Bob “Daddy-O” Wade, the larger-than-life Texas artist who crafted the enormous cowboy boots outside of North Star Mall, has died at age 76.
Wade succumbed to heart failure at his Austin home on Monday, according to a report by the Austin American-Statesman.
Wade’s 35-foot-tall boots were installed at North Star Mall in 1979. Nearly four decades later, they were inducted into the Guinness World Records as the “world’s tallest cowboy boot sculpture.”
The artist’s Texas-sized creations also include the 40-foot Iggy the Iguana statue at the Fort Worth Zoo and a 70-foot saxophone in Houston with an inverted Volkswagen Bug serving as the bottom of its bell.
Although known for public art, private collectors and museums also amassed Wade’s work. A new book and a solo museum show of his work were planned for 2020, the Statesman reports.
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This article appears in The Drink Issue 2019.
