By By Carl Fitzgerald / special to the Star
May 19, 2003
Funeral services were held Sunday in Nashville for June Carter Cash, who died Thursday in Nashville's Baptist Hospital.
Death came shortly after 5 p.m., according to Eddie Stubbs of WSM radio. She was 73. She was born during the depression years, in 1929, and was a member of the legendary Carter Family, which recorded for the Victor Company in Bristol, along with Meridian's own Jimmie Rodgers, on that famous hot August day in 1927.
The Carter Family singers were Sara, Maybelle and A.P. Ralph Peer, founder of Peer International Corp., world renowned music publications of New York, who directed those recording sessions which introduced the world to Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family.
June Carter was the daughter of Maybelle Carter. She and her sisters, Helen and Anita Carter, made up a newer Carter Family' and were heard on the Grand Ole Opry, recordings, and appeared in concerts throughout the country.
June Carter and sisters Helen and Anita were favorite performers on the WSM-Grand Ole Opry for many years. The Carter Family ( with Mother Maybelle) came to the opry show in the late 1940s and brought with them guitarist Chet Atkins.
June married Johnny Cash in 1968 and they were married for 35 years.
Paul Harvey in his ABC radio news broadcast on Friday summed it up this way "June Carter said I know Johnny Cash better than anybody, but I love him anyway.'"
Johnny and June Carter Cash had become closely associated with The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in recent years and had been frequent guests on his worldwide television programs.
I would ask that all of our area citizens join together, in prayer for the Cash and Carter families. The entertainment world will miss this gracious lady.