The Exhilarating Way Johnny Cash Proposed to June Carter Cash: "I Stopped the Show"
The country legends met for the first time at the Grand Ole Opry years before their famous engagement.
Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s love story is one for the ages — and perhaps one of country music’s most famous.
In 1956, the country stars met for the first time at the Grand Ole Opry, which is having its 100th anniversary celebration March 19, broadcast on NBC. (For details on the special, titled Opry 100: A Live Celebration, click here.) June — a member of the the Carter Family, often referred to as the “First Family of Country Music” — later wrote that all she could remember about the moment were Johnny’s “eyes.”
They both came with relationship history. From 1954 to 1966, Johnny was married to Vivian Liberto, and they welcomed four daughters together: Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy, and Tara. June was previously married to country singer Carl Smith and welcomed her first child, daughter Carlene. She later married Edwin "Rip" Nix and gave birth to her second child, daughter Rosie, before they divorced in 1966.
By 1968, Johnny and June were happily married and two years later welcomed their only child together, son John Carter Cash. Their decades-long marriage began with a grand proposal that’s so famous it inspired a giant mural where it took place. Get all the details on the legendary moment, below.
How did Johnny Cash propose to June Carter?
While Johnny had proposed a few times prior, June finally said yes when he popped the question in front of an audience of 7,000 people in London, Ontario, Canada on February 22, 1968. You can see a photo of the iconic moment here.
The country icon known as the “Man in Black” had stopped the show just as they finished performing a duet of their hit single “Jackson” and asked June to marry him.
“I remember the Statler Brothers were on the stage, my mother and my sisters were on the stage, and he asked me in front of all these people. I mean, it was a very formal proposal,” June recalled in a 1996 TV interview with Nashville broadcaster Karlen Evins. “He stopped the whole show.”
June recalled telling Johnny she didn’t have to give him an answer just then, but he persisted. “He said, ‘No, I’m not moving. You have to give me an answer right now, you have to tell me right now,’” she recalled. “So I said yes and I told him I would [marry him].”
When the couple both appeared on The Mike Douglas Show in 1981, June teased her husband for not getting down on one knee when they were asked to share their famous proposal story. And Johnny recalled just how determined he was.
“I stopped the show and said, ‘Will you marry me?’ on the microphone. She said, ‘Do you want to sing another, sing another,’ I said, ‘I’m not going to sing until you answer me, will you marry me?’” he told the talk show host, adding that once she said “yes” they continued the show.
And with her answer, “everybody went wild,” a member of the audience told the CBC.
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When did Johnny Cash and June Carter get married?
Just eight days after the “Ring of Fire” singer proposed on stage, Johnny and June got married on March 1, 1968 at a church in Franklin, Kentucky.
“We started planning to get married in June … but my children were so excited about the fact that we were thinking about getting married that they said, ‘You don’t have to wait that time,’” June recalled in 1996. “Carlene said, ‘I got it all figured out, mama.’ … I could not believe it. But you know, that’s what we did.”
Johnny and June got married on a Friday, one day after they won a Grammy for their song “Jackson.”
“As John received the award that night, he went up on the stage, and said, ‘This is a fine wedding present,’” Mark Stielper, a friend of the country icon and historian, told WKU Public Radio in 2018.
Their wedding, according to Stielper, was quick and intimate. “The wedding ceremony was very short, less than five minutes long. It did not feature guitars or country music singing," Stielper told WKU. "It was quiet, very emotional. Both John and June cried during the ceremony.”
They chose to get married in the small Kentucky town near the Tennessee border because they could obtain their marriage license and exchanged their vows on the same day, according to the Kentucky Historical Society. Afterwards, as June shared in 1996, her mother and sisters hosted a reception for them at their lakefront home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, where they also honeymooned that weekend.
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Johnny Cash wrote he was “lucky” to share his life with his wife in a famous love letter
Johnny and June were married over 30 years. Following their 1968 wedding, the couple remained together until June’s death on May 15, 2003 at 73 years old. Four months later, Johnny passed away on September 12, 2003 at 71.
Throughout their marriage, the “Ring of Fire” singer made it clear that he “cherished” and “adored” his wife, according to the couple’s son, John Carter Cash. “Dad never ceased to remind my mother of his love for her,” their couple’s only son wrote in his book, House of Cash.
In fact, a note Johnny wrote his wife in 1994 for her 65th birthday was named in a poll as the “greatest love letter of all time.” In the letter, Johnny wrote in part, “Sometimes we irritate each other a little bit. Maybe sometimes take each other for granted. But once in awhile, like today, I meditate on it and realize how lucky I am to share my life with the greatest woman I ever met. You still fascinate and inspire me. You influence me for the better. You’re the object of my desire, the #1 Earthly reason for my existence.”
How to watch Opry 100: A Live Celebration
You can watch Opry 100: A Live Celebration on Wednesday, March 19 from 8-11 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
