Lesser-Known Intimacies About Johnny Cash's Famous Wife June Carter

Jul 15, 2021

Johnny Cash was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor who came from humble beginnings and is now considered one of the greatest musical artists of all time. Cash was also referred to as "The Man in Black" for his song and signature all-black stage attire. Some of the artist's most popular hits are "I Walk the Line," "Ring of Fire," and "Folsom Prison Blues." He has sold more than 90 million records worldwide.

June Carter Cash was born Valerie June Carter to country music stars Maybelle and Ezra Carter. She was a performer herself and also a songwriter, actress, dancer, comedian, and author. She has won five Grammy Awards, two of which were awarded posthumously in 2004. The star also appeared in several films and television series. Some of her popular appearances include starring in "The Apostle" alongside Robert Duvall and her role as Clarice on the show "Gunsmoke." 

Carter and Cash were married from 1968 until they both passed away in 2003. Their love story is one for the ages and was chronicled in Cash's biopic "Walk the Line." They were both married at the time they initially met, and their journey was tumultuous at times, to say the least. However, despite the troubles, their love was undeniable, and many believe the song "Ring of Fire," which was co-written by Carter, was actually about her love for Cash. 

Carter wrote the song with Merle Kilgore, and it is arguably both her and Cash's most popular work. Carter had a fascinating career and personal life, with three children from three different fathers and a famous family. Keep reading to find out more about Cash and Carter's love story and some lesser-known details about Carter's life. 

Carter was born in Maces Spring, Virginia, in 1929 to two country music singers. She performed with her family since she was 10 in a group called the Carter Family. They stopped recording in 1943 at the end of their contract. This is when Carter's father, Ezra, encouraged her, her mother, Maybelle, her and her sisters to form the group Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters. 

They had a radio program on WRNL in Richmond, Virginia. The group decided to do live performances in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. During this time, Carter was attending John Marshall High School. Capital News reports that Carter said her sisters were better performers than her, so she learned to rely on comedy and acting, and a popular part of the shows was her "Aunt Polly" comedy routine. Many years later, Carter would revive the character on the 1976 TV series "Johnny Cash & Friends."

Carter felt that comedy was her strength. "When you don't have much of a voice and harmony is all around you, you reach out and pick something you can use," she wrote in her memoir "Among My Klediments": "In my case, it was just plain guts. Since I couldn't sing, I talked a lot and tried to cover up all the bad notes with laughter."

In 1950, Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters performed for the first time at the legendary Grand Ole Opry. This is where they connected with other iconic musicians like Hank Williams and Elvis Presley. Later, the group would reclaim the name "The Carter Family" in the 1960s and 70s.

Carter and Cash met through their mutual friend, Presley. Southern Living quotes Carter recalling the event, saying, "I first heard of (Johnny Cash) through Elvis Presley. Elvis would make me go into these little cafes and listen to John (on the jukebox) when we played in the South – in the Carolinas and all down through Florida and Georgia. Then, one night backstage at the Opry, this man walked up to me and said, 'I want to meet you, I'm Johnny Cash.' And I said, 'Well I oughta know who you are. Elvis can't even tune his guitar unless he goes, 'Everybody knows where you go when the sun goes down.'"

Carter wrote of their first meeting in the notes of Cash's 2000 box set, Love, God, Murder, "I can't remember anything else we talked about, except his eyes. Those black eyes that shone like agates… He had a command of his performances that I had never before. Just a guitar and a bass and a gentle kind of presence that made not only me, but whole audiences become his followers."

A Love Against All Odds

When Carter and Cash met, they were both already married. Cash was with Vivian Liberto and already had four daughters: Roseanne, Kathy, Cindy, and Tara. Carter was married first to honky-tonk singer Carl Smith. The pair had one daughter, Rebecca, and they were divorced in 1956. Carter was married again to the former football player, police officer, and racecar driver Edwin "Rip" Nix, and they had a daughter named Rosie. Carter was still with Nix when she met Cash, and the couple was divorced in 1966. 

This complicated time in her life helped her create one of the most popular country songs ever. Carter told Rolling Stone in 2000, "I never talked about how I fell in love with John. It was not a convenient time for me to fall in love with him, and it wasn't a convenient time for him to fall in love with me. One morning, about four o'clock, I was driving my car just about as fast as I could… I was miserable, and it all came to me: 'I'm falling in love with somebody I have no right to fall in love with'… I thought, 'I can't fall in love with this man, but it's just like a ring of fire.'"

The heartache of falling in love when it can not be was very difficult for both Cash and Carter. Cash said they struggled to say "I love you," to each other: "Because we knew what was going to happen: That eventually we were going to be divorced, and we were going to go through hell. Which we did."

During their marriage, Cash struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction. Carter stood by his side through all of the ups and downs of recovery, seeing him through several visits to rehab. Carter wrote in her memoir:

"There are so many things I could tell about those years — the sleepless nights in the apartment he shared with Waylon Jennings, the pain, the hurt. He should have died a thousand times from an overdose or a car wreck. ... but God never let him go, and neither did I."

Cash was grateful that Carter was with him through his struggles with addiction. "Nobody could ever have a truer companion through the sickness as June was," Cash told The Tennessean in 2000. "We're closer now than we've ever been in our lives. We've seen a lot of them die and fall, seen great artists bite the dust, but she and I have fought together and fought for each other, and we're one."

Carter only ever saw the good in Cash. Southern Living quotes her saying, "He's just like my father that way-my father just adored my mother and let her do whatever she wanted. John's like that. He's a very rare man, a very good man, and I've had a good life with him. I'm proud to be walking in the wake of Johnny's fame."

Cash told Rolling Stone of his never-ending love for his wife. "You hear that phrase a lot, but it's real with me and her. She loves me in spite of everything. In spite of myself. She has saved my life more than once. … She's always been there with her love, and it has certainly made me forget the pain for a long time, many times. When it gets dark, and everybody's gone home and the lights are turned off, it's just me and her."

What Their Children Had to Say

Both Cash and Carter were already parents when they found each other, and blending a family isn't always easy on everyone. "It seemed inevitable, though it was so painful for my mom," Roseanne said to People in 2019 about her father's relationship with Carter.

However, she added in the same interview, "I had two really good examples from women in my life. My mom gave me this powerful sense of discipline, family, mothering and detail orientation. And June gave me this sense of expansiveness and how to live as a performer."

At Carter's funeral service, Roseanne said, "Her great mission and passion was lifting up my dad. If being a wife were a corporation, June would have been the CEO. She began every day by saying, 'What can I do for you, John?' Her love filled up every room he was in."

Cash and Carter had one son together, John Carter Cash. John told Reuters in 2007 that despite the struggles, his parents' "love for each other lasted throughout their whole life. They didn't give up… They accepted each other totally unconditionally." 

He added:

"They were long-suffering, always forgiving, open-minded, willing to look over past pains. As a result, their love lasted a long time."

A Family and Career Woman

Carter reportedly said of her life with Cash, "I was never looking back in regret. I never thought, 'Oh why didn't I become an actress?' or 'Why did I just go paddling along after John. I've always walked along right by his side, and he's always supported everything I do."

Famous director Elia Kazan saw Carter perform at the Grand Ole Opry in 1955 and loved her performance so much he convinced her to start studying acting. She studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City alongside Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner.

"I had a great love for acting, and maybe, if I hadn't gotten to know Johnny Cash better, my life would have been different," Carter wrote in the notes of her 1999 album "Press On." Some of her most prominent roles were as Mama Dewey in "The Apostle," Sister Ruth in "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," Clarise on "Gunsmoke," and Mama James in "The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James." 

Carter and Cash made great partners in their careers as well, often performing together throughout their lives as a married couple. In 1964, they sang "It Ain't Me Babe" together as a single and on Cash's album "Orange Blossom Special." However, they found the most success with their duet, "Jackson" in 1967. This was followed by their collaborative album "Carryin' On with Johnny Cash and June Carter."

True Love Never Dies

Carter passed away from complications following heart-valve replacement surgery in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 73. Cash passed away only four months later from complications with diabetes. John said, "I think Dad died with a broken heart, but I don't think it killed him." He added that their love lives on in their music which "was their heart's connection." 

The romance between Cash and Carter can still be found in their songs, but also in the words they shared only with each other. "You still fascinate and inspire me. You influence me for the better. You're the object of my desire, the #1 Earthly reason for my existence," Cash wrote to his wife in 1994 for her 65th birthday. 

He continued, "We got old and got used to each other. We think alike. We read each other's minds. We know what the other wants without asking. Sometimes we irritate each other a little bit. Maybe sometimes we take each other for granted. But once in a while, like today, I meditate on it and realize how lucky I am to share my life with the greatest woman I ever met."

The love that Carter and Cash shared was undeniable even to those around them. Kris Kristofferson, a longtime friend of the family, said of Cash after Carter's death, "He had a strong spirit, but it was the hardest thing he probably ever faced in his life. His kids told me he cried all the time at night." 

John added that at the time of their deaths, "My parents were as much in love as they had ever been. Their relationship was unbreakable as hardened steel. The fires they had been through had strengthened them to the point that they were truly as one, as much a single being as any two people can be."

Cash's last performance came July 5, 2003, at the Carter Family Fold after Carter's passing. "The spirit of June Carter overshadows me tonight with the love she had for me and the love I have for her," he said during the performance. "We connect somewhere between here and Heaven. She came down for a short visit, I guess, from Heaven, to visit with me tonight to give me courage and inspiration, like she always has… I thank God for June Carter. I love her with all my heart."

Did you know these details about Carter's life? What do you think of the love story between Carter and Cash? Let us know, and be sure to send this along to your loved ones.