Don it has been several year ago. A piece of it was on display at the Smithsonian in Washington. It gave the towns name and the ladys name and the whole story.

Thanks Jim,
It's good to know that the "rock" received National recognition.

Don, Jim my story is that the rock was delivered to Mr. McCulley's office because noone knew what to with it.
He called Auburn and they sent him to the right department at U of A. They arranged to have it picked up.
As I recall there was a fight over the owner ship of the rock. Don't know who clams it now.
Wonder if that explains the UFO activity over AL.

I would say there was some publicity for Sylacauga and Mrs Hodges after all.

Mrs. Hodges appeared on the television show I'VE GOT A SECRET. When they revealed her SECRET, some lady sang the song STARS FELL ON ALABAMA.

I remember watching the show but wanted to be sure my mind wasn't playing tricks so I looked it up on GOOGLE Search Engine

Jimmy like you The Smithsonian pulled the wool over my eyes for a long time too. Living in the Washington, DC area for over 40 years I saw that thing many times and proudly pointed it out to my many visiting friends. THEN one day a few years back I visited the Comer museum and my eyes literally popped out. I saw IT there....I asked the lady running the place how it got to be there and told her the last time I saw it was at The Smithsonian.....she chuckled and said I hear that a lot....this is a REPLICA just like the REPLICA in The Smithsonian....The real one is in the archives at the University of Alabama. I believe from the newspaper article that the REAL DEAL will be in Oak Grove today.
I still think though that the replica should remain in both places but that they both explain that what you are looking at does not have any of Mrs. Hodges DNA on it and tell you where the real one may be seen.

Horace

Gomer Pyle seems to be the only thing from Sylacauga that interests anyone outside of Alabama.

Horace was the Hope Diamond real?

Quien Sabe, Who knows...Maybe, maybe not...There are a whole lot of things in Washington that are not what we think they are...if you get my drift.

I'm really sorry that we can't always get the truth about such a simple thing as a rock.

Horace

Yes, Jimmy, I saw it also when I went on my trip from Avondale.

I went to visit the Smithsonian Institute...but it was a replica

Could Be. All this budget stuff, is interesting. It is all pure politics. I remember during the W. Bush years the Democrats in charge of congress and ultimately the country, decided that there was not enough money to go around, with the war in Iraq/Afganistan/against Terrorism...decided that they needed to take some action regarding all this spending. The result, they started closing the Smithsonina at 6 PM rather than the 10 PM that had been the traditional closing time for generations. Now thare is a BIG SAVER. Then they closed a lot of National Park sites and took away Park Ranger manpower...You folks voted for Bush now look what he's done they said.

So maybe they actually replaced the Smithsonian with a REPLICA.

Horace