A Road Named Johnny Cash

Dyess, Mississippi is paving the way to name a road after their prodigal son.

Mississippi County justices on Tuesday will discuss supporting local efforts to rename a state highway after Johnny Cash. The plan on the Quorum Court’s agenda would rename Arkansas 297 near Dyess after the legendary country music star. County Judge Steve McGuire said Sunday that under the proposed plan, the road south of Arkansas 14 to the Dyess city limits, then to County Road 139, would be called the Johnny Cash Highway. State highway officials have supported the change, McGuire said, but the city and county both must support the plan before a change can be made.

“The state sent it back to Dyess and asked for a resolution by the county,” McGuire said. “The city has already passed theirs. (Dyess) Mayor Larry Sims has been working on the process.”Sims said Sunday night the name change is important for people in his town. “We approved it in the city limits and the county has to approve the county road part of it,” Sims said. “The two — Johnny Cash and Dyess — go together, and it makes sense to do it.”

Sims said Dyess, a town of 515 people, has hosted visitors from around the world. “We had people from from Norway last week,” Sims said. “There was a man in a wheelchair who took a taxi from Memphis to Dyess.”

If justices approve the change, the information will be sent back to state highway officials for their review. Sims said a sign detailing the words “Johnny Cash Highway” was given to Cash’s son, John Carter Cash, during his visit there last year.