Larry Munson corn maze in McDonough

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Larry Munson’s head is in a cornfield.

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AJC

Larry Munson is honored in amazing fashion by some Henry Co. farmers.

• Big Photo: Larry Munson Maze

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In the highest form of agrarian praise, a family farm in Henry County has created a corn maze depicting Munson’s visage in a field near McDonough.

It can only be viewed through the air, which has led to some interesting calls from travelers flying into nearby Hartsfield-Jackson International. But to the Carter family, which operates Southern Belle Farm, it is just a way of saying thank you.

“Obviously we think a lot of Larry Munson,” said Jake Carter, whose family owns the farm. “We just decided, let’s pay tribute to a man who’s given so much to the university and dedicated a good part of his life.

“I guess we just wanted to pay a tribute in a weird sort of way.”

The timing is coincidental with Munson’s Monday retirement. Carter pondered creating the maze last year but followed up on the idea this summer, sending a print to a maze-design firm in Utah. The maze was cut out when the corn was just a foot high. Now the stalks around Munson’s likeness are 10 feet tall.

Besides corn, Southern Belle, located off Turner Church Road, produces strawberries, pumpkins, cotton and commercial hay. Carter, a former walk-on long snapper for the Bulldogs, just felt raising a form of Munson was the right thing to do.

Even if he occasionally has to explain himself.

“We get calls from time to time from folks flying in on commercial flights,” he said. “I had a lady call me from Fort Lauderdale and said she saw our field. It’s kind of weird — you’re on a plane looking out the window and all of a sudden, you got over something like that down there.

“People just kind of scratch their heads and say: What in the world is going on?”

With the fall, Munson face will be harvested. But the passing season leaves an empty palette for next spring. So who will be in the next corn memorial? Uga? Vince Dooley?

Said Carter, laughing, “That’s not a bad idea.”