Sad news:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer-songwriter June Carter Cash was born into country music royalty and went on to marry Johnny Cash after writing about her forbidden passion for the Nashville hellraiser in the classic song "Ring of Fire."

June, who died in Nashville on Thursday aged 73, rescued her husband from a destructive methamphetamine habit and turned him into a born-again Christian following their marriage in 1968. While some critics carped that June blunted Johnny's edge, the union was successful.

With Johnny waylaid for the past few years by illness, June devoted herself to caring for the "Man in Black," now 71.

Her recipe for a successful marriage?

"I've been walking just far enough behind John for him to think that he was way out in front," she told Reuters in a 1999 interview. "Women, if they've got any sense, will do that. They walk just far enough behind. That's where they stay."

A brown-haired beauty with a sharp wit and wonderful way of telling stories, she was the last surviving daughter of Maybelle Carter, who formed one-third of the Carter Family.

Superstars by every definition, the Carter Family launched the modern era of country music in 1927 by selling millions of records, including folk standards "The Wildwood Flower" and "Wabash Cannonball" from their Appalachian base.

And it makes me even sadder to realize that, given his own failing health and the statistical rule that long-married men usually only outlive their wives by about a year on average, Johnny won't be far behind her.

I once had the extreme good fortune to share a stage with both Johnny Cash and June Carter, as well as Waylon Jennings, his wife Jessi Colter, and Robert Duvall. Yes, all at once. It was simply overwhelming. Since people generally don't believe that when I tell 'em, I usually don't bring it up very often. But here's proof:

That's me behind Waylon, and the Telecaster he's playing is mine - was mine, I don't have it anymore. June is in front, singing "Will The Circle Be Unbroken," as I recollect. The whole thing took place at a wrap party for a Tom Cruise movie that was filmed here in part. Nobody had any idea that those folks would be showing up; it was a surprise for Cruise put together in secret by Duvall.