It’s approximately 60 miles from my hometown of Rector, Arkansas to the residence with the address of 4791 CR 924 in Dyess, Arkansas. Throughout the 60 mile stretch, small creeks wind through pancake flat farm lands. Our journey took us east of Paragould (where Iris DeMent was born), through a sliver of the Missouri Bootheel, past the dilapidated downtown buildings in Black Oak (Jim Dandy needs to rescue that place), into Lepanto, and on to Dyess. There is one sole lonely house on County Road 924, whose dirt road probably hasn’t changed much in the past 80 years. The humble white dwelling on that property is where Johnny Cash and his family lived.
Dyess Colony was established in 1934 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal Program. Farmers applied for free twenty or forty acre farm plots and Ray Cash, Johnny’s father, was one of the land recipients. The Cash family moved from the small southern Arkansas town of Kingsley to Dyess in 1935, when J.R. (as he was then known) was three years old. Poverty among rural farm families was the norm in that era and as you drive down the rough dirt road where Cash lived, you can easily imagine long walks into town on humid summer days – surrounded by nothing but dirt, cotton, and endless blue skies. It was in this home where Cash would hear and be inspired by the groundbreaking rhythms of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, seventeen years his senior, who grew up 100 miles away from Dyess in Cotton Plant, Arkansas.
The Cash home is not currently open to the public and due to the fence around the property, it’s not possible sneak a peek into the structure. After leaving the Cash property, we ventured into Dyess Colony, which certainly has less than 500 families today. The community signs boast not only of Johnny Cash, but also of Tommy Cash (who scored three Top Ten country hits in 1969 and 1970), Gene Williams (longtime disc jockey and host of a syndicated country music program), and Buddy Jewell (who had two Top Five country hits in 2003). Williams, who owned several theaters, a radio station, and worked to restore the Dyess Colony Community Building, has his name plastered all over the small town. Unfortunately for us, the community building, a landmark Eleanor Roosevelt visited in 1936 was closed, as was the city hall. On our way out of town, we drove past a small t-shirt/souvenir shop that looked like it could use some business.
If nothing else, Dyess and Johnny Cash serve as a reminder that our heroes can come from anywhere (or nowhere) and adversity often means nothing to those with dreams and talent. I have a feeling that once the renovation of the Cash home is complete, the structure will entertain visitors for decades. Cash’s heart may have stopped beating in 2003, but his spirit remains a source of boundless inspiration.
