youth\u201d before being released as a novel later that year. It didn\u2019t become popular until it was marketed to teachers and schools.<\/p>\n Rawls\u2019 second and last book, \u201cSummer of the Monkeys,\u201d was also written in Idaho Falls.<\/p>\n Rawls was 71 when he died on Dec. 16, 1984.<\/p>\n Stewart Petersen, the actor who portrayed Billy Coleman in the 1974 film version of \u201cRed Fern,\u201d says he and Rawls, who narrated and consulted on the film, became very close during their interactions on set.<\/p>\n \u201cI was playing his young boyhood life,\u201d Petersen says. \u201cHe took me under his wing and we became friends pretty quickly. I always admired him because of his goodness towards me.\u201d<\/p>\n Petersen describes Rawls as a \u201cgood man\u201d who was \u201cgenuine and down to earth.\u201d <\/p>\n Petersen shares more of his experiences on the film, including how he got the role and what he\u2019s doing now. The interview will be published in its entirety in an upcoming episode of \u201cIt\u2019s Worth Mentioning<\/a>.\u201d Watch a snippet of our conversation in the video above.<\/p>\n Art that\u2019s still appreciated <\/p>\n That fifth grade class involved in watching Hansen sculpt the statue of Billy Coleman and his dogs has since grown up.<\/p>\n Hansen recalls students writing her letters after it was complete.<\/p>\n \u201cI got the cutest letters back of what they were going to tell their children (one day),\u201d says Hansen. \u201cNow time has passed and they\u2019re grown up and I\u2019ve wondered what they did tell their children.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"ShopCop02\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ShopCop02.jpg\")
Idaho State Police Cpl. Amanda Ward, center, with two kids at Target during Shop with a Cop<\/a> in 2023. She was one of the models for Hansen\u2019s sculpture of Billy Coleman. | Nate Sunderland, EastIdahoNews.com<\/p>\n![\"Memorial](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/memorial-placard.jpg\")
Memorial placard on the back side of Hansen\u2019s sculpture. | Rett Nelson, EastIdahoNews.com<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/rawls-farm-house.jpg\")
The house Wilson Rawls lived in while working on the Stewart farm. | Courtesy Mud Lake Museum<\/p>\n![\"Wilson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/rawls_red-fern.jpg\")
Wilson Rawls, left, and the cover of \u201cWhere the Red Fern Grows\u201d | Courtesy photo<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Stewart](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/stewart-petersen.jpg\")
Stewart Petersen recounts his experiences as a child actor in \u201cWhere the Red Fern Grows\u201d in an interview with EastIdahoNews.com | Rett Nelson, EastIdahoNews.com<\/p>\n
![\"Statue](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/coleman-statue.jpg\")
Statue paying tribute to Wilson Rawls in front of the Idaho Falls Public Library | Rett Nelson, EastIdahoNews.com<\/p>\n