Washington, D.C. – (JonesboroRightNow.com) Sept. 18, 2024 – Country music fans from around the nation await the debut of a statue of the Man in Black himself to be placed in the United States Capitol Building in Washington D.C.

The statue of Johnny Cash will have an official unveiling ceremony on Sept. 24 at 11 a.m. Eastern time (10 a.m. Central time) in the National Statuary Hall Collection. The collection is comprised of statues donated by individual states to honor persons notable in their history. As each state only gets two, Cash will join civil rights icon Daisy Gatson Bates, who was added in May.

“We have several from A-State attending to represent the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home (A-State Heritage Site),” said Assistant Director of Arkansas State University Heritage Sites Penny Toombs. “It is a big deal as this will bring in folks from all over the world to see where Johnny grew up just down the road.”

Cash will be the first professional musician to receive a statue in Statuary Hall. His sculpture is replacing the statue of Sen. James P. Clarke, which Arkansas legislature passed a bill to replace in 2019.

The statue was created by central Arkansas native, painter and sculptor Kevin Kresse, from Little Rock, who has exhibited artwork around Arkansas and in New York, NY, Washington D.C., Memphis, Tenn., and Atlanta, Ga.

According to his website, Kresse has been awarded painting fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts – Mid-America Arts Alliance and the Arkansas Arts Council. He has also won several awards in the Arkansas Arts Center annual Delta competition.

Toombs said getting the statue into the Capitol has been a three-to-four-year process. The 8-foot statue portrays Cash with his head down, guitar on his back and a Bible in his hand, which stands on top of a 3-foot pedestal.

Toombs and many others also attended the sendoff in Little Rock on Sept 5.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to promote our area,” she said, noting a little bit of the history behind Cash and the A-State Heritage Site.

“The Cashes moved to Dyess in March 1935, when Cash was three years old,” she said. “The Cash home is one of the few houses remaining in the former New Deal-era colony.”

According to the Historic Dyess Colony: Johnny Cash Boyhood Home website, Cash lived in Dyess until he graduated from high school in 1950. His music was greatly influenced by his experiences in Dyess, including such songs as “Pickin’ Time” and “Five Feet High and Rising.”

In 2009, the Arkansas legislature directed Arkansas State University to determine the feasibility of developing the town as a heritage tourism site, focusing on its agricultural heritage and native son Johnny Cash. A Dyess Colony Redevelopment Master Plan was completed in 2010, and the city donated the Administration Building and the adjacent theatre center shell to A-State. Then in 2011, A-State acquired the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home, which was restored through proceeds from an annual Johnny Cash Music Festival.

For more about Cash and the Historic Dyess Colony, visit the Historic Dyess Colony: Johnny Cash Boyhood Home website at dyesscash.astate.edu.