Donation

Gene Williams donates to save hometown's history.

     Where First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt once stood to announce details of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal program that built Dyess Colony, Ark., former resident Gene Williams stood Thursday to announce that he is giving the seed money to save the historical building that was central to the program.
     Williams, a Dyess notable who grew up down the road from Johnny Cash and went on to his own outstanding career in country music and television, donated $50,000 to the City of Dyess to purchase the Dyess Colony Administration Building and start its renovation. The two-story Greek Revival-style building located in the heart of his small hometown is designated a National Register District. According to historians, Eleanor Roosevelt stood on its steps to explain her husband’s “experiment in permanent reestablishment of the independent farmer" and the distribution of between 20 and 40 acres, a five-room clapboard house, a mule, a cow and a year’s worth of groceries and supplies.
     Dyess Mayor Larry Sims, other city officials and members of the Johnny Cash Memorial Committee gratefully accepted the donation with the announcement that the building will be named the Gene Williams Building. Once renovations are completed the building will house city hall, a library, the Dyess Colony Memorial, a place to archive the history and memorabilia from the Depression-era experimental community. Rooms will be dedicated to some of Dyess’ former famous residents. One room will house the Gene Williams Museum. The Cash family has donated items for the Johnny Cash memorial. Tommy Cash will also have a museum.
     Obtaining and preserving the building has been a longtime goal of city officials who have faced the challenge of dwindling population and financial resources over the years. The project’s potential for heritage tourism is enormous, according to the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas, the only statewide nonprofit organization focused on preserving Arkansas' architectural and cultural resources.
     The town has seen interest build over the years as people seek information about the town, its history and its famous former residents. A sign on Hwy. 14 directs the way to Dyess, “the boyhood home of Johnny Cash.” Another sign on the city’s community center and former school property welcomes visitors to the boyhood hometown of Johnny and Tommy Cash and Gene Williams. Since the release of the movie about Johnny Cash, “Walk the Line,” people from across the nation and around the world have found their way to town to drive around the town circle and stop at city hall, Sims said.
     Williams’ donation allowed the Johnny Cash Memorial Committee to meet their first goal, Sims said. The committee wants to offer visitors more. Plans include not only restoring the Administration Building, but also rebuilding the adjacent theater. Any funds left over from purchasing the building and contributions toward the project will be placed in a special fund.
     Fund raising projects are also in the works and Williams has been instrumental in booking talent for the July 7 annual Dyess Colony Memorial Days.
     “Mickey Gilley and the Urban Cowboy Band, Jackson Cash, one of the nation’s best Johnny Cash impersonators, and Katie Lynn, my co-host on my television show will be performing,” said Williams whose weekly “Gene Williams Country Television Show” is taped in Branson, Mo., and telecast coast-to-coast, border-to-border and in Puerto Rico and reaches more than 23 million homes.
     Williams began his career in the country music field as a DJ in Memphis on KWAM in 1957 and was named Grand Ole Opry DJ of the Year in 1961. He is credited with having the largest syndicated country music television show not affiliated with Nashville and with breaking ground for country television. His television career led to the making of his motion pictures, Sound of Country Music and Country Music Jamboree. He has also worked with such greats as Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers, Carl Perkins, Charlie Walker, Charlie Louvin, Del Reeves, Merle Haggard, Ray Price, Minnie Pearl and Jack Greene.
     Among his achievements are receiving an honorary doctorate from St. Martins College in Milwaukee in television and broadcast communications in recognition of his community commitment to the industry, being inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame and being honored for his contributions to the tourism industry by the Missouri Senate and the State of Arkansas. He holds a record in Arkansas of having nine days proclaimed Gene Williams Day (1964 Orval Faubus, 1968 Win Rockefeller, 1973 and 1974 Dale Bumpers - former President Bill Clinton proclaimed Gene Williams Day three times and Jim Guy Tucker once, Mike Huckabee once).
     “I am pleased to be able to help with this project that will boost tourism to my hometown,” said Williams.
     Dyess Colony founded in 1934 was named after W.R. Dyess, the first administrator of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. As part of the Depression-era New Deal project, the township in the southern portion of Mississippi County, Ark., consisted of 500 individually owned and operated farms of 20 and 40 acres each. The town of a couple thousand residents had cooperatively owned and operated businesses and public services including a school, hospital, general store, a barber, a beauty shop, cannery, café and cotton gin. The town was a government-operated community until the late ‘40s and became a regular municipality in 1964.
     Today, little remains of the fresh-paint and dreams of seven decades ago. Most of the original houses are abandoned, dilapidated, perished. A few, including Cash’s and Williams’ former homes, have been expanded. Newer homes spot the landscape of farmland. Only one business remains in town with a rural population of 515 and school children are bussed to nearby Rivercrest at Wilson, Ark.
     Williams recognizes the importance of Dyess’ place in the nation’s history and also realizes how the Johnny Cash persona and country music can help the town.
     “Dyess as one of 102 brand new towns created by President Franklin Roosevelt to give people a second chance after the Depression. That is a rich history lesson. The legend that is Johnny Cash is also a history lesson. We can draw from the two and combine our stories inside this building. This is another second chance for the town. As Mayor Sims said, this is just the first step,” said Williams.
     Donations of any amount are appreciated and can be made to the Johnny Cash Memorial Fund, Little River Bank, Attn: Cathy Turner, P.O. Box 340, Lepanto, AR 72354; or Johnny Cash Memorial Fund, c/o Lisa Wroten, P.O. Box 49, Dyess, AR 72330; or online at dyessday.com.