A second chance for Johnny Cash's childhood home

Under the guidance of Arkansas State University, fund-raising and restoration is well under way with the ultimate goal of returning rundown Dyess, Ark., to some of its former glory.

By Bryan Kay,?Correspondent / November 6, 2012

The home of country singing legend Johnny Cash in Dyess, Ark., before it was acquired by Arkansas State University. The university is heading a project to restore the house, where Cash grew up during the 1930s, as a historical site and tourist attraction.

Courtesy of Arkansas State University

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On a fine sunny day in late summer, a prison work gang is busy clearing litter from the grounds around Dyess City Hall in the heart of town, providing a portentous sign.

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This settlement of just a few hundred, created during the Depression as part of President Franklin D.?Roosevelt's?New Deal project, is the childhood home to that well-known advocate of the incarcerated, country music legend Johnny Cash.

The figurative relevance of the low-risk prisoners (guilty of minor crimes), who are frequent visitors?according to the Dyess mayor, runs deep.

Perhaps more than most places, Dyess, located in Mississippi County, Ark., a short drive west of the Mississippi River, is all about second chances:?Back in the 1930s, the brand-new government colony was a second chance for the Cash family after the economic ravages of the Depression and the poverty of their former home in Kingsland, Ark.?

Today, Dyess is poised on the?precipice?of a second chance of its own.

Under the guidance of Arkansas State University, fund-raising and restoration is well under way in the settlement with the ultimate goal of returning rundown Dyess to some of its former glory ? this time as a tourist attraction. One of the centerpieces, and almost certainly the biggest draw, is set to be Cash's boyhood home, a farmstead on the edge of town.

The colony-turned-city is a?dilapidated shadow of the vibrant farming community it once represented. Back then it was buttressed by the bounty of cotton fields and a population that topped out at about 3,000. The area has been in decline since the end of World War II, a process that accelerated in the 1960s and '70s as locals struggled to survive on the flood-prone land, says Dyess Mayor Larry Sim.

These days, the cotton is long gone. There are fewer than 500 inhabitants, and the town is located in a region that statistics indicate is one of the most economically deprived in the nation: In Mississippi County, 25.5 percent of the population live below the poverty line, compared with 13.8 percent nationally, according to US Census Bureau data.??

Ruth Hawkins, director of Arkansas Heritage Sites, the office at Arkansas State University in nearby Jonesboro that leads the project, hailed the restoration as a potential boon for the local economy. The project also includes the transformation of the old administration?building into a museum and new home for city hall.

?It is projected this is going to have a major impact on the Arkansas Delta, one of the poorest regions in the country,? she explains. "We are focusing on the heritage of the?town ? not just Johnny Cash but historic Dyess itself. We project about 30,000 to 50,000 visitors a year. We are looking [at creating] 100 new jobs and about $10 million in [annual] revenue for this area.?

Known as "Historic Dyess: Boyhood Home of Johnny Cash", the visitor attraction hopes to tell the story of Dyess and how it produced not only Johnny Cash, but also fellow country stars Gene Williams and Buddy Jewell, as well as a string of other successful individuals, including? current Arkansas Commissioner of Education Tom Kimbrell. A biking and walking trail connecting the center of Dyess with the Cash farmstead is also planned.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/j6zZQKZ4Dx0/A-second-chance-for-Johnny-Cash-s-childhood-home

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