By Amy Pollick
apollick@decaturdaily.com· 340-2443

Among women I admire, June Carter Cash has to be in the top five. I was a fan long before the movie “Walk the Line” was released. After reading this intense, beautiful memoir by her son, John Carter Cash, I truly appreciate her as a woman of incredible strength and faith.

John Carter writes about his mother, part of the now legendary Carter Family, as a loving son. But this son is not blind to his mother’s faults, struggles and hardships. It was not easy being married to Johnny Cash. Addiction in one form or another haunted him until his death, and it stalked the rest of the family, as well.

John Carter does not speculate on the lives his step-sisters have led, but he is unflinching in the case of his half-sisters, Rosey Nix and Carlene Carter — and with himself. All three children have battled addiction. John Carter and Carlene have found recovery. Rosey, sadly, did not and died at age 45.

Cash details some of his mother’s early life on the road with her family. This has been well-documented in other biographies, so he gives a few of the bare facts, adding stories he feels illustrate his mother’s personality and her family’s close relationship.

He also discusses his mother’s sense of humor and how it became an integral part of the Carter Family’s performances. This sense of humor served June well all her life, especially in troubled times.

John Carter writes from his unique perspective, which must necessarily differ from that of his much older half-sister. Johnny Cash had found sobriety by the time he was born, but it only lasted about seven years or so. John Carter’s accounts of his father’s addiction are harrowing, in great part because they are from a son’s point of view, not an anonymous biographer’s.

Through all these trials, June stayed with Johnny, loving him, taking care of him, forgiving him seventy times seven.

June was something of a workaholic, as well. Mother Maybelle Carter instilled in her a strong “show must go on” work ethic, and she retained it until her death. June made two albums near the end of her life, although she was in nearly constant pain from an old back injury. When she was making music, she was happy.

Faith

Although music was obviously part of June Carter Cash’s DNA coding, a driving force, her real foundation was her faith in God. Whether John Carter was aware of it or not as he penned this book, he points out over and over, that June’s faith in God, her love for God, her spiritual hunger to be closer to God, was the center of her being.

She considered her musical and comedic talents to be God-given gifts to be refined and furthered in gratitude. She was a woman of unconditional love and forgiveness — also rooted in that intense faith.

John Carter’s portrait of his mother is as warm and tender as any could be. Having found sobriety and God’s forgiveness in his own life, he writes without bitterness or rancor. There is sadness, yes, but the anger and resentment have gone. Cash is also a wonderfully descriptive writer and each scene reads in vivid, living color.

More a series of personal recollections than a true biography, “Anchored in Love” is well worth reading for its themes of survival, love, forgiveness and faith in hard times. It is an exceptional book.

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