{"id":436568,"date":"2026-05-20T11:11:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/436568\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T11:11:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:11:28","slug":"shrouded-samantha-smith-statue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/436568\/","title":{"rendered":"Shrouded Samantha Smith statue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/38288486_20260514_ConcreteCutter_8166.jpg\" class=\"attachment-newspack-featured-image size-newspack-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" data-hero-candidate=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\"  \/>\t\t\tBob Mason, of Doten&#8217;s Construction, saws the sidewalk at start of a repair job in front of the Samantha Smith statue Thursday near the Maine State House in Augusta.<br \/>\nIn 1982, Manchester native Samantha Smith expressed her fears of the possible threat of nuclear holocaust in a now-famous letter to Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov.<br \/>\nAndropov invited Smith to visit the Soviet Union, making her one of our country&#8217;s youngest ambassadors for peace. Smith and her father were killed in a plane crash in 1985.<br \/>\nThe Cultural Building in the background has been closed and the state&#8217;s museum, library and archives located in there will be reopening later in the year.  (Joe Phelan\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/w2pcms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/05\/38288486_20260514_ConcreteCutter_8166.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"768\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779275488_569_38288486_20260514_ConcreteCutter_8166.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3364688\"  \/><\/a>Bob Mason, of Doten\u2019s Construction, saws the sidewalk at start of a repair job in front of the Samantha Smith statue Thursday near the Maine State House in Augusta.<br \/>\nIn 1982, Manchester native Samantha Smith expressed her fears of the possible threat of nuclear holocaust in a now-famous letter to Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov.<br \/>\nAndropov invited Smith to visit the Soviet Union, making her one of our country\u2019s youngest ambassadors for peace. Smith and her father were killed in a plane crash in 1985.<br \/>\nThe Cultural Building in the background has been closed and the state\u2019s museum, library and archives located in there will be reopening later in the year.  (Joe Phelan\/Staff Photographer)<a href=\"https:\/\/dev.mainetodaymedia.com\/smugmug\/upload.php?data=%7B%22src%22%3A%22https%3A%5C%2F%5C%2Fwww.centralmaine.com%5C%2Fwp-content%5C%2Fuploads%5C%2Fsites%5C%2F2%5C%2F2026%5C%2F05%5C%2F38288486_20260514_ConcreteCutter_8166.jpg%22%2C%22caption%22%3A%22Bob%20Mason%2C%20of%20Doten%27s%20Construction%2C%20saws%20the%20sidewalk%20at%20start%20of%20a%20repair%20job%20in%20front%20of%20the%20Samantha%20Smith%20statue%20Thursday%20near%20the%20Maine%20State%20House%20in%20Augusta.%20%5CnIn%201982%2C%20Manchester%20native%20Samantha%20Smith%20expressed%20her%20fears%20of%20the%20possible%20threat%20of%20nuclear%20holocaust%20in%20a%20now-famous%20letter%20to%20Soviet%20Premier%20Yuri%20Andropov.%20%5CnAndropov%20invited%20Smith%20to%20visit%20the%20Soviet%20Union%2C%20making%20her%20one%20of%20our%20country%27s%20youngest%20ambassadors%20for%20peace.%20Smith%20and%20her%20father%20were%20killed%20in%20a%20plane%20crash%20in%201985.%20%5CnThe%20Cultural%20Building%20in%20the%20background%20has%20been%20closed%20and%20the%20state%27s%20museum%2C%20library%20and%20archives%20located%20in%20there%20will%20be%20reopening%20later%20in%20the%20year.%20%20%28Joe%20Phelan%5C%2FStaff%20Photographer%29%22%7D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><\/p>\n<p>Purchase this image<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In 1982, Manchester native Samantha Smith expressed her fears of the possible threat of nuclear holocaust in a now-famous letter to Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov. Andropov invited Smith to visit the Soviet Union, making her one of our country\u2019s youngest ambassadors for peace. Smith and her father were killed in a plane crash in 1985. <\/p>\n<p>The Cultural Building in the background has been closed and the state\u2019s museum, library and archives located in there will be reopening later in the year. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.centralmaine.com\/author\/joe-phelan\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"80\" height=\"80\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Phelan_Joe.jpeg\" class=\"avatar avatar-80 photo wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoe Phelan is an award winning journalist who makes photos and videos around the capital area for the the Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel and the other Masthead Maine publications.\u00a0Joe\u2019s first journalism&#8230;\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.centralmaine.com\/author\/joe-phelan\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Joe Phelan\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bob Mason, of Doten&#8217;s Construction, saws the sidewalk at start of a repair job in front of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-436568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}