Musician’s fans hope for statue, restored boyhood home in Marvell
Bill Bowden
bbowden@nwadg.com
The Associated Press
In this May 15, 2010, photo, Levon Helm performs on the mandolin during a Ramble performance at his barn in Woodstock, N.Y. Helm, who was in the final stages of his battle with cancer, died April 19, 2012, in New York. An effort is under way to memorialize him in Marvell, where he went to school.
The cotton fields of Turkey Scratch are occasionally invaded by foreign tourists taking pictures.
They’re fans of Levon Helm, looking for tangible evidence of the musician’s roots in the Arkansas Delta.
After taking selfies with the city limits sign, they need someplace to go — a shrine, perhaps, to the performer they admire.
Such a place is in the works.
An effort is under way to restore Helm’s boyhood home and install a statue of the musician in downtown Marvell, which is 7 miles south of Turkey Scratch.
Helm, who died of throat cancer in 2012 at the age of 71, was a singer, drummer and mandolin player for The Band, which backed Bob Dylan before recording the critically acclaimed album “Music From Big Pink” in 1968.
The Band went on to record a total of 10 studio albums, and Helm had a solo career after that.
File Photo/MITCHELL PE MASILUN
Kevin Kresse, center, and Anna Lee Amsden, right, pose with a bust of rock legend Levon Helm. Kresse, the artist, awaits funding to cast the statue in bronze. Amsden, a longtime friend of Helm’s, has been instrumental in the fundraising effort.
Helm is probably best remembered as the singer of The Band songs “The Weight” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” Later, he explored Arkansas roots music on his solo album “Dirt Farmer,” winning a Grammy for that one and “Electric Dirt.” He also had an acting career, appearing in the movies “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and “The Right Stuff.”
Helm was born near Elaine, grew up near Turkey Scratch and attended school in Marvell — all of which are in Phillips County in east Arkansas. In the 1980s, he lived in Northwest Arkansas, but Helm spent most of his later years in Woodstock, N.Y., where he held regular “Midnight Ramble” concerts in his barn.
The Levon Helm Legacy Project is trying to raise money to restore his childhood home and commission a bronze bust of Helm by artist Kevin Kresse of Little Rock. Kresse has already made a clay sculpture, measuring 26-by-20-by-12 inches, that is awaiting the funds for bronzing. Kresse says the sculpture will go on a pedestal in front of Helm’s childhood home in Marvell, creating a permanent memorial.
“Fans of Levon will be able to visit the place that shaped and formed this musical icon who was at the forefront of the Americana music movement,” according to the online fundraiser at gofundme.com/levonhelmmemorial.
The fundraising effort for the bronzing began July 8, and $5,300 of the $25,000 goal had been raised as of Monday. After the $25,000 is raised to bronze the sculpture, any remaining funds from the drive will go toward restoration of his childhood home, according to the website.
Joe Griffith of Monroe County says about $150,000 is needed for the bust and restoration together.
Griffith says two Little Rock men — Richard Butler and Jeremy Carroll— bought Helm’s childhood home and two other houses that were in a cotton field near Turkey Scratch from A.B. Thompson. They donated Helm’s house to the Marvell Civic Club, and it was moved to Marvell two years ago. The other two houses will be cannibalized for parts to restore Helm’s house.
Griffith says the houses date from the 1930s and are made of cypress. The house won’t be painted. The rustic wood exterior will remain after the restoration, says Griffith.
Similar efforts were made to restore Johnny Cash’s boyhood home in Mississippi County. It is now affiliated with Arkansas State University.
Marvell is 20 miles west of Helena-West Helena, which attracts blues fans year round and particularly in October when the annual King Biscuit Blues Festival is held.
Griffith says Helm’s fans are already finding Turkey Scratch, so they’ll find Marvell too.
Barbie Washburn, president of the Marvell Civic Club, says Helm’s house now sits on the corner of Elm and Carruth streets, across the street from the Marvell Police Department.
About $15,000 raised previously was used to fix the roof and seal the house from the elements, Washburn says.
She says there will be a museum inside the house dedicated to Helm. Someone donated a set of his drums. Also collected are three sets of his drumsticks, one of his harmonicas and old Marvell school yearbooks from when he was known as Lavon.
Last month, U.S. 49 from Marvell to Helena-West Helena was dedicated as Levon Helm Memorial Highway through Act 810.
FYI
Read More
levonhelmmemorial.org
gofundme.com/levonhelmmemorial
