by Pa Rock
Reader
I grew up in a remote and very rural corner of the Missouri Ozarks, and by the time I left for college at the age of eighteen, I had never been exposed to much in the way of live entertainment. In fact, when I arrived at Southwest Missouri State College in Springfield, Missouri, in the fall of 1966 I had never so much as witnessed live theatre or attended any type of concert. It was not long before I began discovering the power and pleasures afforded by the performing arts.
One of the shows that I saw the first winter that I was living in Springfield was a country performance at the Shrine Mosque, a Springfield landmark that was about a mile from my dorm. A friend and I bought tickets to see Johnny Cash and his traveling show - at a pricey $5.00 each - and walked that mile through freezing rain and snow to see the performance. We had no sooner gotten seated in the Shrine Mosque, than a man walked out onto the stage and announced that Johnny Cash's plane had been unable to land in Springfield due to the bad weather, and that people desiring refunds could get their money back at the door.
My friend hopped up to leave and urged me to come with him - but I resisted. The announcer said that those who stayed would be treated to a great show. I stayed, and to this day I am glad that I did. June Carter - who was still a year away from becoming Mrs. Johnny Cash - took the stage and made certain that the audience members who stayed got a show that they would never forget.
That evening is covered in its entirety in a posting in this blog on November 12th, 2007, entitled "My Evening with June Carter." To this day it remains one of the two best concerts that I ever had the privilege of attending. (The other, of course, was Cher and Cyndi Lauper in Kansas City in May of 2014 - which is also covered elsewhere in this blog.)
Recently I came across a copy of "Anchored in Love: An Intimate Portrait of June Carter Cash" by her son, John Carter Cash. Young Mr. Cash wrote this loving remembrance of his mother in 2007, four years after her death and the death three months later of his father, Johnny Cash.
The early part of the book deals with young June Carter and the famous Carter family as they made their way out of Appalachia and brought their unique folk music to the rest of America. Those stories of the early days were what I was anticipating reading about when I came across this book, and I was not disappointed. They told a time of America struggling with the Great Depression and rebuilding after the big war, and the role that country artists played in helping to form a national identity. People like June Carter and her unique family were the familiar faces and voices that bound America together.
But then Johnny Cash came along and the story began changing. The "Man in Black" incorporated June and her mother and two sisters into his show at about the same time that alcohol and drug addiction were beginning to take their toll on his performances. Their son relates in his book that there were times when Johnny Cash could not go on due to his substance abuse issues, and that when that happened, June literally took over the show and ran it - in a very similar manner to what she had done that snowy night in Springfield, Missouri, when my friend and I had come to see the show.
The part of the biography where young June and her family were touring the country in their big, un-air-conditioned Lincoln Continental, was enlightening and uplifting, but after she became involved with Johnny Cash it seemed to spiral downward.
John Carter Cash is a talented writer, and he paints a searing portrait of both of his parents. To the author's credit, even as his love for his parents in evident - particularly a love for his mother - he does not try to hide or gloss over the uglier aspects of either of their lives. Johnny Cash was an addict for most of his adult life, and June Carter Cash was his chief enabler.
This book, in fact, is as much a treatise on addiction as it is a biography of a famous entertainer - and perhaps more so. When they married, Johnny Cash had four daughters, and June had two. Together they produced John Carter Cash, the only son for both signers. Young Mr. Cash, who grew up in a glass house, left home at the age of eighteen and suffered with alcohol and drug abuse for several years. June's daughters also had addiction issues, and her younger daughter, Rosey, died from drug abuse.
Throughout it all, the son and author paints his mother as being a consoling force who grieved for her husband and her children and all of their problems, and always responded with advice that Jesus would see them through it. The book, in fact, gets rather repetitive with "Mama loved Jesus, and Daddy, and us kids, and did I mention Jesus?"
But what was evident between the lines was that show business came first, it paid the bills and gave the Cash family a means to own numerous vehicles and homes - even in New York City and Jamaica - and it was their proof that they were successful. Johnny and June went on tour for long stretches of time, and sometimes they brought young John along - where he was often abandoned to his own devices - and sometimes he was left at home in the care of employees or relatives. It would appear as though June's daughters were raised in the same catch-as-cattch-can manner. And at some point those three kids all fell victim to the same demons that possessed Johnny Cash.
A lot of that could be gleaned from the public record.
What I did learn in this book is that June, the great enabler, also had her own addiction issues, although the author suggests that his mother would have not seen her issues as that serious. He tells of finding her passed out on her dressing room floor at a theatre in Branson, and when the frightened son knelt beside her and shook her to consciousness, June jumped up and announced that she had been "meditating."
June Carter Cash also dealt with her own demons through other addictive measures. Her son describes her as having a "black belt" in shopping, and notes that she was always focused on acquiring possessions. He said that she had a great deal of valuable furniture stuffed into their home on the lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee (so much so that Sotheby's was called in to catalogue it and prepare it for auction after June passed away), and that she loved shopping, particularly in New York City. He told of being with his mother in a department store when she casually picked up a handbag and placed it on the counter. June didn't bat an eyelash when the clerk told her that it would be $12,000! She informed the clerk that she would be paying with American Express.
Johnny Cash may have had his pills hidden throughout the house, but June kept her credit cards at the ready. Both were addictions.
Another addictive behavior that her son discloses is that June developed a fondness for cheesecake in her later years and would have several slices a day, often encouraging company to partake in cheesecake with her. He related that at the time of his mother's death she weighed over two-hundred pounds - a far different person physically from the skinny entertainer that I marveled at forty years earlier in Springfield!
This morning as I worked on banging out this review, I have been listening to two albums by June Carter Cash: "Press On" and "Wildwood Flower," both completed during the final years of her life. "Press On" was recorded in a cabin on the Cash property in Tennessee with friends and relatives crammed into the room and assisting in the productions, and "Wildwood Flower" was recorded at the old Carter family home in Virginia. Laura, John Carter Cash's wife, can be heard playing guitar and fiddle on several of the numbers on both albums. The albums were produced by John Carter Cash who seemed the final arbiter in piecing them together. The songs are amazing, and the chatter between the songs make them very personal and special.
And in many ways, those two words describe June Carter Cash. She was very personal and special throughout her life, and she remains personal and special to this very day. Some aspects of her life may have resembled a rolling train wreck, but she left some wonderful music and memories behind to sustain those of us who remain on this side of the Great Divide.
And she also left behind a loving son who has worked masterfully to present a true portrait of his mother, one that honors her memory while also trying to present some important cautions and lessons from her life.
I'm glad that he had the wisdom and strength to reveal his mother to the rest of us.
Reader
I grew up in a remote and very rural corner of the Missouri Ozarks, and by the time I left for college at the age of eighteen, I had never been exposed to much in the way of live entertainment. In fact, when I arrived at Southwest Missouri State College in Springfield, Missouri, in the fall of 1966 I had never so much as witnessed live theatre or attended any type of concert. It was not long before I began discovering the power and pleasures afforded by the performing arts.
One of the shows that I saw the first winter that I was living in Springfield was a country performance at the Shrine Mosque, a Springfield landmark that was about a mile from my dorm. A friend and I bought tickets to see Johnny Cash and his traveling show - at a pricey $5.00 each - and walked that mile through freezing rain and snow to see the performance. We had no sooner gotten seated in the Shrine Mosque, than a man walked out onto the stage and announced that Johnny Cash's plane had been unable to land in Springfield due to the bad weather, and that people desiring refunds could get their money back at the door.
My friend hopped up to leave and urged me to come with him - but I resisted. The announcer said that those who stayed would be treated to a great show. I stayed, and to this day I am glad that I did. June Carter - who was still a year away from becoming Mrs. Johnny Cash - took the stage and made certain that the audience members who stayed got a show that they would never forget.
That evening is covered in its entirety in a posting in this blog on November 12th, 2007, entitled "My Evening with June Carter." To this day it remains one of the two best concerts that I ever had the privilege of attending. (The other, of course, was Cher and Cyndi Lauper in Kansas City in May of 2014 - which is also covered elsewhere in this blog.)
Recently I came across a copy of "Anchored in Love: An Intimate Portrait of June Carter Cash" by her son, John Carter Cash. Young Mr. Cash wrote this loving remembrance of his mother in 2007, four years after her death and the death three months later of his father, Johnny Cash.
The early part of the book deals with young June Carter and the famous Carter family as they made their way out of Appalachia and brought their unique folk music to the rest of America. Those stories of the early days were what I was anticipating reading about when I came across this book, and I was not disappointed. They told a time of America struggling with the Great Depression and rebuilding after the big war, and the role that country artists played in helping to form a national identity. People like June Carter and her unique family were the familiar faces and voices that bound America together.
But then Johnny Cash came along and the story began changing. The "Man in Black" incorporated June and her mother and two sisters into his show at about the same time that alcohol and drug addiction were beginning to take their toll on his performances. Their son relates in his book that there were times when Johnny Cash could not go on due to his substance abuse issues, and that when that happened, June literally took over the show and ran it - in a very similar manner to what she had done that snowy night in Springfield, Missouri, when my friend and I had come to see the show.
The part of the biography where young June and her family were touring the country in their big, un-air-conditioned Lincoln Continental, was enlightening and uplifting, but after she became involved with Johnny Cash it seemed to spiral downward.
John Carter Cash is a talented writer, and he paints a searing portrait of both of his parents. To the author's credit, even as his love for his parents in evident - particularly a love for his mother - he does not try to hide or gloss over the uglier aspects of either of their lives. Johnny Cash was an addict for most of his adult life, and June Carter Cash was his chief enabler.
This book, in fact, is as much a treatise on addiction as it is a biography of a famous entertainer - and perhaps more so. When they married, Johnny Cash had four daughters, and June had two. Together they produced John Carter Cash, the only son for both signers. Young Mr. Cash, who grew up in a glass house, left home at the age of eighteen and suffered with alcohol and drug abuse for several years. June's daughters also had addiction issues, and her younger daughter, Rosey, died from drug abuse.
Throughout it all, the son and author paints his mother as being a consoling force who grieved for her husband and her children and all of their problems, and always responded with advice that Jesus would see them through it. The book, in fact, gets rather repetitive with "Mama loved Jesus, and Daddy, and us kids, and did I mention Jesus?"
But what was evident between the lines was that show business came first, it paid the bills and gave the Cash family a means to own numerous vehicles and homes - even in New York City and Jamaica - and it was their proof that they were successful. Johnny and June went on tour for long stretches of time, and sometimes they brought young John along - where he was often abandoned to his own devices - and sometimes he was left at home in the care of employees or relatives. It would appear as though June's daughters were raised in the same catch-as-cattch-can manner. And at some point those three kids all fell victim to the same demons that possessed Johnny Cash.
A lot of that could be gleaned from the public record.
What I did learn in this book is that June, the great enabler, also had her own addiction issues, although the author suggests that his mother would have not seen her issues as that serious. He tells of finding her passed out on her dressing room floor at a theatre in Branson, and when the frightened son knelt beside her and shook her to consciousness, June jumped up and announced that she had been "meditating."
June Carter Cash also dealt with her own demons through other addictive measures. Her son describes her as having a "black belt" in shopping, and notes that she was always focused on acquiring possessions. He said that she had a great deal of valuable furniture stuffed into their home on the lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee (so much so that Sotheby's was called in to catalogue it and prepare it for auction after June passed away), and that she loved shopping, particularly in New York City. He told of being with his mother in a department store when she casually picked up a handbag and placed it on the counter. June didn't bat an eyelash when the clerk told her that it would be $12,000! She informed the clerk that she would be paying with American Express.
Johnny Cash may have had his pills hidden throughout the house, but June kept her credit cards at the ready. Both were addictions.
Another addictive behavior that her son discloses is that June developed a fondness for cheesecake in her later years and would have several slices a day, often encouraging company to partake in cheesecake with her. He related that at the time of his mother's death she weighed over two-hundred pounds - a far different person physically from the skinny entertainer that I marveled at forty years earlier in Springfield!
This morning as I worked on banging out this review, I have been listening to two albums by June Carter Cash: "Press On" and "Wildwood Flower," both completed during the final years of her life. "Press On" was recorded in a cabin on the Cash property in Tennessee with friends and relatives crammed into the room and assisting in the productions, and "Wildwood Flower" was recorded at the old Carter family home in Virginia. Laura, John Carter Cash's wife, can be heard playing guitar and fiddle on several of the numbers on both albums. The albums were produced by John Carter Cash who seemed the final arbiter in piecing them together. The songs are amazing, and the chatter between the songs make them very personal and special.
And in many ways, those two words describe June Carter Cash. She was very personal and special throughout her life, and she remains personal and special to this very day. Some aspects of her life may have resembled a rolling train wreck, but she left some wonderful music and memories behind to sustain those of us who remain on this side of the Great Divide.
And she also left behind a loving son who has worked masterfully to present a true portrait of his mother, one that honors her memory while also trying to present some important cautions and lessons from her life.
I'm glad that he had the wisdom and strength to reveal his mother to the rest of us.
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