American homemaker and author who was the first wife of singer Johnny Cash and the inspiration for his first hit single “I Walk the Line”. Following her marriage, she became known for the controversy surrounding her racial identity.
On 18 July 1951, while in Air Force basic training, Johnny Cash met 17-year-old Vivian at a roller skating rink in San Antonio, Texas. The couple courted for three weeks before the Air Force deployed Cash to West Germany for a three-year tour. During the separation, the couple exchanged thousands of letters that would eventually form the basis for Liberto’s memoir I Walked the Line, which was published in 2007. On 7 August 1954, one month after his discharge, they were married at St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church in San Antonio. They would go on to have four daughters: Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy, and Tara.
Liberto filed for divorce in 1966 because of Cash’s severe drug and alcohol abuse, as well as his constant touring and his repeated acts of adultery with other women, including his close relationship with singer June Carter. Their four daughters were then raised by Vivian.
In 1968 Liberto married Dick Distin, a police officer in Ventura, California, to whom she remained married until her death on 24 May 2005 at age 71 from complications of lung cancer surgery.
Link to Wikipedia biography