June Carter Cash

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June Carter Cash (June 23, 1929 – May 15, 2003) was a singer, songwriter, a member of the first family of country music, the Carter Family, and the wife of legendary singer Johnny Cash. She played the guitar, banjo, and autoharp.

1 With Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters
2 On her own
3 With Johnny Cash
4 References
5 External links

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With Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters

In March 1943, when the Carter Family trio stopped recording together after the WBT contract, Maybelle Carter, with encouragement from her husband Ezra, formed "Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters" with her daughters Helen, Anita, and June. The new group first aired on radio station WRNL in Richmond, Virginia on June 1. Doc and Carl rejoined them in late 1945. June, then 16, was a co-announcer with Ken Allyn and did the commercials on the radio shows. For the next year, the Carters and Doc and Carl did show dates within driving range of Richmond through Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania. She later said 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" comedy routine. Carl wrote in his memoirs, "...a natural born clown, if there ever was one."

She attended South Rowan High School during this period.

Ezra Carter declined Grand Ole Opry offers to move the family to Nashville, Tennessee a number of times because the Opry would not permit 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, along with future U.S. President Jimmy Carter), and June would meet 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.

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On her own

In the mid-1950s, she moved to New York City at the urging of Elia Kazan and studied at The Actor's Studio. Kazan had seen her on stage in Tennessee and thought she had great potential. She stayed with Kazan and his wife in their apartment. During this period, she became close friends with Robert Duvall and dated James Dean. Her acting career netted her one feature film, Country Music Holiday (1958), several guest spots on TV Westerns, and a few roles on soap operas. Throughout these years, she retained her Grand Ole Opry membership.

Her first husband was singer Carl Smith, whom she was married to from 1952 to 1957. Their daughter, Rebecca Carlene Smith (now a country singer known professionally as Carlene Carter), was born in 1955. In November 1957, she married Edwin "Rip" Nix, a policeman, and they had a daughter, Rozanna Lea (Rosie) in 1958. (She died in 2003 of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.) She married Cash, her third husband, in 1968. Speaking of their 35-year marriage, Rosanne Cash stated that "if being a wife were a corporation, June would have been a CEO. It was her most treasured role." The couple had a son, John Carter Cash.

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With Johnny Cash

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."

She played the part of Mrs. "Momma" Dewey in Robert Duvall's 1997 movie The Apostle.

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 additonal Grammys. It contains bonus video enhancements showing extracts from the film of the recording sessions which took place at the Carter Family Estate in Virginia on September 18-20, 2002.

She died on May 15, 2003 in Nashville, Tennessee from complications following heart valve surgery two years after she had an artificial pacemaker implanted. She was interred in Hendersonville Memory Gardens in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Cash died four months later.

She was portrayed by Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line, a 2005 biopic of Johnny Cash that focused largely on the development of their relationship from the time that they met until she accepted his marriage proposal. Witherspoon received many awards for her role, including an Academy Award for Best Actress and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

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References

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, c2002
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.]