June and Johnny Cash, 1969
Photo by Jim Marshall
June Carter Cash was born 93 years ago today.
A singer, dancer, songwriter, actress, comedian and author who was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of Johnny Cash, Cash played the guitar, banjo, harmonica and autoharp, and acted in several films and television shows.
Born Valerie June Carter in Maces Spring, Virginia, to Maybelle and Ezra Carter, Cash was also born into country music and performed with the Carter Family from the age of ten, beginning in 1939.
In March, 1943, when the Carter Family trio stopped recording together at the end of 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 in the summer of 1943. Doc (Addington) and Carl (McConnell) — Maybelle's brother and cousin, respectively — known as "The Virginia Boys" joined them in late 1945.
June, then 16, was a co-announcer with Ken Allyn and did the commercials on the radio shows for "Red Star Flour," "Martha White" and "Thalhimers Department Store," just to name a few.
For the next year, the Carters and Doc and Carl did show dates within driving range of Richmond, which covered Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania. June later 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" comedy routine.
Carl McConnell wrote in his memoirs that June was "a natural born clown, if there ever was one." She attended John Marshall High School during this period.
After Doc and Carl dropped out of the music business in late 1946, Maybelle and her daughters moved to Sunshine Sue Workman's "Old Dominion Barn Dance" on the WRVA radio station in Richmond. After a while there, they moved to WNOX in Knoxville, where they met Chet Atkins with Homer and Jethro.
In 1949, Maybelle & The Carter Sisters, along with their lead guitarist, a young Chet Atkins, were living in Springfield, Missouri, and performing regularly at KWTO.
Ezra "Eck" Carter, Maybelle's husband and manager of the group, declined numerous offers from the Grand Ole Opry to move the act to Nashville, because the Opry would not permit Atkins to accompany the group onstage. Atkins' reputation as a guitar player had begun to spread, and studio musicians were fearful that he would displace them as a “first-call” player if he came to Nashville.
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). June first met Johnny Cash at the Opry.
June and her sisters, with mother Maybelle and aunt Sara joining in from time to time, reclaimed the name The Carter Family for their act during the 1960s and 1970s. 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.
While June Carter Cash may be best known for singing and songwriting, she was also an author, dancer, actress, comedian, philanthropist and humanitarian. Director Elia Kazan saw her perform at the Grand Ole Opry in 1955 and encouraged her to study acting. She studied with Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York.
Her acting roles included Mrs. "Momma" Dewey in Robert Duvall's 1998 movie, The Apostle; Sister Ruth, wife to Johnny Cash's character, Kid Cole; and Clarise on Gunsmoke in 1957. She was also "Momma James" in The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James.
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" and, with her exaggerated breaths, the comedic hit "No Swallerin' Place" by Frank Loesser. She also recorded "The Heel" in the 1960s along with many other songs.
Her last album, Wildwood Flower, was released posthumously in 2003. 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. The songs on the album include "Big Yellow Peaches," "Sinking in the Lonesome Sea," "Temptation" and the trademark staple, "Wildwood Flower."
Carter and the entire Carter Family had performed with Johnny Cash for a number of years. In 1968, Cash proposed to Carter during a live performance at the London Ice House in London, Ontario, Canada. They married on March 1 in Franklin, Kentucky, and remained married until her death in May 15, 2003, just four months before Cash died. The couple's son, John Carter Cash, is a musician, songwriter and producer.
June Carter Cash died of complications following heart-valve replacement surgery, in the company of her family and her husband of 35 years, Johnny Cash. At Carter's funeral, her stepdaughter, Rosanne Cash, stated that "if being a wife were a corporation, June would have been a CEO. It was her most treasured role."
Here, June Carter Cash and Mother Maybelle Carter performs “No Hiding Place Down Here” in 1971