June Carter Cash

June Carter Cash with her husband Johnny.

Valerie June Carter Cash (June 23, 1929 – May 15, 2003) was a singer, songwriter, actress and comedian. She was a member of the famed pioneer country act the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash. She played the guitar, banjo, and autoharp.

Early life

Cash was born Valerie June Carter in Maces Springs, Virginia. She was born into country music and performed with the Carter Family from a young age, beginning around 1939. In March 1943, when the original Carter Family trio stopped recording together, Maybelle Carter, with encouragement from her husband Ezra, formed "Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters." The "sisters" were June, Helen, and Anita.

The new group first aired on radio station WRNL in Richmond, Virginia in the spring of 1943. Doc Addington, Maybelle's brother and Carl McConnell, her cousin, of joined them in late 1945. June, then 16, was a co-announcer with Ken Allyn and did the commercials on the radio shows. She often played the comic "kid sister" role in the act.

For the next year, the Carters, with Doc and Carl, did show dates within driving range of Richmond through Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania. June said she had to work harder at her music than her sisters, but she had her own special talent, comedy. A highlight of the road shows was her "Aunt Polly" routine. Carl wrote in his memoirs that June was "a natural born clown, if there ever was one."

June attended South Rowan High School during this period. Also during this time, June's father, Ezra, declined offers from the Grand Ole Opry to move the family to Nashville, Tennessee a number of times. A sticking point in the negotiations was that the Opry would not permit famed Nashville guitarist Chet Atkins to accompany the group. Finally, in 1950 Opry management relented and the group, along with Atkins, became part of the Opry company. Here the family befriended Hank Williams and Elvis Presley (to whom they were distantly related), and June met Johnny Cash.

With her thin and lanky frame, June Carter often played a comedic foil during the group's performances alongside other Opry stars Faron Young and Webb Pierce.

Career highlights

June Carter Cash is best known for singing and songwriting, but she was also an author, actress, comediene, philanthropist and humanitarian. Her acting roles included Mrs. "Momma" Dewey in Robert Duvall's 1997 movie The Apostle, and Sister Ruth, wife to Johnny Cash's character Kid Cole, on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993-1997).

In 1962 she and Merle Kilgore wrote Ring of Fire. The song documents Carter's feelings of conflict arising from her relationship with Johnny Cash. As a singer, she had both a solo career and a career singing with, first, her family, and later, her husband. As a solo artist, she became somewhat successful with upbeat country tunes of the 1950s like "Jukebox Blues". She won a Grammy Award in 1999 for her solo album, Press On. Her last album, Wildwood Flower, was released posthumously in 2003 and won two additional Grammys. It contains bonus video enhancements showing extracts from the film of the recording sessions which took place at the Carter Family Estate in Hiltons, Virginia on September 18-20, 2002.

Marriages and children

She was married three times, first to honky-tonk singer Carl Smith from July 9, 1952, until their divorce in 1956. They had a daughter Rebecca Carlene Smith aka Carlene Carter. On November 11, 1957, she married stock car driver Edwin "Rip" Nix and had a daughter Rozanna (Rosie Nix Adams). They were divorced in 1966. Both daughters became singers. Rosie Nix Adams died in 2003 in a bus from possible carbon monoxide poisoning.

With Johnny Cash

In 1968, twelve years after they had first met backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, Johnny proposed to June during a live performance in London, Ontario, Canada. Their marriage spanned 35 years. Rosanne Cash, June's stepdaughter, once stated that "if being a wife were a corporation, June would have been a CEO. It was her most treasured role."

June and Johnny had one child, John Carter Cash, who was born in 1970.

In 1967, she and Cash won a Grammy Award in the Best Country & Western Performance, Duet, Trio Or Group (vocal or instrumental) category for the song "Jackson." In 1970, they won again in the Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal category for the song, "If I Were a Carpenter."

Death

June Carter Cash died in Nashville, Tennessee of complications following heart valve replacement surgery on May 15, 2003 at the age of 73. Less than half a year later, Johnny Cash died.

Awards

In 1999, she won a Grammy Award for her album, Press On. Her last album, Wildwood Flower, was released posthumously in 2003 and won two additional Grammys.

Film portrayal

• She was played by Reese Witherspoon, in Walk the Line, a 2005 biopic of Johnny Cash (played by Joaquin Phoenix). The film largely focuses on the development of their relationship over the course of 17 years; from their first meeting, to her finally accepting his proposal for marriage. Witherspoon's portrayal led her to receive many awards for her role, including an Academy Award for Best Actress and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She also performed all vocals for the role, singing many of June's famous songs, including "Jackson" with Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Among My Klediments, June Carter Cash, Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 1979. ISBN 0-310-38170-3
• In the Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music, Nicholas Dawidoff, Vintage Books, 1998. ISBN 0-375-70082-X
• "Country Star June Carter Cash, Wife Of Johnny Cash, Dies At 73", Downey, Ryan J. (15 May 2003) for MTV.
• Will you miss me when I'm gone? : the Carter Family and their legacy in American music, Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirshberg, New York, Simon & Schuster, 2002.
• "A Brief History of My Family and an Autobiographical Sketch of My Musical Life", Carl P. McConnell, January 24, 1976 [Written as background for liner notes for a "Doc and Carl" album recorded at Johnny Cash's Nashville studio].

See also

• Walk the Line

External links

• MoreThings June Carter and Johnny Cash
• at Yahoo! Music
• June Carter Cash at the Internet Movie Database
• A.P. Carter Museum
• June Carter Cash in the 1930 US Census
• June Carter interview with Johnny Carson

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