Vivian Liberto
Vivian Dorraine Liberto Cash Distin (
April 23,
1934 â€"
May 24, 2005) was
Johnny Cash's first wife and the mother of his four daughters:
Rosanne Cash,
Kathleen Cash,
Cindy Cash, and
Tara Cash.
Vivian met Johnny in
1950 at
roller skating rink in
San Antonio, Texas three weeks before the Air Force sent him to Germany. At the time, she was still a senior at
San Antonio High School. During Cash's
military tour overseas, the couple wrote each other over 10,000 pages of
love letters.
On
July 3, 1954, Cash was discharged from the Air Force. On
August 7,
1954, the two were married. A brief portrait of their marriage and early life is provided in the poignant song "I Was Watching You" by their eldest child,
Rosanne Cash, from her
2006 album
Black Cadillac.
Vivian and Johnny were married for 12 years, before his
addiction to
amphetamines and occasional womanizing led them to a
divorce. She married
Dick Distin that same year. Johnny Cash married
June Carter in
1968.
In
2004, Vivian fought to get a memento of her romance with Johnny, who died in 2003—a bench into which Cash had carved the words "Johnny Loves Vivian" in
1951. San Antonio city officials declined her request, and promptly placed the bench under lock and key in a storage facility.
She died on
May 24,
2005, of complications from
surgery to remove
lung cancer at the age of 71.
She was portrayed by
Ginnifer Goodwin in the 2005
Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. According to Kathleen Cash, one of Vivian's daughters, the portrayal was inaccurate and unfair to her mother.
*
Kathy Cash's views on Walk the Line
