Gene Williams works to benefit hometown

    DYESS, Ark. -- When Gene Williams donated $50,000 to the City of Dyess, Ark., to purchase the 1934 Dyess Colony Administration Building and start its renovation little did he realize that two years later he would form the Gene Williams Land Company to continue the work of restoring a large part of his hometown.
           Williams has gone back to his boyhood home and also the hometown of Johnny Cash of Dyess, Ark., to establish a housing residence and open an office. Working closely with the Dyess Colony Redevelopment  Project and the National Register District, Williams has purchased several houses in the city limits of Dyess and several empty lots on the town’s main circle and downtown and has begun clean up and renovation. Some of the homes are among the historical buildings that were part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal program that built Dyess Colony, Ark.

“I have lots of plans for Dyess and there will be something happening every week,” Williams said.

            Those happenings will be kicked-off in mid-April of 2010 with an open house combined with a local county-wide political rally that will include some “big name entertainment,” according to Williams. The open house had originally been planned for Nov. 29, but has been postponed due to weather forecasts and the holidays.

            “Congratulations on the good and important work you have done so far in Dyess,” said Arkansas State Rep. J.R. Rogers.

            In February of 2007, Williams gave seed money to save the Dyess Colony Administration Building that was central to the Dyess Colony New Deal program. The two-story Greek Revival-style building located in the heart of Dyess 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 four-room clapboard house, a mule, a cow and a year’s worth of groceries and supplies.

          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 and Gene Williams.” 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. Roads have been named after Cash and 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.

       Williams, who was also presented a key to the City of Dyess in 2007, began his career in the country music field as a DJ in Memphis on KWAM in 1957. He was named DJ of the Year in 1961 by WSM, the founder and owner of the Grand Ole Opry, and made a guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry the weekend he was honored. 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. To be inducted in 2009 into the George D. Hay Music Hall of Fame along with Loretta Lynn and Mike Snider.

     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).

          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. I want to help save a few of these pieces of history,” said Williams, whose boyhood home and Cash’s boyhood home still stand and have been expanded. “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.”