BENSON – A section of Interstate 40 in Johnston County bears the name of country music icon Jimmy Capps.
The N.C. Department of Transportation joined about 100 state and local leaders and Capps’ family and friends at Benson Town Hall for the ceremony on Tuesday. During the hour-long program, prerecorded video tributes were played by country singers Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, who were longtime friends of Capps and performed with him.
A six-mile section of I-40 between N.C. 242 and Five Points Road has been dedicated as the “Jimmy Capps Highway.”
In February, the N.C. Board of Transportation approved a resolution for the highway dedication at the request of local leaders in the town of Benson and Johnston County.
Capps was born in Fayetteville and raised in Benson. He performed with the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee for more than 60 years, and he was their regular lead guitarist.
In 1996, he received North Carolina’s highest civilian honor, the Order of the Long-Leaf Pine. In 2014, he was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame as well as into North Carolina’s Music Hall of Fame.
Capps died in 2020 at the age of 81
I don’t understand this because I-40 between Raleigh and Benson was designated the James E. Harrington Freeway during the Martin administration.