On January 16, 1993, Johnny Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, first appeared on the CBS drama Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, starring Jane Seymour in an episode called “Law of the Land.” Throughout several seasons, Cash reprised his role as terminally ill former outlaw later appointed sheriff, Kid Cole, alongside Carter Cash as Sister Ruth, a traveling faith healer, and his wife. Cash guest-starred on Dr. Quinn in four episodes from 1993, with June appearing in three, through their final appearance in “The Most Fatal Disease,” as Cole succumbs to tuberculosis, airing in February 1997.
In 1994, Cash made a third appearance on Dr. Quinn, in an episode called “Thanksgiving,” which aired on November 19. In the episode Dr. Mike (Seymour) and Byron Sully (Joe Lando) are making there way back from Denver with medical suppplies when the cross paths with Cole and Ruth. Dr, Quinn and Sully invite the newly married couple to Thanksgiving dinner before their stagecoach is robbed.
After making their way back home, all gather for dinner and Cole picks up a guitar adn serenades everyone with “Thanksgiving Prayer.” Written for Cash by the show producer, Josef Anderson, the lyrics offer a prayer of thankfulness for friends, family, and a special love. In the episode, Cash sings the song while looking at June.
We’ve come to the time in the season
When family and friends gather near
To offer a prayer of Thanksgiving
For blessings we’ve known through the year
To join hands and thank the creator
And now, when Thanksgiving is due
This year, when I count my blessings
I’m thanking the Lord He made you
This year, when I count my blessings
I’m thanking the Lord He made you
I’m grateful for the laughter of children
The sun and the wind and the rain
The color of blue in your sweet eyes
The sight of a high “ballin” train
The moon rises over a prairie
Old love that you’ve made new
This year, when I count my blessings
I’m thanking the Lord He made you
This yea,r when I count my blessings
I’m thanking the Lord He made you
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I’m grateful for robins and rainbows,
I’m glad the old man made up jokes
I love sitting out on a porch late at night
Talking ’bout life with plain folks
The smile on your face when we’re dancing
Holding me close like you do
And this year, when I count my blessings
I’m thanking the Lord he made you,
And this year, when I count my blessings
I’m thanking the Lord he made you.
And when the time comes to be going
It won’t be in sorrow and tear
I’ll kiss you goodbye, and I’ll go on my way
Grateful for all of the years
I’m thankful for all that you gave me
For teaching me what love can do
Thanksgiving day for the rest of my life
I’m thanking the Lord He made you
Thanksgiving day for the rest of my life
I’m thanking the Lord He made you
Seymour and Cash became good friends during their time working on Dr. Quinn. She even named her son Johnny Keach after Cash, who was also his godfather.
“I remember the time it was like three or four in the morning and we were filming in the little shed up somewhere and we had a pigsty,” recalled Seymour in 2020 of filming with the Cashs. “And June was sitting with me and all of us in the pigsty. And she was eating her dinner off of Meissen China.”
Seymour continued, “And she [June Carter Cash] said, ‘Honey, I’m just too old and too rich and too famous to be doing this.’ And I said, ‘Sadly, I’m not.’ She said, ‘How do we speed this up?’ And then Johnny looked at us and he took his prop guitar and he went into the set and he started serenading the crew. And they suddenly went super quiet … and they got a free concert by Johnny Cash. True story.”
By the ’90s, Cash also released “Thanksgiving Prayer” on his 1995 compilation Johnny Cash – Unsurpassed American Masters. Decades later the song had another revivial when Joanne Cash, Johnny’s younger sister, recorded a cover of the Thanksgiving song on her 2018 gospel album Unbroken.
Photo: Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images
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