Johnny Cash Statue Unveiled During Event at U.S. Capitol

RISON - Cleveland County native Johnny Cash become the first musician to ever be honored in National Statuary Hall with the unveiling of his statue in the U.S. Capitol complex in Washington D.C. on Tuesday.Several of Cash’s relatives as well as some local elected officials from Cleveland County were among those to witness the ceremony held inside Emancipation Hall at the Capitol Visitor's Center.The National Statuary Hall consists of two statues from each state representing notable figures from that state. The Arkansas legislature voted in 2019 to change the two statues representing Arkansas. Civil rights leader Daisy Lee Gatson Bates replaced attorney Uriah Rose earlier this year while Johnny Cash’s statue replaced that of former Senator James P. Clarke.Johnny “J.R.” Cash was born Feb. 26, 1932, to Ray and Carrie Rivers Cash in the Crossroads community a little more than three miles north of Kingsland. He and his family left Cleveland County about three years after his birth to become part of a federal Depress-era farming program at the Dyess Colony in northeast Arkansas.House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) emceed Tuesday’s ceremony.“Johnny Cash is the perfect person (to be the first musician in Statuary Hall) because he was a man who embodied the American spirit in a way that you could,” Johnson told the large crowd gathered for the ceremony.“He was an everyday man. He loved to fish, and he suffered the pain of loss. He was the son of southern farmers, and of the Great Depression. Americans related to Johnny Cash,” he added.Johnson pointed out during his opening remarks that more than 100 of Cash’s relatives were on hand for the unveiling, including Mark Rivers of Kingsland and Wayne Cash of the Woodlawn area.House Speaker Johnson also revealed that he was among those relatives of Johnny Cash.“And I want to tell you something that I’m excited about. I recently learned, as fate ...