Every once in a while a giant in an obscure field passes. June Carter Cash was certainly a giant and the heir of giants. We have lost our last link with the Carter Family and a long tradition of mountain music. It’s a sad day and a great loss. Every time you hear Jackson or one of the other memorable pieces she sang or wrote, think of her. If you do she may be gone but her memory and her work will still be with us.
You know that there has to be a special place in God’s Heaven for Mrs. Cash.
While she came to get some recognition in country music aside from being Mrs. Cash, I always thought she was underrated as an actress. I thought she was marvelous in THE APOSTLE and most of her other vehicles and didn’t know until today that she had studied acting in New York in her 20s.
I cried the first time ever I heard The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Johnny and that was months before I even knew June was ailing. There is no way I can listen to it now.
For a lighter note, a story about June’s ex:
A few years ago I was working at a hotel during a celebrity golf tournament (sponsored by George “Goober” Lindsey to benefit the retarded children in Alabama). One of the attendees was June Carter’s first husband, Carl Smith. (He was a big country singer back in the 50s/60s who turned businessman.) One of the waitresses, a thoroughly countrified woman named Bernice, walked up to him and said “Oh my Lord you’re Carl Smith…”
He turned around and smiled at her and said “Yes ma’am, that’s me…”
“Lord I used to love your music… I still listen to your records sometimes…”
Carl Smith: Why thank you, that’s always good to hear…
Bernice: And you was married to June Carter…
Carl Smith: Yes ma’am…
Bernice: And now she’s married to Johnny Cash!
Carl Smith: (very sincerely) She is? I wondered whatever happened to her.
Bernice: Oh yeah, she married Johnny Cash a long time ago… awww, you knew that…
Couldn’t put one over on Bernice.
RIP, June, and long live Johnny.
That is so sad! I really thought Johnny would go first, what with all the speed he did in the 50s & 60s. I hope the grief doesn’t kill him.
I heard the story of how they met: A teenaged June was performing with the Carter Family at the Grand Ole Opry. Johnny was backstage with a school field trip. He was starstruck by this famous girl and told her: “I’m going to marry you someday”. Years later, Johnny was married, out of the air force and signed with Sun records. He was opening for Elvis Presley on a tour and June Carter, now performing on her own, was on a leg of the tour. They became friends.
I was fortunate enough to see them perform live in 1996. The show was billed as Johnny Cash, but he shared the stage with June and let his son & a daughter take the stage themselves.
Man, this is so sad.
If anyone’s interested, here’s the local paper’s coverage of her funeral. The slideshow of the funeral has some very moving photographs. Emmy Lou Harris looks absolutely devistated. (And what the heck Sheryl Crow was doing there, I have no idea. She’s not someone I’d associate with the late Mrs. Cash at all.) In one photo, Johnny looks pretty lost, but in the last photo of him, he seems to be okay.
I hope that Johnny’s able to record one more album before he leaves us. I have to think that it’d be a piece of such mournful beauty as to totally redefine all modern music.