LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A statue depicting Johnny Cash left Arkansas for Washington on Thursday, as state officials gave the bronze figure a send-off to its new home at the U.S. Capitol.
A small crowd, including members of Cash’s family, gathered outside the Arkansas Capitol to watch the statue — safely encased in a wooden box in the back of a tractor — begin its journey. The eight-foot-tall statue is expected to be unveiled at the U.S. Capitol on September 24.
“Today is the day we send Johnny to DC,” said Shane Broadway, chairman of the Arkansas National Statuary Hall Steering Committee.
The Cash statue is the second new statue Arkansas has sent to replace two existing statues representing the state in the U.S. Capitol. Another statue of civil rights leader Daisy Bates was unveiled at the Capitol earlier this year. Bates mentored the nine black children who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957.
The two statues replace the Arkansas statues that have stood in the Capitol for more than 100 years. The Legislature voted in 2019 to replace the two statues, which depicted little-known figures from the 18th and 19th centuries by Bates and Cash.
Cash was born in Kingsland, a small town about 60 miles south of Little Rock. He died in 2003 at the age of 71. His achievements include 90 million records sold worldwide, spanning country, rock, blues, folk and gospel. He was one of the few artists to be inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
“I think a trip to DC is worth it just to see these two monuments,” said Secretary of State John Thurston.
The Cash statue shows the singer with a guitar on his back and a Bible in his hand. Little Rock sculptor Kevin Kresse, who was selected to create the statue, has sculpted other Arkansas musical figures such as Al Green, Glen Campbell and Levon Helm.
Wearing a T-shirt bearing the singer’s last name, Kresse said he looks forward to the statue being installed and unveiled to the public.
“The pressure in my tank has decreased and when it is safely in the Capitol, I can take a deep breath,” Kresse told reporters.
