Vivian Liberto 2686875 222573911 2008-06-30T01:54:51Z Dwbang 7285339 /* Later life */ {{Cleanup|date=June 2008}} '''Vivian Dorraine Liberto'''<ref>http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=sh&GRid=11025335</ref> ([[April 23]], [[1934]] – [[May 24]], [[2005]]) was the first wife of [[country music]] singer [[Johnny Cash]]. ==Relationship with Cash== Liberto met Cash in 1950 at a [[roller skating]] rink in [[San Antonio, Texas]] three weeks before the [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] deployed him to [[Germany]]. At the time, she was still a senior at [[Providence High School (San Antonio)|Providence High School]], an all-girl [[Catholic]] school in San Antonio. During Cash's military tour overseas, the couple wrote each other over 10,000 pages of [[love letters]].<ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/29/BAGV7D0HAS1.DTL "Vivian Distin -- first wife of Johnny Cash"], [[San Francisco Chronicle]], [[29 May]] [[2005]].</ref> 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 song "I Was Watching You" by their eldest child, [[Rosanne Cash|Rosanne]], from her 2006 album ''[[Black Cadillac]]''. Liberto and Cash were married until 1967<ref>[http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/nov/18/they-walked-the-line/ "Johnny Cash's first wife tells of romance, heartbreak"], [[Ventura County Star]], [[18 November]], [[2007]]</ref>, when his [[addiction]] to [[amphetamines]] and occasional [[womanizing]] led them to a [[divorce]]. She married Dick Distin that same year. ==Later life== In 2004, Liberto fought to get a memento of her romance with Cash &mdash; 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, on the same day as her daughter Rosanne's 50th birthday. ==Fictional portrayals== She was portrayed by [[Ginnifer Goodwin]] in the 2005 Johnny Cash [[biopic]], ''[[Walk the Line]]''. [[Kathleen Cash]], one of Liberto's daughters, criticized the film's portrayal as inaccurate and unfair to her mother. [[John Carter Cash]], Kathleen's half-brother and executive producer of the film, responded that he understood her concerns.<ref>[http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4427314.stm "Johnny Cash film angers daughter"], [[BBC News]], [[11 November]] [[2005]].</ref> Her memoir, entitled ''I Walked the Line: My Life With Johnny'', was posthumously released by Scribner's in [[September 2007]]. She is buried at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in [[Ventura, California]]. ==References== <references/> {{Johnny Cash}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Liberto, Vivian}} [[Category:People from San Antonio, Texas]] [[Category:1934 births]] [[Category:2005 deaths]] [[Category:Deaths from surgical complications]] [[Category:Italian-Americans]] [[nl:Vivian Liberto]] [[sv:Vivian Liberto]]