Kudos go to State Senator Stephen Bryles of Blytheville, Arkansas. In a previous session he’d tapped General Improvement Fund money to build a roadside monument in northeastern Arkansas to blues legend B.B. King’s guitar, named Lucille. This time he has steered GIF money to planning a Johnny Cash heritage museum in Dyess. The small town of 515 doesn’t offer much in the way of Johnny Cash landmarks or memorabilia. However, If things go to plan, Mayor Larry Sims hopes to open an $800,000 museum that would be devoted to Johnny Cash and the town of Dyess. The museum’s only aim isn’t to simply pay tribute to the legendary musician. Dyess officials also hope that the museum could help resuscitate their dwindling economy. The town, which once boasted a population of over 2,500 in it’s hey day, now only supports one-fifth as many residents. By creating a Johnny Cash museum, Mayor Sims hopes that the project “would put Dyess back on the map. It would help everything.”To date, the town has raised $90,000 to put towards the museum. Half of the money came from a grant and the other from Cash’s former manager, Gene Williams. There’s still a long way to go to make the project a reality, but I hope that the folks in Dyess can pull it off.
The original Johnny Cash museum called the House of Cash in Henderson, TN was closed in 1985.
2,500 might not seem like an awful lot, but that would trump most towns in Arkansas. If anyone deserves a temple in his honor, it would be The Man In Black. Great Post. If you are interested in blogs such as this, visit mine at http://blog.purecountrymusic.com/
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