Jack Cash, The Older Brother of Johnny Cash

Jack Cash entered the world two years before his famous brother, Johnny.  The boys were best friends and Johnny looked up at Jack as his protector.  Jack was the religious member of the family and he had a goal of becoming a preacher.

A Very Young Johnny Cash

Preachers and Musicians

Bedtime in the Cash household came early for the children.  However, Jack and Johnny would stay up late; Jack would read the bible, while Johnny listened to country music on the radio.  Invariably Ray Cash, the boy’s father would tell Johnny to turn off the radio and go to bed.  Ray would not yell at Jack, saying, “future preachers should be treated with kid gloves.”  While Johnny would spend his time singing songs, Jack would carry his bible with him everywhere, to school church, and sometimes into the cotton fields.

Johnny and Jack walked to church together on Sundays.  As they sat in the pews, the preacher terrified Johnny with the antics of the fire and brimstone service.  On the way home, Jack explained the service to his younger brother and told Johnny that God would watch over him in ways that he could not.  Jack held such influence over Johnny that when Johnny was twelve he jumped out of his seat, took the preachers hand, and pledged his spiritual accountability.  Johnny later remembered that on the walk home that day he felt the two could walk together forever, as children of God.

Tragedy in the Cash Family

On May 12, 1944, Johnny wanted to go fishing.  Jack said no to fishing, because he needed to work, that the family needed the three dollars he could earn by cutting trees into fence posts.  Jack hesitated and their mother asked him what was wrong.  Jack said he did not feel right, that he thought something was going to happen.  Both Johnny and their mother begged Jack to stay home.  But, Jack said the family needed the money so he went to work.

The boys walked together until they reached a fork in the road, Johnny asked Jack to go fishing one more time, to no avail.  Johnny fished for a few hours, but said he felt strange.  As he walked home, his father drove up in the preacher’s car, a model A.  Ray told Johnny to throw his fishing pole in the ditch and get in, that Jack had been hurt real bad.
When they arrived home, Ray took Johnny out to the smokehouse and opened up grocery bag.  Inside were Jack’s clothes.  Ray laid the bloody clothes out on the floor, and then showed Johnny where a table saw had cut Jack from his ribs, down through his belly, and through his groin.  Then Ray cried; Johnny said that was the first time he had ever seen his father cry.  Then Ray took Johnny to the hospital to see Jack.

Jack Goes Home to God

When they arrived at the hospital, Jack was sleeping due to the pain medications.  Worried that he was going to die soon, Ray sent for the two older siblings who had moved away from the farm. Four days later, all the church congregations in town had a service for Jack.  The following morning he had a miraculous recovery.  However, the town doctor told the family that there was not any hope, that when he operated he took out so much of Jack’s insides that he was sure to die soon.
On Saturday, a week after the accident, Jack took a turn for the worse.  The family gathered around his bed, and all were crying.  Johnny said that at first Jack was talking crazy, about mules getting out and they had to catch them.  Then he became calm and lucid.  He looked at the family and said, “I’m glad you’re all here.”  He closed his eyes and said, “It’s a beautiful river.”  For a few minutes, he talked about the river and which way he should go.  Then he asked his mother if she could hear the angels.  She said no she couldn’t.  With tears in his eyes, he said they were beautiful and that it was such a beautiful place he was going.  Then he passed away.

Johnny Cash Dreams of His Brother

The grief Johnny felt was terrible.  In his autobiography, Cash, Johnny describes the loss of Jack as creating a big, cold, sad place in his heart and soul.  Johnny talks about the process of grief and said when the grieving is over, “The world you find there will never be the same as the world you left.”  Jack influenced Johnny the rest of his life.  During Johnny’s dark days of addiction he would draw strength from Jack’s memory and ask himself, what would Jack do?”  Johnny said that Jack showed up in his dreams every month or two, ever since his death.  And, in his dreams, Jack was always still two years older than Johnny.  Before his death, Johnny said that in the dreams Jack is a preacher, a good man, and a figure of high repute.

Johnny remembers the songs they sang at Jack’s funerals.  He said that whenever he is feeling in a dark place, he sings the songs and it brings him peace, that he can feel God’s grace flowing.  In death, as he did in life, Jack still protected his little brother Johnny.

Reference:

Cash, Johnny and Carr, Patrick. Cash.  San Francisco, Ca. HaperCollins, 1997
Neimark, Anne E. Up close: Johnny Cash. USA, Viking, 2007
Official Website of Johnny Cash, http://www.johnnycash.com/