Arkansan Johnny Cash statue unveiled at US Capitol

WASHINGTON – The statue of Arkansas native and music artist Johnny Cash was unveiled at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. Tuesday morning.

Members of the Cash family, along with Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and several other state and U.S. officials, gathered in the Emancipation Hall for the ceremony.

Johnny Cash is the first musician in history to be included in the National Statuary Hall Collection. Cash’s daughter, Rosanne Cash, imagined how grateful her father would be of the recognition.

“I am very careful not to put words in his mouth since his passing,” Cash said. “But on this day I can safely say that he would feel that of all the many honors and accolades he received in his lifetime, this is the ultimate.

Arkansas artist Kevin Kresse was commissioned by the National Statuary Hall Steering Committee to create the 8-foot-tall statue.

“The unveiling is gonna be… That will be gravy.  This is the engine work so when it’s in the parade going down the road that will be the fun part… To just be waving,” Kresse previously said about the unveiling.

Sanders also spoke on the legacy of Cash, mentioning the musician’s hit song “I Walk the Line.”

“In an era when most musician’s images were carefully curated, he was open about straddling the border between clean cut Johnny and cast down Cash,” Sanders said. “When so much in today’s world is fake, Johnny Cash was very real.”

During the ceremony, the U.S. Air Force Band performed “I Walk the Line.” According to Johnny Cash’s website , the song was released in 1959 and went on to receive a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998.

The statues of Cash and civil rights leader Daisy Bates replaced two former statues that represented the Natural State in the U.S. Capitol. Bates’ statue was unveiled in May.

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