Finally someone with common sense on Capitol Hill.
Johnny Cash is one of the most famous people to come out of Arkansas (aside from maybe Slick Willy), having been born into a family of poor cotton farmers in Kingsland, Arkansas before his family moved to the New Deal colony of Dyess during the Great Depression. As a teenager, Cash would often sing on his local radio station, but after graduation he enlisted in the US Air Force and served as a radio operator in West Germany intercepting Soviet transmissions (a position where he became the first American to learn of Joseph Stalin's death - wild but true story). After returning home, Cash married his first wife Vivian Liberto and moved to Memphis, where he would make his first recordings at Sun Records. And well, the rest is history. Cash would go on to be one of the most legendary artists in country music, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, and would eventually marry into the "First Family of Country Music" with his second marriage to his longtime wife, June Carter Cash. And now he's officially representing his home state in our nation's capital. Back in 2019, then-Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson announced that a statue of Cash would be added to the National Statuary Hall Collection, which is located in the US Capitol and features two statues from each state to honor notable natives. The statue of Cash is replacing the current statue of James P. Clarke, a former Arkansas governor and US Senator whose statue has been in the Capitol Visitors Center since 1921. But Clarke was a notable supporter of white supremacy, and even his great-great-grandson, an Arkansas state senator, called for the statue to be removed over Clarke's racist beliefs. And today, the Man in Black's statue was officially unveiled in the halls of the Capitol. Several of Cash's family members were on hand as the statue was unveiled, including his daughter Rosanne Cash, who honored her father during the ceremony:
"In my wildest dreams, I couldn't have imagined... Words cannot come close to expressing our pride to see my dad accorded such a singular privilege, the first musician in history to be included in the statuary hall collection. So I'm very careful not to put words in his mouth since his passing. But on this day I can safely say that he would feel that of all the many honors and accolades that he received in his lifetime, this is the ultimate." And in a touching moment, Cash's sister Joanne, who is now blind, walked up to the statue and held on to her brother. https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/1838621771324334533 As Roseanne said:
"My dad's sister Joanne, who's here today, is the last surviving member of the original Cash family from Dyess, Arkansas. She has tragically lost her sight and asked if she could touch the statue to feel what it was, and she did." A fitting tribute to the Man in Black. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTfsEl9jjSE
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