A surreal scene as artists finish Willie Mays mural morning after he died

Kate Rushton was at dinner with her cousins Tuesday night when the news broke.

Sitting at Chez Fonfon, she was stunned. No way, Willie Mays was dead.

She’d read about the Birmingham icon not making the trip for this week’s Major League Baseball celebration of the Negro Leagues.

Surely, there was a mix up.

“God,” she said. “The day we finished …”

The morning after, she was back at the downtown Birmingham building where her crew was doing the final touchups on a massive mural of Mays.

The paint was literally drying as news of his death soaked in.

The whole moment was surreal for Rushton, one of six who traveled to Birmingham to paint this mural on the side of a building that faces 18th Street North and spans from First Avenue North to Morris Avenue.

It was officially unveiled Wednesday afternoon, a day before the San Francisco Giants were to play the St. Louis Cardinals in what would be a marquee moment in Mays’ hometown.

Before the public ceremony, Rushton and her crew finished adding one final coat to the project designed by Chuck Styles. In another twist, the painters who spent the last week immortalizing the Giants hero came to Birmingham from Brooklyn and Los Angeles — the two homes of Mays’ bitter rival Dodgers.

The Tuesday night news added a new dimension to the project for Rushton, whose mother grew up in Birmingham.

“It does. It’s weird,” she said. “It’s a different feeling because this turns this more into a tribute of his life, not just his career.”

It all adds to the surreal scene Wednesday morning as fans, neighbors, dog walkers and bikers found themselves in the parking lot facing the mural taking in the moment.

There was Max Newberger, a Giants fan who flew down from Manhattan to see his favorite team play a game in Rickwood Field.

He saw Mays play in 1964 with the Giants against the Mets at Shea Stadium in his first big league ball game. On Wednesday morning, he wore a Mays jersey to snapshots of the mural after watching the Barons play Montgomery on Tuesday night at Rickwood.

A few minutes before he pulled up in his airport rental, Arlillian Beshelon and her mom LeVoria Bushelon arrived in style. They wanted to take a few pictures with their 1976 Cadillac Eldorado in front of the mural — timing it just right as the three risers used by the painters moved out minutes after spinning into the parking lot.

LeVoria Bushelon grew up not far from Mays and said she knew his sister but never saw Willie play ball at Rickwood.

They were part of the few dozen who came and went Wednesday morning, gazing in awe at the massive painting for the icon who’d never see it in person.

The project was special for Rushton and her coworkers at Colossal Media who did the painting for the past week. They’re used to doing commercial jobs — mostly advertisements with week-long lifespans.

This was extra satisfying since this project will live on as long as this downtown Birmingham building stands.

And it comes with a story — a sense of finality that comes when the legendary subject of the artwork dies the night it was completed.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.