(Smithfield, NC) – During her career, Ava Gardner did three films based on Hemingway works: The Killers, The Sun Also Rises, and The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Ava called Ernest Hemingway "Papa," and he called her "Daughter." The accomplished author admired Ava's work in the films based on his works, and considered her "the most exciting woman of her generation."

A special exhibit called Ava and Hemingway has been on display at the Ava Gardner Museum since the 2009 Ava Gardner Festival in October. Originally, the exhibit was scheduled to close in May 2010, at which time the Museum would return the exhibit’s central artifact: a pocket watch given by Ava to Hemingway for his 55th birthday in 1954.

The owner of the watch, Ashley B. “Brownie” Futrell Jr., president and publisher of the Washington Daily News in Washington, N.C., has agreed to allow the watch to be on display at the Museum for six more months. The watch will be returned and the exhibit closed October 7, 2010.

Futrell’s interest in Gardner is linked to his father’s work in the early 1940s. Ashley B. Futrell Sr. was employed by the Wilson DailyTimes and was also an assistant football coach at Atlantic Christian College (now Barton College) in Wilson. It was during the time when Gardner was there as a day student in a secretarial program. “When Ava learned that my father was a graduate of Duke University, she asked him to take her to a Duke football game, and he did,” Futrell explained.

He is a long-time admirer of Ernest Hemingway, whose early career was as a newspaper reporter. And he and Hemingway have a Pulitzer Prize in common. Hemingway won his in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea, and Futrell’s newspaper won a Pulitzer for public service in 1999.

When Futrell noticed a link to Hemingway’s pocket watch on the Internet, he contacted the owner in New York City, who agreed to sell after learning it might be displayed in the Ava Gardner Museum. No official papers came with the watch, but Futrell did some extensive research and made a report to the Museum board of directors, who agreed there can be little doubt that the timepiece is authentic.

On the back of the watch is the following engraving: TO PAPA, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FROM AVA, MADRID, JULY 21, 1954. (It was the year Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for literature.) The inscription is quite worn, which indicates that Hemingway may have carried it in his pocket for a very long time. The Hemingway birthday watch still keeps perfect time.

“The Ava and Hemingway Exhibit has been a popular and well-received exhibit and travelers that have not yet visited the Museum will be delighted to find that they still have a few more months to see the watch,” states Jessica Meadows Hammett, Executive Director, Ava Gardner Museum.

The Ava Gardner Museum is located in downtown Smithfield, at 325 E. Market Street and more information may be found on the museum website, www.avagardner.org or by calling 919-934-5830. The museum is open Monday-Saturday, 9am-5pm and Sunday 2pm-5pm with admission of $6.00 adults, $5.00 seniors and groups and $4.00 children.