A BRILLIANT white statue of a female figure, standing atop a sandstone block on the southern side of Redland Museum, pays homage to a woman who was a community visionary and the driving force behind the first retirement village established in the Redlands.
She was also the village's first matron and the statue's creator.
Violet Leona Kyling (1888 to 975) was the granddaughter of pioneer settlers, John and Elizabeth Sherrin.
The statue, one of many she carved in her lifetime, is a relatively recent installation at the museum, and was restored for an exhibition held this year to honour Mrs Kyling's life and community works.
It will remain at the museum on permanent display.
Known as Leona, Mrs Kyling donated 22 acres of land at Thornlands in 1950 for the care of the elderly and then built on it the village that was known first as Lake Allawah Home for the Aged, then later as Lake Sherrin Home for the Aged, and is now PresCare Lake Sherrin.
She was also a poet, writer, dress-maker, designer, historian and sculptress, and was responsible for many other community and charitable projects.
She owned shops in a range of locations plus a jam factory in Cleveland, and wrote and produced a cookery book and guide, which she sold far and wide to raise money for charity.
Despite her endless work for the community, Mrs Kyling refused all public honours and worked until her death.
Lake Sherrin resident Mick Bright, whose book, The Remarkable Life of Leona Kyling documents her years, said Leona "had great vision".
"She was a very forthright person who could get people to help her do the things she wanted to get done," he said.
Although no longer available for sale, a copy is held in the collection at Redland Museum.
Coinciding with the production of Mick's book, the museum exhibition offered a further view into Mrs Kyling's life.
Through the assistance of local filmmaker Daniel Bunce, the exhibition included films that Mrs Kyling herself had made, while photographic stills from her films showed a long past Redlands area, with farms, open tracts of land, and even an escaped circus elephant running along Middle Street, Cleveland when the thoroughfare was little more than a dirt road.
Redland Museum exhibitions officer Rick Thomason said the exhibition was highly successful, and depsite it having ended, the museum still had in its collection many pieces of Sherrin and Kyling family memorabilia, including a cabinet that was displayed as part of the exhibition, and, of course, the statue.
"This statue used to stand outside the Leona Kyling Memorial Hall at Lake Sherrin, and it once had a light coming out the top of it," Rick said.
"It was well known to people who drove along Boundary Road at Thornlands, where it looked out onto the road."
Although the light has long gone, thanks to the museum the statue still stands, her eyes looking south towards Thornlands, where, due at first to the drive, vision and generosity of Violet Leona Kyling, the Redlands oldest aged care facility still provides high quality housing and care for many of the city's seniors.
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