Vivian Liberto
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-->Vivian Dorraine Liberto Cash Distin (April 23, 1934 – 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 remarried 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.
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