Yes, he really did propose to her onstage in Ontario, Canada.
Following are some details:
"She did accept, God bless her soul. They were great, both of them," said Paul Carter, a longtime Cash fan and a friend of the late Saul Holiff, the former Londoner who managed Cash through the 1960s and early 1970s.
"When he proposed to June, she accepted and the crowd broke into applause," Larry and Muriel Boyd of Shakespeare, near Stratford said by e-mail. "We were caught up in the excitement of the evening and thought it was all part of the show.
"To end the evening, the cast was summoned onto the stage for their final bows. Cash would not stop singing and the finale lasted 45 minutes."
One former Londoner sent in the story he wrote about the event for an Ottawa newspaper in 1998 on the the 30th anniversary of the proposal.
Another fan said country music matriarch, Mother Maybelle Carter, another performer on the tour, appeared furious when Cash surprised her daughter onstage. Others say the Carter Family members all appeared astonished.
Cash proposed at a time when his career was about to soar to superstardom. Having battled substance abuse for years, Cash was being helped by the team of Carter and Holiff and his Christian faith.
Many London region fans who had also been pulling for Cash recall being thrilled to see him make such an important, life-changing decision in their hometown. They also want to make sure London was on the record as the place -- and not some generic site like "Ontario, Canada."
For all the chorus of approval for the suggestion made in The Free Press several times during recent years that Feb. 22, 1968, was the date and the Gardens was the place, there is still plenty of mystery.
What song did the duo sing after the proposal?
The movie, some fans and other sources say it was Jackson, about a couple who married in a fever "hotter than a pepper sprout."
One of Cash's autobiographies, 1975's Man in Black, and other fans say it was a much more serene song, If I Were a Carpenter.
Man in Black provides other details -- London, the 5,000 fans, and a backstage discussion with Holiff, who was delighted and wanted to be the first to congratulate the two. It doesn't mention the venue or date.
There are still some fans who insist the proposal took place at the old London Arena on Bathurst Street. Cash played there earlier in the 1960s, but the Feb. 22, 1968, show fits other details in Man in Black.
Cash and Carter married on March 1, 1968, in Franklin, Ky.
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