It's only taken the authorities 42 years, but the late Johnny Cash will finally receive an official pardon in the town of Starkville, Mississippi, where the Man in Black was allegedly arrested for picking flowers out of someone's yard.
Citizens of the town will hold a ceremonial pardoning from November 2 to 4 for Cash called the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival on the campus of Mississippi State University. Organised by Robbie Ward, who began working on the idea two years ago, the MSU research writer collected 500 signatures on a petition and founded a 25-person committee in order to make it happen. "A lot of people would laugh at me and act like I was kind of crazy," Ward said.
The actual crime was never actually recorded, as different versions of what transpired the night of May 11, 1965 still circulate. Aside from the flower picking story, another version was describe in Cash's autobiography, Cash. He told the story that he was arrested during a walk from his motel to a supermarket after leaving a frat house party on the MSU campus. "I was screaming, cussing and kicking at the cell door all night long until I finally broke my big toe," he wrote. "At 8 a.m. the next morning they let me out when they knew I was sober."
Of course, there's always the song he wrote called "Starkville City Jail," which detailed the night he spent in prison.
Citizens of the town will hold a ceremonial pardoning from November 2 to 4 for Cash called the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival on the campus of Mississippi State University. Organised by Robbie Ward, who began working on the idea two years ago, the MSU research writer collected 500 signatures on a petition and founded a 25-person committee in order to make it happen. "A lot of people would laugh at me and act like I was kind of crazy," Ward said.
The actual crime was never actually recorded, as different versions of what transpired the night of May 11, 1965 still circulate. Aside from the flower picking story, another version was describe in Cash's autobiography, Cash. He told the story that he was arrested during a walk from his motel to a supermarket after leaving a frat house party on the MSU campus. "I was screaming, cussing and kicking at the cell door all night long until I finally broke my big toe," he wrote. "At 8 a.m. the next morning they let me out when they knew I was sober."
Of course, there's always the song he wrote called "Starkville City Jail," which detailed the night he spent in prison.
