Da da da da da da da da da da da nang.

We go.

We always find our way back home.

We always find our way back home.

Welcome to Home Grown The show where we introduce you to the people and the stories that shape the character of life in Arkansas.

I'm Dawn Scott.

And today the theme of our show is “True Originals.” People who are carving their own unique paths in life.

We'll meet a man who's overcome great challenges to become the ultimate super fan of the Arkansas Razorbacks and we’ll spend time with a country music legend on a mission to help the children of Arkansas.

The one and only Dolly Parton.

But let's start with someone who broke through barriers to become the state's first black rodeo queen.

She's now mentoring a new generation of Arkansas cowgirls.

Here's Ja’dayia Krush.

Like being a rodeo queen is just being an ambassador for the sport of rodeo.

You make appearances, you interact with kids.

You just kind of do everything that needs to be done within the rodeo industry.

You're an all round cowgirl.

So, I mean, I was just recognized as the first black one in the state of Arkansas.

I would say like my first time ever seeing a horse in my first encounter, I was like, amazed.

I remember thinking, they're so big.

But I was like, oh, my goodness.

Like, I actually get to put a seat on this big ole horse and ride it.

My name is Ja’dayia Krush.

I'm 23 years old.

I'm from Fort Smith, Arkansas.

My love for horses started when I was about six years old.

I was introduced to horses because I was sexually assaulted and I went through counseling and my counselor, I always say that she introduced me to a horse and she told me that this is a 1500 pound animal.

And she was like, If you can control this horse, you can control anything that comes your way.

She set me in a saddle that day and she handed me the reins to my freedom.

Horses are very intuitive with everything going on around them.

They don't like a situation or they don't like where they're at.

They're uncomfortable.

They're going to show you.

And I feel like just the way that they're able to express themselves and just be so freeing and so big, but also so loving.

I feel like that's where the connection really comes from.

My family, they're actually like very city people.

I'm kind of like the only one out of my family that rides horses.

I didn't grow up on a ranch or anything like that, but I was like as quick as I could get to when I did.

So everybody always wants to know what she rides does here mother ride?

I like them.

They pretty.

They big.

But now I'm not getting out.

When she first told me she was going to compete, it was like I was surprised, but I wasn't shocked.

And they do the routine for the horses.

I'll freak out.

I used to be at the practice is like, okay, Other kids, sit down... Then we got to just focus and watch.

What if she fall.... What if What if she fell a few times?

But what she do, she got back up on her own.

For someone that doesn't know anything about rodeo queening, it's just like a miss pageant.

Like a miss USA.

Except we have horseback, we have horsemanship, and we go through like a horse coronation and everything like that.

It's very difficult.

You know, you have to be very intuitive, not just with what's going on with the horse that you select to ride because you don't bring your own horse.

They pick it for you.

But you also have to know, like everything about it.

Like you don't know what the judge is going to ask you.

So we go through that and then we take a test as well.

We also have interviews.

You just kind of got to know everything that's going on at the rodeo.

Some rodeos have themes.

You need to know the theme.

Like there's a lot that entails a rodeo queen pageant.

When I found out I was first black rodeo q I was like, Oh man, I have so much to do.

If I'm one of the first, there's no way.

Like, I didn't believe it for a little bit.

So for me, like, that's where it became so much less about me.

Like, oh my goodness, I'm the first like when’s.

The second one going to be and why am I the first one?

Like, I remember being crowned at Coal Hill on my 17th birthday and I remember going on to Google right after that, like where where do I how can I find the woman that I need to look up to?

You know, another woman that looks like me in this industry doing that?

I didn't find it.

It's funny to look back and realize like, how far I've come and what I really just didn't know.

Whenever I first started, I wasn't the best rider.

There was a couple of us that had a lot to learn and I was one of them.

But I progressively got better.

Like I progressively got really good so that I can go into having a horse.

I didn't go into it having a trailer.

I just had enough people around me that believed in what I wanted to do.

I was working enough to be able to afford a little bit of it, not even a bunch.

And so as I progressively, you know, started having the things that I needed and started getting as good as the girls, there were so many things that just become a problem for some of the parents and some of the hostility like that I was dealing with.

I was 16 years old when I first went through my racist experience in the Western industry, and I wasn't with other 16 year old girls.

This was with middle age adults.

They were middle aged adults treating me negatively, speaking down on me, having their kids, you know, send me videos of me calling me different names.

Like until this day I'm still dealing with it with the same adults, like the same adults that bullied me when I was 16 years old are the same adults that are trying to bully me again as a 23 year old.

I never reply to this stuff on social media and course everybody see the negative comments when it comes to the racism stuff.

I just opened the door and close it to me.

I'll look at it and keep on going.

It got so bad that we had like a mandatory meeting with the old Days Rodeo board and they had to come down the chairman and all of them, and they had to speak for me in the way that I was being treated on the team and the way that I was being talked about.

At 16 years old, it progressively got worse to the point where, you know, I had a teammates brother text me things, you know, nasty things, just calling me, all types of stuff.

Some of the situations that I went through when I was 16 and and on a team with 19 other girls and dealing with the racism from their parents actually was the reason that I sold everything.

And, you know, I did try to quit being a cowgirl.

I did try to quit the Western industry, but like just, you know, for a whole year of not having a horse, not having a saddle, not having cowgirl boots and stuff like that, like I learned real quick, like, you can't quit who you are.

Not nobody can take that from you either.

I'm a cowgirl and I'm going to be a cowgirl till the end.

And you know, whether they like it or not, I'm here.

She would go get her.

She doesn't give up on anything.

She fall down.

She gets back up on her own.

I just feel like she's so strong minded, the things that she's been through.

If you Googled her and kept up with her, you know, the things she's been through, anybody else would have crumbled at her age.

You know, a young age like that.

I had parents inbox boxing.

when Ja’Dayia is having a hard time from social media.

And they tell me, tell her to hold her head back up because my child is looking at her.

I have grown women my age telling me that they look up to today and I'm always telling her, you think that you're just there for your peers and people younger than you.

You got grown women who look up to you.

So keep doing what you're doing no matter who try to step on you.

That's just wrap up and get back up.

Having kids come up to you, you know, that are inspired by what you're doing?

That's why I always say what I do in this industry is so much bigger than me.

It's not even about me at all.

It's about the next young kid that can come up in this industry, whether it's, you know, whether you're black or Hispanic, whether you're anything like, I just want to see more diversity in my industry that's so important that kids see representation and that kids know that while I am this color, whatever color I am or whatever complexion people perceive me as, it's like I see someone that looks like me.

You know, it's important that kids see themselves in positions that maybe, you know, they don't see it all the time.

The knowledge that I want kids to learn and to know through animals they're AG For kids, it's not really that difficult.

We teach kids about food.

We teach them about healthy diets and being athletic.

You can make it so kid friendly.

You can introduce a kid to a cow and be like, You know how you love that steak?

You know how you love this.

You know, you drink milk all the time.

Like this is where it comes from.

It's getting the kids excited about it.

A lot of them just don't know.

They just lack the knowledge.

I'm a very proud mother.

People always say everybody to their kids sky’s the limit.

So I told you this is not the limit because there is no limit.

You keep going.

No matter what you think you're fighting for.

That is not important right now.

You never know when everything that you're talking about is going to be important enough for you to have that platform, for that voice, for a group of people.

And you never know when that time will come.

So it's like, never be quiet about what you believe in.

If you believe in something, you know, stand on it and owning it.

Not everybody's going to believe in what you believe and not everybody's going to agree with what you're doing.

No matter what you stand on, what you speak for, Just never allow anyone to mute you.

JaDayia Krush, walks her own path with countless cowgirls following in her footsteps.

Ja’Dayia was crowned Miss Rodeo Coal Hill in 2017.

Since then, she's appeared on national television and even earned the key to the city of Fort Smith In Arkansas.

Inspiring stories are almost as common as hearing a hog call, and few stories are as inspiring as that of Canaan.

Sandy Canaan is the undisputed biggest fan of the Arkansas Razorbacks, and his journey to that title can seem like nothing short of a miracle to the series.

who is Canaan Sandy Oh, big three, Razorbacks, Go Hogs.

He's he's just a champion.

It's a 100 miles an hour, wherever he is.

You know, his enthusiasm is contagious.

He's the world to me.

He wasn't a part of the show.

He was the heart of the show.

He just amazes me, kind of his personality is way bigger than Cannan.

That just kind of meet him one time and, you know, And the rest of your life.

Yeah, Arkansas is all about the Razorbacks.

There's nothing else.

If you're in Arkansas and you're a sports fan, you're for the Razorbacks.

Oh, that's good.

Yeah, well, he's little bitty.

He could call the Hawks.

He didn't start walking till he was three, but he knew all about the Razorback games being on his side.

Back when he was three months, Ole took him to the Razorback game.

Three weeks later, he had to have open heart surgery.

The problem, not any illness or birth defect that he didn't have to conquer it one way or another.

He was born with this day in his heart.

He was born with an intestinal block in general, is born death.

There was nothing that gave us no hope that we were going to get to keep him.

They all fought for him just like he was going to be a superstar, This is my room I got.

I got a big helmet, Arkansas helmet right It is my all time he gave me a dog.

Everything in here has been given the Canaan.

Everybody that, people have.

People have sent him things from every everywhere they they they want to add things to to his collection.

This is a copy of the picture that is in ESPN Courtyard in Bristol, Connecticut, the ESPN Hall of Fame, that, hey, we weren't surprised at all.

Soon as they come out with a fan Hall of Fame, what bigger fan is there than Canaan Sandy of the Arkansas Razorback?

Good, bad, ugly.

It didn't matter.

He's always there, always cheer.

And I love the Hall of Famer.

And we are the two most famous people in Cave City or Ricky Medlock, who played for the Razorbacks.

And then even more famous is Canaan Sandy They had called us and said, We want Canaan to do we're going to do a two point conversion and Cannan is going to run the ball.

Everything.

We're standing on the sideline.

All of a sudden news crews start running and they go, What's going on?

They said Coach Beliema has decided he wants a 50 yard touchdown with Cannan.

What they go running down the field?

Only thing I hear is one of the one of the SIDs gave kind of the ball to shove it in his hand.

They said, don't you dare drop this ball in front of 30,000 people.

I keep telling him he's a big deal.

He's a celebrity.

I know, He says he goes up, Oh, literally the ambassador of the Razorbacks, We look for him.

If we go to the Hog game, we know he's going to be there.

And Cannan and you you're not going to miss a game.

I want to tell you that it's always easy.

There's a lot of walking, a lot of standing around.

It's so important now and a big it's a high five.

Or if he gets a high, it's just the height for the entire day.

Oh, my God, That's awesome.

Let's go hog me.

All right.

When you see Cannan and you see Ginger, you know, all the time.

I mean, it's like me and my shadow.

Yeah, we do a lot of teams that whenever I go my mom to momma do it a It's hard not to love those two people.

Yes, it's maybe that's good, right?

You lived through it then.

Canaan and Baz are big buddies And it caught on me and Bazzell, says Canaan is is the nearest thing to an angel on earth Isn’t that sweet?

Yeah.

He just don't know very much.

I love this.

It's important Canaan in the ambulance wh when the the dreaded gallstone thing.

He called me.

He said, Mom, I don't feel good.

He was in the bathroom.

And I said, Well, let's get to the couch, then get him to the couch, he quit breathi It turned to completely blue.

He fell over on the couch and his eyes just fixed and I just panicked.

And I started just peacefully working on his chest, screaming and yelling.

And a little bit I kind of started to see that lit up a little bit.

I had no idea what happened, but I said, okay, we'll get it.

Get to the hospital.

Yeah, we do think it really resonated to her that, you know, how fragile his health was.

They've just been everything to each other and they had fought for each other for so many ways and we went through rehab and and things.

So we're probably got back what we're going to get back.

But it's good enough.

that I got seven.

Yeah.

So.

Hey, so Canaan always followed all the commits and it was like once one week we said, Hey, so-and-so is playing Friday night and football game.

Let's go and watch him play.

Hey, Shamar You he wants to see those guys come be Razorback and he wants to share a little bit of what he has with them.

And I promise you, that has made an impact.

And I mean that special.

I don't know anybody else that knows that in the country.

And a lot of times we drive 8 hours, you know, for a two hour game, but it was worth every minute of it.

He's back in full force.

He is sure it Ladies and gentlemen, direct your attentio to the 50 yard line and welcome Mr. Canaan Sandy He’s love.

You know, Canaan loves people and we love Canaan is the most honest, outgoing, loving person I guess I've ever seen him impact so many people's lives.

It's a great example of what one person can do.

Yeah.

oh, he can bring so much joy to the people across the state of Arkansas.

Is is I mean, it's immeasurable what that means.

Canaan is the product of other people's lives.

The people of Arkansas have retaliated with their love, and they're the ones that have made came famous.

Canaan didn't do it.

I did it.

They made Canaan famous because they just poured their love into him.

And they want to see him.

They want to hug him.

They want a picture with him.

And it's because they're so good.

It's not because we're good.

It's because they're so good.

And they just open their hearts to Ginger and Canaan are truly dedicated.

Canaan is dedicated to his team and Ginger is dedicated to Canaan.

It's incredible What a life lives selflessly can accomplish.

Perhaps no one embodies the idea of being a true original, quite like Dolly Parton.

This American treasure is now using her fame and platform to help the children of Arkansas learn to read.

She spoke with Arkansas PBS, its own Ed Leon, about her imagination library.

Hi, everybody.

I'm here with the incomparable Dolly Parton.

Dolly, Hi.

Hi.

Welcome to Arkansas.

Well, I love Arkansas, and it's good to be back.

And I'm so excited to be here.

All right.

So there is such electricity in the governor's mansion here tonight because you're here to celebrate something really special.

Tell us what you're here to celebrate.

We're going statewide with our Imagination library.

So we're here to celebrate that whole thing.

So I'm very proud of the Imagination Library, where we give books to children from the time they're born till are five years old.

And so it's an exciting time because it's just doing so well.

60 books, is that right?

The kids get 60 books.

Well, they get a book on a book a month from the time they're born till till they're five years old.

You know, as you may know, there's maybe 80% of the population in Arkansas lives in rural areas.

And maybe many of these kids are in impoverished conditions.

And this is so meaningful.

What's it like to know that these kids are going to get to experience this, this ever, you know, life changing resource of books?

Well, it makes me feel good.

But you don't have to be poor to get the books.

All you got to do is sign up.

This is for all rights, for all the very proud that we can get the books in the hands of children that wouldn't have a chance to be otherwise.

But I grew up like that myself in a very poor rural area.

So I understand how these kind of things matter and they get the book with their little name on it comes in their mailboxes.

They can when they get big enough to get there, they run out and they wait for their little book from the book.

And that gives me a great sense of pride.

How do you dream this up?

I mean, where did the inspiration for the Imagination Library come from?

Well, I came from a big family, as you know, very poor family on both sides.

And most of the people in that part of the country didn't get a chance to go to school because the schools are in a way, way off.

And most of the kids had to help out with the family.

And my own father and many of my relatives.

But my own dad couldn't read and write.

But daddy was so smart.

He just didn't get that opportunity to go to school.

And it just kind of bothered him and it it was just something I wanted to do to honor him.

And so I had him help me with it.

I thought, Well, I'll start this little program getting, you know, children to read when they're very young in their most impressionable years.

So we started a little program and I thought, well, maybe it might go a couple of counties over.

And then the governor at the time, Phil Bredeson, he loved the program and it went statewide.

And then we went to Canada and now we're in the UK, now we're in Australia and in Scotland, in Ireland and in Scotland.

Soon anyway.

We're just all over the world and we're excited about has how it's done.

So your dad actually helped you launch it?

My dad was involved in it, my dad involved in it, and he took such pride in hearing the kids call me the book Lady.

He really felt like he had helped and he really did, because I really, really leaned on him to help me because I told him, I said, Daddy, a lot of people can't read and write for many reasons, just like yours, because you didn't get an opportunity to do it.

But it made me feel good that Daddy took such pride in that.

Did you?

Growing up, did you have a book that was meaningful to you?

Well, the Bible, Yeah.

Book in the family.

Mama shoved that down our throat.

But all those great stories from the Bible, it really stuck with me.

And that's, you know, I'm very strong in my spiritual self because of that.

But the little book that I loved, I remember Love and early on was a little book called The Little Engine that could.

Sure.

And that's the book that we gave out first.

That's the first one I think I can.

But I always think of myself as a little engine that did because that's a little book that kind of gives children confidence and gives them pride in themselves to say, you know, I can do it.

And so I think that's kind of what the whole Imagination Library is about, just kind of telling.

And you can yeah, And the theme song is about trying, you know, you're never going to know if you don't try to get out there and be that little engine.

Yeah.

Now, your book, you wrote a book to write the Coat of Many Colors from your famous song that everybody loves.

Is that do the kids get that one, too?

Yes, they do.

They get that one in another book.

I wrote a called I’m a Rainbow and it's about all the different colors and the mood of children.

Oh, wow.

Like the jealousy for green and yellow, for cowards and blue for being damn pink, and that it's okay to feel all those things, but it's how you deal with it.

So trying to teach children how to deal with the different moods they're going to have.

So, you know, both books are incredible, incredible messages for the kids.

Right?

Do you ever hear from any of the kids?

I mean, it's been around for 25 years now, Right.

And some of the kids are adults now.

Do you hear stories from them about how meaningful it was?

I do Some of them have kids of their own now that are also getting the books.

But we hear often from the children that have aged out, you know, when they're five years old, they cry.

They don't want it to stop.

And they think, oh, okay, we have another book, you know, So it's always good to hear those stories.

And we're trying to think of ways that we might get, you know, more books.

And sure, you know, for older children as well.

But for now, we're focused on the from birth to five, Do you have general advice, you know, about how important it is to keep education going for children.

I mean, the importance of that.

Well, there's a Whitney Houston song called Children Our Future that has that line.

And that's true.

I don't think you can get enough books in the hands of enough children because education is everything.

If you can learn to read, you can read just like my dad.

If you can read, you can self educate yourself.

You don't have to, you know, go to college if you can't afford to.

But there's a book somewhere out there on anything you want to know about.

So I think education is a powerful thing.

And if we can teach our children, you know, to get out there and make the most of that, it's great.

So I'm just proud to do my part.

Little Bird told me, You're going to sing a couple songs tonight.

I am going to sing songs, and I probably sang a song called The Coat of Many Colors, which is in the library, and the theme song that I wrote for the Imagination Library.

I can't try.

Oh, so it's about same thing is a little engine, just a little more adult area.

But I mean, with that message for adults as well as little children, got some microphones here.

You do a little, little song for us.

The Coat of Many Colors?

You pick.

in my coat of many colors that my mama made for me, made only from rags, but I wore it so proudly.

And although we had no money, I was rich as I could be in my coat of many colors that Mama made for me because she made it just for me.

All I learned was that good.

What's next for the library?

You've gone.

You've grown so much.

What's next?

Well, what we're proudest of now is a lot of these states are going statewide.

We've had, you know, different areas of different states that have had the Imagination Library in different parts.

But we're happy like Arkansas now.

We're going statewide and we want to do that.

Well, I love to do that in every state, you know, in the United States.

And eventually, hopefully, we will.

So we just want to continue doing our best work.

And just like I said, putting more books in the hands of more children.

Well, we at Arkansas PBS.

We're going to support this library with everything we have.

And we are just so grateful that you talk to us and that you're here supporting the program here in Arkansas.

Thank you.

Thank you for taking the time to promote it.

And maybe we'll talk again.

All right.

Dolly Parton, folks, to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library is available throughout Arkansas.

Visit the address on your screen to get the kids in your life signed up.

And reading today, what an incredible collection of originals Ja’Dayia Canaan And Dolly, each of them living proo that the best way to make our home a better place is just to be yourself.

That's it for this episode of Homegrown.

Thanks for sharing your time with us.

And please take a moment to appreciate the people whose hard work has gone into making this show.

We'll see you next time.