In the fall of 1931, Tennant received a commission to make a
memorial portrait bust from Mrs. Hilda Cornish of Little Rock, Arkansas. Mrs.
Cornish was the widow of a prominent banker, Ed Cornish, who had been President
of the American Bank of Commerce, the largest financial institution in
Arkansas. Mr. Cornish had been a respected member of the community. He and his
wife lived in one of the most palatial homes in Little Rock. Sadly, Cornish had
suffered financial losses in the fall of 1928 and taken his life while staying
in a New Orleans hotel, an action no doubt caused by despondency over his
business situation. Nevertheless, Mrs. Cornish had inherited a considerable
estate and it was her desire to place a bust of her late husband at his
gravesite in the Oakland Cemetery at Little Rock. Accordingly, she traveled to
Dallas and engaged Allie for the task. Tennant did her preliminary research on
Mr. Cornish and completed her clay model at her Live Oak Street studio. After a
few months, the bust was ready to be shipped to the foundry where it was cast
in bronze. In the late spring of 1931, Tennant traveled to Little Rock where she
supervised its placement in the cemetery. It was an interesting piece because
it had a golden bronze patina and was set on a pink marble pedestal. In a later
era, this gravesite became well-known in Arkansas, and not for the portrait
bust. After her husband’s death Mrs. Cornish subsequently had a very public
career in advocating birth control in the South, thus earning a title as the
“Mother of Birth Control in Arkansas.” She died in 1965 and is today also
buried in the plot which is marked by Tennant’s portrait bust.
