PORTLAND, Ore. — Statues of two beloved children's book characters have been vandalized in Portland's Grant Park.
The statues are of Ramona Quimby and Henry Huggins. Both are characters from books written by Beverly Cleary, who was born in McMinnville and grew up in Portland.
The statues were cleaned within hours of being painted.
Cleary is a widely celebrated children's author. She wrote more than 40 books and her characters struck a cord with children in a way previous authors had not been able to.
It's almost been a year since Cleary died. She passed away in March 2021 at 104 years old.
Grant Park features a sculpture garden of the characters Cleary created. That's where Portland local Soren Larson came across the vandalism on Wednesday morning.
"I don't exactly understand what's going on here, but it kind of makes me sad. Especially because I grew up with these books."
This is not the first time these statues have been vandalized. In October 2017, the statues were painted with swastikas and other graffiti.
