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.
Arkansan chosen to create Johnny Cash statue for National Statuary Hall
Sanders spoke on the legacy of Cash following the statue unveiling, 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.”
Arkansas artist Kevin Kresse was commissioned by the National Statuary Hall Steering Committee to create the 8-foot-tall statue. The statues of Cash and Bates will replace two former statues that represented the Natural State in the U.S. Capitol.