50 free June Carter Cash trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This June Carter Cash trivia quiz covers the whole of a sixty-year career: growing up in Maces Spring, Virginia as Mother Maybelle's daughter, the Carter Sisters on Richmond radio and the Grand Ole Opry, the 'Aunt Polly' comedy routine, acting lessons with Lee Strasberg, and the songs everyone knows — 'Ring of Fire', which she co-wrote, and 'Jackson', the duet that won her first Grammy with Johnny Cash. There are questions on her three husbands and three children (Carlene Carter, Rosie Nix Adams and John Carter Cash), the on-stage proposal in London, Ontario, her three solo albums, her late-life Grammys for Press On and Wildwood Flower, the video for 'Hurt', Reese Witherspoon's Oscar-winning portrayal in Walk the Line, and her posthumous induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2025. If you want more on the man in black himself, BrainPickle also has a Johnny Cash quiz. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and each question carries a citation to the page it came from. No lyrics are quoted.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which state was June Carter born, at Maces Spring, in 1929?
Virginia
Her final album, Wildwood Flower, was recorded at the Carter Family estate in nearby Hiltons, Virginia.
Q 02What was June's actual first name?
Valerie
She performed as June Carter throughout her career, even after marrying Johnny Cash.
Q 03In which city did the original Carter Family first record for Ralph Peer in August 1927?
Bristol, Tennessee
June began performing with the family group at the age of ten, in 1939.
Q 04How many Grammy Awards did June Carter Cash win in her lifetime and posthumously?
Five
Two came with Johnny Cash for duets, one for Press On and two for the posthumous Wildwood Flower.
Q 05Which instrument did June play in the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle?
Autoharp
She also played guitar, banjo and harmonica.
Q 06June was the comedian of the family act. What was the name of her signature comic character?
Aunt Polly
She revived Aunt Polly decades later on the 1976 series Johnny Cash & Friends.
Q 07Which future Nashville legend was the Carter Sisters' guitarist and the reason the Opry initially refused them?
Chet Atkins
Nashville session players feared Atkins would take their work; the Opry relented in 1950.
Q 08In which city was the Carter Sisters' radio act based, on station KWTO, in 1949?
Springfield, Missouri
They had earlier worked at WRNL and WRVA in Richmond and WNOX in Knoxville, where they met Atkins.
Q 09Which famous film director saw June at the Grand Ole Opry in 1955 and encouraged her to study acting?
Elia Kazan
She went on to study with Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner in New York.
Q 10June studied acting in New York with Sanford Meisner and which famous Method teacher?
Lee Strasberg
Her early screen roles included Clarise on Gunsmoke in 1957.
Q 11In which Robert Duvall film of 1998 did June play 'Momma' Dewey?
The Apostle
Duvall was a close friend and appears in the 2024 documentary June.
Q 12On which 1990s TV drama did June play Sister Ruth, wife of Johnny Cash's character Kid Cole?
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
The friendship the Cashes struck up with Jane Seymour and James Keach on that set led directly to Walk the Line.
Q 13'Ring of Fire' was co-written by June Carter and which songwriter?
Merle Kilgore
She wrote the words about her relationship with Cash, who was still married to Vivian Liberto.
Q 21The couple's first co-billed collaboration album, released in 1967, was called what?
Carryin' On
A second co-billed album, Johnny Cash and His Woman, followed in 1973.
Q 22June was a regular on The Johnny Cash Show during which years?
1969 to 1971
She also appeared in comedy skits on Cash's various TV programmes.
Q 23How many solo albums did June Carter Cash record in her lifetime?
Three
Appalachian Pride is the only one on which Johnny Cash does not appear.
Q 24What was the title of June's first solo album, released in 1975?
Q 14Who was the first singer to record 'Ring of Fire', in 1962?
Anita Carter
Cash's 1963 version added mariachi horns and topped the country chart for seven weeks.
Q 15How many weeks did Johnny Cash's 'Ring of Fire' spend at number one on the country chart in 1963?
Seven
Rolling Stone later called it the greatest country song of all time.
Q 16Who claimed Cash gave June half the 'Ring of Fire' credit because 'she needs the money'?
Vivian Liberto, his first wife
Vivian said Cash told her he wrote it with Kilgore and Curly Lewis while fishing.
Q 17June's first notable studio duet with Johnny Cash, in 1964, was on which Bob Dylan song?
It Ain't Me Babe
Their breakthrough as a duo came three years later with 'Jackson'.
Q 18'Jackson' (1967) was written by Billy Edd Wheeler and which half of a famous songwriting duo?
Jerry Leiber
Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood had a pop hit with it the same summer.
Q 19What did June and Johnny's recording of 'Jackson' win at the 1968 Grammys?
Best Country & Western Performance by a Duo or Group
The single reached number two on the US country chart.
Q 20June and Johnny won a second duet Grammy in 1971 for their version of which Tim Hardin song?
If I Were a Carpenter
Bobby Darin had the first hit version of the song in 1966.
Appalachian Pride
It took 24 years for the follow-up, Press On, to arrive.
Q 25June's 1999 record Press On won a Grammy in which category?
Best Traditional Folk Album
The album features her own original arrangement of 'Ring of Fire'.
Q 26June won a posthumous Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for which Carter Family standard?
Keep on the Sunny Side
The song came from her final album, Wildwood Flower, recorded at the Carter estate in September 2002.
Q 27Who produced June's final album, Wildwood Flower?
Her son John Carter Cash
John was also associate producer on his father's American III and American IV albums.
Q 28One of June's last appearances was a silent role in the video for which 2003 Johnny Cash single?
Hurt
The song was a Nine Inch Nails cover produced by Rick Rubin.
Q 29June's first husband, whom she married in 1952, was which country singer?
Carl Smith
Their daughter is the singer Carlene Carter.
Q 30June's daughter from her first marriage became a country star under what name?
Carlene Carter
Carlene was married to English singer-songwriter Nick Lowe from 1979 to 1990.