June Carter Cash

June Carter Cash was born on Valerie June Carter Cash on June 23 1929 in Scott County, Virginia, USA was a singer, songwriter, actress, comedienne and author who was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash. She played the guitar, banjo, harmonica and autoharp as well as appearing in several films and television shows. She was born into country music and performed with the Carter Family from the young age of ten, beginning in 1939. In March 1943, when the Carter Family trio stopped recording together after the WBT contact, Maybelle Carter, with encouragement form her husband Ezra, formed Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters with her daughters Helen, Anita and June. They debuted on radio station WRTD in Richmond, Virginia, on June 1. In 1950 she met Johnny Cash at the Grand Ole Opry and 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 1997 movie The Apostle, Sister Ruth, wife to Johnny Cash's character Kid Cole, on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman(1993-1997), and Clarise on Gunsmoke in 1957. June was also "Momma James," in The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James. In the music business as a solo artist she became so successful with upbeat country tunes of the 1950s like Jukebox Blues and the comedic hit No Swallerin Place by Frank Loesser with her exaggerated breaths. She also recorded The Heel in the 1960s along with many other songs. She won a Grammy Award in 1999 for her solo album, Press On. Her last album, Wildwood Flower, was released postumously in 2003 and won two additional Grammys and contained 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 included Big Yellow Peaches, Sinking in the Lonesome Sea, Temptation, and the trademark staple Wildwood Flower. She was married three times and had one child with each husband. All three of her children would go on to have successful careers in country music. She was married first to honky tonk singer Carl Smith in 1952 until they divorce in 1956. and they had a daughter Rebecca Smith aka Carlene Carter, a famous country musician. June's second marriage was to Edwin "Rip" Nix on November 11, 1957 and they had a daughter Rosie in 1958 before they divorced in 1966. But Rosie Nix Adams later became a singer and on October 24, 2003, Rosie died on a bus from possible carbon monoxide poisoning. John Carter Cash (born 3rd March 1970) is the only child of Johnny and June Carter Cash. He is a country singer and songwriter. In 1968 she married Johnny Cash and remained married to him before she died in 2003 aged 73.