Governor’s Mansion event to raise funds for Cash boyhood home

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and First Lady Susan Hutchinson will host “An Evening with Roseanne Cash” on Thursday (March 3) in an effort to raise funds for the Historic Dyess Colony: Johnny Cash Boyhood Home, the place where the legendary “Man in Black” and “Walk the Line” singer grew up.

The $150 per ticket event will take place at the Governor’s Mansion on 1800 Center Street in Little Rock, and will start at 6:30 p.m. with a reception and photo opportunities with Ms. Cash, who followed in her father’s footsteps and has enjoyed a successful 40-year solo career of her own, charting hits like “Tennessee Flat Top Box” and “Never Be You” among others. Limited tickets are still available at this link for “An Evening with Roseanne Cash.”

The reception will be followed by “Memories, Music and More,” a special presentation that will feature Cash’s reflections on her involvement with the restoration of the Cash home and how spending time in the region inspired her 2014 album, “The River and the Thread,” according to the Historic Dyess Colony website.

Cash, her siblings, and other family members, have worked on the restoration project with Arkansas State University since 2011. (Dyess is approximately one hour southeast of Jonesboro.)

The official opening took place on August 2014. The next phase of the project will include a recreation of the Cash farmstead buildings, the smokehouse, chicken coop and outhouse.

The Dyess Colony was created in 1934 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal to aid in the nation’s economic recovery from the Great Depression. As a federal agricultural resettlement community, it provided a fresh start for nearly 500 impoverished Arkansas farm families, including the family of music legend Johnny Cash.

The colony has been resurrected through restoration of several historic buildings that opened  to visitors in August 2014. The Dyess Colony Administration Building houses exhibits related to establishment of the colony, lifestyles of typical colonists, and the impact that growing up in Dyess had on Johnny Cash and his music. The Johnny Cash Boyhood Home is furnished as it appeared when the Cash family lived there.