News

New York music writer Jim Bessman discusses the third annual Johnny Cash Music Festival, starring Vince Gill, Tommy Cash, Joanne Cash Yates, Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers, and the Statler Brothers’ Jimmy Fortune. The article includes an interview with Tommy Cash about the Dyess house and restoration efforts, as well as some thoughts about his brother, Johnny Cash. “He was J.R. to all of us,” says Cash. “That was his real name—J.R. Cash. He was just Big Brother to me. He let me ride on his cotton sack when I was four and five-years-old, and made chocolate fudge on Wednesday nights. It wasn’t until 1955 when Sam Phillips at Sun Records said, ‘You got to have a name other than ‘J.R.’ and used the name ‘Johnny’ on his first record that he became ‘Johnny Cash’—and the rest is history.” In the image, Joanne is pictured to the left with J.R. in the middle and Tommy to the right. For the full article, click here.

The projected expansion of tourism in Dyess, Arkansas as a result of the restoration of Johnny’s Cash’s boyhood home is discussed in this article in The Guardian. As Dyess prepares for the projected 50,000 annual visitors that the Cash home will bring, it is facing growing pains. Dyess Mayor, Larry Sims, says, “This is going to wake the whole place up.” To view the article, click here.

This National Public Radio story provides an overview of the origins of Dyess and the Cash home, while presenting the viewpoints of Johnny Cash’s brother, Tommy Cash, and sister, Joanne Cash Yates. The Mayor of Dyess, Larry Sims, who grew up in Dyess just down the street from the Cash house, is also interviewed. To listen to the story or read the transcript, click here.

The Johnny Cash Boyhood Home Steering Committee recently met to assess the progress of the project. Prior to the meeting the Committee members toured the Administration Building and the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home. The restoration is projected to increase tourism in Mississippi County, and Dyess has made significant progress toward preparing for the increased number of tourists. For the complete news article, please click here.

Arkansas State University has received a challenge grant of $500,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities for reconstruction and restoration of some of the buildings in the Historic Dyess Colony. Dr. Ruth Hawkins, director of Arkansas Heritage Sites, says, “The NEH grant gives us tremendous momentum for developing the Historic Dyess Colony as a major heritage site for the state and the region.” The details of the Historic Dyess Colony project and the NEH grant are discussed in the A-State news article, ASU Receives National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant for Historic Dyess Colony Reconstruction. For the original article, please click here.

Ask Vance is the blog of Vance Lauderdale, the award-winning columnist of Memphis magazine.  This Ask Vance blog raises questions regarding a Dyess Colony mural painted in the early 1930s by Memphis artist Maysie Dimond.  A photograph of the mural is in Special Collections at the University of Memphis Libraries.  Click here for article.

The Christian Science Monitor interviews Joanne Cash Yates, Dyess Mayor Larry Sims, and others regarding progress on the restoration of the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home and the impact that it will have on the community and the Northeast Arkansas region. Read the full story here.

DeSoto: Exploring the South magazine includes this special article on Johnny Cash, the work at Dyess, and the success of the first two Johnny Cash Music Festivals in its November 2012 issue. Click here for the full article.

Nashville writer Ken Beck interviews Joanne Cash Yates and Tommy Cash, the surviving siblings of the late country music giant Johnny Cash, about their formative years on an East Arkansas cotton farm in Dyess, Arkansas. “I lived there first 17 years of my life. I know where every table was, every lamp, the piano, the pictures,” says Yates about the house where her parents Ray and Carrie Cash raised their seven children: Roy, Margaret Louise, Jack, J.R. (Johnny), Reba, Joanne and Tommy. In the article, the second Johnny Cash Music Festival is discussed along with Arkansas State University’s fundraising efforts for the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home Project, which will preserve the heritage of the Dyess Colony. For the complete article, click here.

The Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council (ANCRC) has awarded the Arkansas State University Heritage Sites program  a $350,000 grant for the next phase of reconstruction of the Historic Dyess Colony Administration Building. This grant will allow the interior work on the Administration Building to continue. Further information about the project is contained in this A-State news article.  Click here to read the full article.