Babies named Johnny Cash, June Carter born on same day at Huntsville Hospital
Johnny Cash’s signature black guitar announced his arrival to the world.
Beside him was June Carter.
They weren’t The Man In Black and his longtime wife and frequent collaborator, who died just months apart in 2003.
They are babies side-by-side in their bassinets, born on the same date — April 10, 2024 — in Huntsville Hospital. Their parents were total strangers.
But Nicole Davis and her husband, Johnny Lee Davis Jr., the parents of Johnny Cash Davis, are getting to know Carter Clark and Sophie Clark, the parents of June Carter Clark, and relishing in the “cool coincidence.”
“We do love Johnny Cash, but we really just thought the name ‘June’ was beautiful,” Sophie Clark, whose husband’s name was used for June’s middle name, told WAFF’s Tennessee Valley Living.
Nicole Davis said she and her husband mulled over their son’s name.
“Dad’s name is Johnny Lee Davis Jr., and we tried on Johnny Lee Davis III for a while and we just could never get comfortable with it. We were trying to call him ‘Lee’ so he would be a little bit of his own person but it just never caught, so we had to go back to the drawing board,” she told the show.
“At first, we thought about Nashville because we love that area, we spend a lot of time up that way. Johnny’s from Tennessee, grew up in Tennessee … we thought Johnny Nashville at first or Johnny Nash and then we were like ‘oh no, that’s close to Johnny Knoxville, that won’t work,’” she continued, referring to the stunt performer and former star of the MTV show “Jackass.”
“Then we said, ‘oh, wait a minute. Johnny Cash would be perfect, and we’ll call him “Cash.”’,” Nicole Davis said.
The Clarks and the Davises may have never crossed paths until a chance encounter in the hospital elevator between Carter Clark’s uncle and Johnny Lee Davis Jr., who was wearing a shirt that identified his son as Johnny Cash, said Sophie Clark.
Carter Clark’s uncle told Johnny Lee Davis Jr., ‘it’s weird that you’re wearing that because my niece just had a baby called June Carter.’”
Carter Clark’s uncle then told June Carter’s parents about Johnny Cash.
“I was like ‘we gotta go find this baby,’” Sophie Clark said.
“So we saw the doorhanger that said ‘Johnny Cash.’ And I was like, ‘can we please go in there and talk to them?’” she said.
Johnny Cash’s nurse told his parents about the Clarks.
“Of course we immediately took them out in the hall and took pictures and exchanged information so that they will always have this cool coincidence to follow them as they grow and they’ll always have a cool story,” Nicole Davis said.
“I think its so fun that in a world where there’s a lot of little babies that were born on April 10, these two guys are always going to have this really fun backstory and always have an opportunity to have a friend that they met in an unconventional but really special way,” she told Tennessee Valley Living. “I want them to stay friends and stay connected so that they will always have this fun memory together.”
Nicole Davis later told AL.com, “We are just very happy that people are getting joy from our story.”
She said she and her husband are getting to know the Clarks, and that their babies’ names aren’t the only coincidence.
“We are getting to know Sophie and Carter Clark and thought it was funny that Carter and my husband were both born in Hawaii and ended up here,” she said.