NAPERVILLE, Ill. (AP) - Naperville will unveil a statue showing a lighter side of Abraham Lincoln.
The Naperville Sun reports that “Laughing Lincoln” will debut in Central Park on Dec. 2. Illinois celebrates its bicentennial a day later.
The statue depicts the legendary storyteller laughing with hand outstretched as if to slap his knee.
The $105,000 project was commissioned by the Century Walk Naperville Public Arts Program .
President Brand Bobosky says it depicts the 16th president in about 1839. He was 30 and serving in the Illinois General Assembly with Naperville founder Joseph Naper.
Lincoln and Naper cooperated on carving out DuPage County and moving the state capital from Vandalia to Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield.
Wyoming sculptor David Allan Clark created the statue.
Naperville is 32 miles (51 kilometers) west of Chicago.
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