A pair of babies born on the same day in the same Alabama hospital appear to have had their names written in the musical stars, and it’s a complete coincidence.
On April 10, Johnny Cash Davis came into the world at Huntsville Hospital to the delight of his parents, Nicole and Johnny Lee Davis, Jr. (Surprisingly, he wasn’t named after the iconic county music singer Johnny Cash. More on that below.)
That same day, only a few rooms away, parents Sophie and Carter Clark welcomed a baby girl into their family. Her name? June Carter Clark.
A short time later, Johnny Cash and June Carter napped next to each other in the nursery.
The “reunion” of Johnny Cash and June Carter was celebrated with a photo shared by Johnny’s mom, Nicole. Above little Johnny Cash Davis, someone held a miniature black guitar, just like the one the “Ring of Fire” singer cherished. On it was the little boy’s birth announcement. Beside him, little June Carter Clark had her own special birth announcement adorned with two large pink satin bows to match the one she wore on her head.
Neither set of parents knew one another before the birth, nor were the babies’ names chosen to honor country music royalty.
According to Nicole, Johnny Cash got his name after months of trying to find the perfect name combination to go with a popular first name in the family.
“All the men in his family had been named John,” Nicole told Simplemost. “This little guy was gonna be the last in a long line of Johns, and we needed to come up with something where, you know, we call him by his middle name … because he needs to have a little bit of his own person.”
After trying a variety of middle names, including Nashville (Nash) and Knoxville, both mom and dad came up with Cash at nearly the same time, and it was the winner.
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Meanwhile, more than an hour away, expectant parents Carter and Sophie Hill Clark struggled to find the perfect name for their soon-to-arrive baby girl.
“We really couldn’t decide on a name and my sister said ‘June’,” Sophie told Simplemost. “We thought it was beautiful. My husband’s name is Carter, so we did June Carter. And he was like ‘You mean like THE June Carter?’ And I was like, ‘Well, yeah, but it’s OK.'”
Little did each family know they were destined to bring together two iconic names.
On April 10, both babies arrived into the world happy and healthy. Little June Carter Clark’s new great-uncle had stopped by the hospital to meet his sweet great-niece. On his way out, he saw a man in the hospital elevator wearing a T-shirt announcing the arrival of baby Johnny Cash; it was Johnny’s dad.
The new uncle told the proud new papa, “It’s weird that you’re wearing that because my niece just had a baby called June Carter.”
Shortly after the meeting, June’s great-uncle contacted his neice about the crazy coincidence.
“I was like, ‘We gotta find this baby’,” Sophie said.
After trying to go visit Johnny Cash’s family, the Clarks were told they needed to wait outside until a nurse could ask the Davis family if they wanted visitors.
“The nurse comes in and said, ‘Do you know who Johnny Cash’s wife is?'” Nicole said. “And I said, ‘Well, yeah, June Carter.’ And she said, ‘OK, there’s another couple down the hall and they have a baby named June Carter and they wanted to see if they could talk to you and meet Johnny Cash.”
Apparently, new dad Johnny didn’t share his elevator meeting with June’s uncle earlier in the day, so the news was a complete shock to Nicole.
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“He had taken [our] other kids downstairs to get a sandwich and by the time he came back up, he had completely forgotten about talking to this man in the elevator.”
It didn’t take long for the two sets of new parents to meet, swap stories, photos and contact information. They promised to keep in touch.
Both families are now home and settling into their new lives well. They’ve even made arrangements to get together for a special playdate soon. The two families are going to meet at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, the place where the original Johnny Cash and June Carter met for the first time in 1956.
“I reached out to Sophie and I said, I know it’s a little cheesy, but … what if we take them on a playdate to Nashville, get some pictures together,” Nicole said. “You don’t get a lot of chances to just be silly in life and we’re excited about our little moment of sunshine.”
Sophie told Simplemost her family is excited for the opportunity to get the kids together again and hopes they will stay in touch as the kids grow up.
“I plan to definitely keep them in touch because it’s too cute of a story not to,” Sophie said. “It’s been a cool experience that we’ll get to tell her about.”
This story was originally published by Marie Rossiter at Simplemost.com.
