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Grammy Winner June Carter Cash Dies at 73
May 16, 7:16 AM (ET)
By JOE EDWARDS
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - June Carter Cash, the Grammy-winning scion of one of country music's pioneering families
and the wife of country giant Johnny Cash, died Thursday of complications from heart surgery. She was 73.
She died at a hospital with her husband of 35 years and family members at her bedside, manager Lou Robin said.
She had been critically ill after May 7 surgery to replace a heart valve.
A singer, songwriter, musician, actress and author, June Carter Cash performed with her husband on record and on
stage, doing songs like "Jackson" and "If I Were a Carpenter", which won Grammy awards in 1967
and 1970, respectively. Their duets included "It Ain't Me, Babe" in 1964 and "If I Were A Carpenter"
in 1972.
"People talk about Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette when it comes to pioneering women in country music. But
they very seldom mention June, somewhat because she got married to Johnny Cash," said Ed Benson, executive
director of the Country Music Association. "I think people should think of her more often when they think
of the pioneering women in country music."
She was co-writer of her husband's 1963 hit "Ring of Fire" which was about falling in love with Cash.
In his 1997 autobiography, Johnny Cash described how his wife stuck with him through his years of amphetamine abuse.
"June said she knew me - knew the kernel of me, deep inside, beneath the drugs and deceit and despair and
anger and selfishness, and knew my loneliness," he wrote. "She said she could help me. ... If she found
my pills, she flushed them down the toilet. And find them she did; she searched for them, relentlessly."
Longtime friend Kris Kristofferson, who wrote the Cash hit "Sunday Morning Coming Down," said Johnny
Cash and June Carter Cash have "been partners in life for as long as I've known them - always in love, and
always there for each other.
"I know how much she means to him. It's the hardest thing he'll ever have to face."
June Carter was born June 23, 1929, in Maces Spring, Va. Her mother, Maybelle Carter, was in the Carter Family
music act with her cousin Sara Carter and Sara's husband, A.P. Carter. In 1927, they made what are among the first
country music recordings.
The family act broke up, but mother and daughters June, Helen and Anita continued on as Mother Maybelle & the
Carter Sisters, with little June playing autoharp.
Starting in 1939, the sisters starred in a radio show on XERA in Del Rio, Texas, that could be heard as far away
as Saskatchewan, Canada. The Carters went on to become staples of the Grand Ole Opry country music show in Nashville.
The Carters' harmony singing still inspires artists today and Maybelle's "Carter lick" on the guitar
has become one of the most influential techniques in country music.
In the late 1950s, after her marriage to country singer Carl Smith broke up, June Carter moved to New York to study
acting at the behest of director Elia Kazan, who had seen her perform while scouting Tennessee for movie locations.
In 1961, she turned down an offer to work on a variety show that had Woody Allen as one of the writers, agreeing
instead to tour with Johnny Cash for $500 a week. They married in 1968 after he proposed to her on stage in London,
Ontario.
In a 1987 Associated Press interview, June Carter Cash described her husband as "probably the most unusual,
fine, unselfish person I've known."
"There's a lot of power to him," she said then. "I've seen him on shows with people with a No. 1
record or a lot of No. 1 records, but when John walks on that stage, the rest of 'em might as well leave."
In 1999, she released an acoustic album, "Press On," that amounted to a musical autobiography and won
her another Grammy. The album, her first in a quarter-century, followed her career from its beginning through her
then 31-year marriage and collaboration with Cash.
"There's a lot of people who I love - fans that I've known through the years - who will be glad I did it,"
she said about the album at the time. "And maybe some other people ... wonder what Johnny Cash's wife is really
like."
In 1979, she wrote an autobiography, "Among My Klediments," and released "From the Heart,"
a memoir, in 1987.
June Carter Cash did occasional acting roles, including the part of Robert Duvall's mother in the 1997 film "The
Apostle." With her husband, she periodically performed at Billy Graham crusades.
Johnny and June Carter Cash had a son, John Carter Cash, in 1970. She was also the mother of country singer Carlene
Carter, whose father was Smith, and singer Rosanne Cash is her stepdaughter.
Funeral services will be private and details will not be released at the request of the Cash family.
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June Carter Cash - 1929-2003
May 16, 2003
June Carter Cash
June Carter Cash passed away at 5:04 p.m. Thursday at Baptist Hospital following complications from heart surgery.
She was 73. Her husband, Johnny Cash, and her children were at her side when she died.
Funeral arrangements will be announced today at 2 p.m.
She underwent surgery May 7 to replace a heart valve.
Carter Cash has been one of the most beloved country music figures for decades, both as a performer and song writer.
She was the daughter of Mother Maybelle Carter and Ezra Carter, and toured with her mother as part of The Carter
Family, elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970.
She met Johnny Cash backstage at the Grand Ole Opry and married him in 1968. She co-wrote one of Cash’s biggest
hits,"Ring of Fire", a song about falling in love with him.
Carter Cash was multi-talented, mastering the guitar, banjo and autoharp as well as studying acting.
Carter Cash sang regularly with her husband, but in 1999 released a Grammy-winning album of her own called Press
On.
In his biography Cash said of his wife, “What June did for me was post signs along the way, lift me when I was
weak, encourage me when I was discouraged, and love me when I was alone and felt unlovable. She is the greatest
woman I have ever known. Nobody else, except my mother, comes close.”
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