DYESS, Ark. – Johnny Cash’s boyhood home and the Dyess Administration Building have been restored in the first phase of a $5.59 million project that eventually aims to partly resurrect not only the historic Depression-era colony the Cash family called home, but this area’s fiscal fortunes by drawing from 30,000 to 50,000 visitors annually. …The Dyess project’s grand opening is Aug. 16, the day after Arkansas State University hosts the fourth annual Johnny Cash Music Festival, featuring headliners Reba McEntire, Bobby Bare and Loretta Lynn. The show started as a fundraiser for the project.
…Re-creating the interior started when the university’s Center for Digital Initiatives built a virtual model of the house and placed virtual furniture in it based on old photos and recollections from Cash Yates and her brother Tommy.
“They remember who sat where at the dinner table and what kind of quilt patterns were on the beds,” Hawkins said. “We wanted it to be as if the Cash family just walked out of the house on a Sunday afternoon.“
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