FAMED VALLEY PAIR TO OPEN 9-11 PARK.

Byline: SELICIA KENNEDY-ROSS

Staff Writer

A girder from the World Trade Center will be part of a 9-11 park set to open this month in the San Bernardino Mountains community of Fawnskin.

The finishing touches are being put on the one-acre park, which was purchased in 2001 by Oscar-winning actress Shirley Jones and her husband, comedian Marty Ingels, who wanted to protect the lot from commercial development.

Visiting the newly completed fountain on Wednesday, the Encino couple discussed their five-year effort to develop what they've dubbed Fawn Park and what they hope it will mean to the community.

In addition to the fountain, the 9-11 monument will include a piece of a 600-pound iron girder from the Twin Towers donated by New York City. The park will also feature life-size statues Ingels had made of an astronaut, cowboy, Indian, policeman and fireman.

"The park is done and the memorial is gorgeous," said Ingels, who's owned a cabin in Fawnskin for 30 years.

Jones said she was considering re-opening the park with a celebration to honor the firefighters who battled the recent Butler II blaze, which charred more than 14,000 acres and threatened Fawnskin.

"We have that in mind. We think that would be a wonderful way to open it and to thank the firefighters who saved Fawnskin," said Jones, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1961 for "Elmer Gantry" but is best known for her role as the mother in TV's "Partridge Family." "The fire was a half-mile from my house."

selicia.kennedy(at)sbsun.com

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