Friday, 16 May 2003
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Country star June Carter Cash died Thursday (May 15) after experiencing complications from surgery to replace her heart valve on May 7, AP reports. Cash, who was married to top country act Johnny Cash, was 73.
Her husband and other family members were at a hospital with her at her time of death, manager Lou Robin said.
The late singer and her husband received Grammy awards in 1967 and 1970 for their collaborations "Jackson" and "If I Were A Carpenter," respectively.
Her story of falling in love with Cash was the basis for his 1963 hit "Ring Of Fire" which she co-wrote.
Born into a musical family on June 23, 1929, in Maces Spring, Va., June Carter is the daughter of Maybelle Carter, a member of the pioneering Carter Family country recording group.
After the Carter Family disbanded, Maybelle continued to perform with her daughters June, Helen, and Anita under the moniker Mother Maybelle & The Carter Sisters. June played autoharp.
The Carter Sisters' early career also included stints on radio that have earned them historical significance with the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
In her personal life, she married and divorced country singer Carl Smith, after which she moved to New York to study acting. However, in 1961, she opted to tour with Johnny Cash, instead of taking an acting gig. She married Cash in 1968.
She won another Grammy award for her 1999 acoustic album, Press On, which has been deemed a musical autobiography.
Her literary works include her 1979 autobiography, Among My Klediments, and 1987 memoir From The Heart.
As an actress she portrayed Robert Duvall's mother in The Apostle, released in 1999.
In 1970, June and Johnny bore a son, John Carter Cash. She and Smith also had a child, daughter and counter singer Carlene Carter. Her stepdaughter is Rosanne Cash.
In his 1997 autobiography, Johnny Cash said June helped him during his bout with drugs. "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."
Funeral arrangements were not available at press time.
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