Johnny Cash Statue Heads to Washington for Unveiling

Commemorates the legendary musician's legacy with a Capitol memorial
By Newser.AI Read our AI policy
Posted Sep 6, 2024 12:45 AM CDT
Johnny Cash Statue Heads to Washington for Unveiling
A crate holding a statue of Johnny Cash, destined for the U.S. Capitol, sits in the back of a tractor trailer parked outside the Arkansas Capitol in Little Rock, Ark., Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024.   (AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo)

A bronze statue of Johnny Cash departed Arkansas for the US Capitol on Thursday, with state officials and Cash's family present at the send-off. The eight-foot-tall statue, enclosed in a wooden crate on a tractor trailer, will be unveiled on September 24 in Washington, DC. Shane Broadway, chairman of the Arkansas National Statuary Hall Steering Committee, remarked, "Today is the day we're going to send Johnny to DC."

This Johnny Cash statue, depicting him with a guitar and Bible, is one of two new statues from Arkansas to replace century-old statues from the state that had been at the US Capitol. Earlier this year, a statue of civil rights leader Daisy Bates was unveiled. Bates was pivotal in the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The 2019 Arkansas Legislature voted to update the older, little-known figures with prominent figures like Bates and Cash.

Cash, born in Kingsland, Arkansas, sold 90 million records worldwide and was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The statue's sculptor, Kevin Kresse, who has created other musical figures from Arkansas, expressed his relief and anticipation. "The pressure inside my bottle has reduced and when he's inside the Capitol safely put together then I can fully take a deep breath," Kresse noted. (This story was generated by Newser's AI chatbot. Source: the AP)

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