June Carter Cash
Valerie June Carter Cash (née Carter; June 23, 1929 – May 15, 2003[1]) was an American country singer and songwriter. A five-time Grammy award-winner, she was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash. Prior to her marriage to Cash, she was professionally known as June Carter and continued to be credited as such even after her marriage (as well as on songwriting credits predating it). She played guitar, banjo, harmonica, and autoharp, and acted in several films and television shows. Carter Cash won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2009.[2]
June Carter Cash
Valerie June Carter
June 23, 1929
Maces Spring, Virginia, U.S.
May 15, 2003 (aged 73)
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
- Singer
- songwriter
- actress
- Vocals
- guitar
- banjo
- harmonica
- autoharp
- piano
1939–2003
Early life[edit]
June Carter Cash was born Valerie June Carter in Maces Spring, Virginia, to Maybelle (née Addington) and Ezra Carter. Her mother was a country music performer with June's Aunt Sara and Uncle AP Carter and she performed with the Carter Family from the age of 10, 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 "The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle" with her daughters, Helen on accordion, Anita Carter on bass fiddle and June on autoharp and as front person and comedian. The new group first aired on radio station WRNL in Richmond, Virginia, on June 1. 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.[3] For the next year {1946}, the Carters and Doc and Carl did show dates within driving range of Richmond, through Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. She attended John Marshall High School during this period.[4] June later said she had to work harder at her music than her sisters, but she had her own special talent —comedy.[5] A highlight of the road shows was her "Aunt Polly" comedy routine. 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. Carl McConnell wrote in his memoirs that June was "a natural-born clown, if there ever was one". Decades later, Carter revived Aunt Polly for the 1976 TV series Johnny Cash & Friends.
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 Richmond station. After a while there, they moved to WNOX in Knoxville, Tennessee, where they met Chet Atkins with Homer and Jethro.
In 1949, The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle, with their lead guitarist, 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, Tennessee, 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), and June met Johnny Cash.
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 '70s.
Awards[edit]
Carter and her future husband, Johnny Cash, reached number 2 on the U.S. Country charts with their 1967 duet of "Jackson". Their performance won the 1968 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Performance Duet, Trio or Group. The two won the 1971 Grammy Award, for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group, for their 1970 duet "If I Were a Carpenter".
Carter Cash won the 2000 Grammy Award, for Best Traditional Folk Album, for her 1999 album Press On. The album was a top-15 success on the Americana chart. Carter Cash's last album, Wildwood Flower, was released posthumously in 2003. Carter Cash won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album, and she also won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for the single "Keep on the Sunny Side".[3]
Philanthropy[edit]
June Carter Cash along with her husband, Johnny Cash, worked with and gave money to the group, SOS Children's Villages, throughout their lives. They began this involvement in 1973 when they donated $12,000 ($75,351 in 2022 terms) to build an orphanage in a Jamaican village close to their home in that country.[21] They would visit the nearby village during their time spent in Jamaica and play with the children and sing songs to them. When Johnny Cash died in 2003, their family asked that donations be made to the SOS Children's Villages due to the couple's involvement.[22] In a quote from a representative of the Prime Minister of Jamaica at the time, P.J. Patterson, talks about their charitable works in the country, "A philanthropist extraordinaire, Mrs. Cash made Jamaica her second home and loved and cared deeply for the people of her adopted country. A gifted and talented singer, she and her husband, Johnny Cash, used the very talents for the benefit of many charities in and around Montego Bay."
Legacy[edit]
In 2003, Carter was included by Country Music Television on their list of the "40 Greatest Women of Country Music".[23]
June Carter was played by Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line, a 2005 biographical film of Johnny Cash (played by Joaquin Phoenix). The film largely focused on the development of their relationship over the course of 13 years, from their first meeting to her final acceptance of his proposal of marriage. Witherspoon performed all vocals for the role, singing many of June's famous songs, including "Juke Box Blues" and "Jackson" with Phoenix.[24] Witherspoon won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress in the role.[25]
Musician and actress Jewel portrayed June Carter Cash in the Lifetime television movie Ring of Fire, which aired on May 27, 2013. The film is based on John Carter Cash's memoir Anchored in Love: An Intimate Portrait of June Carter Cash.[26]
June was played by Erin Beute in the 2019 television movie Patsy & Loretta. [27]