On This Day in 2005, We Said Goodbye to Johnny Cash’s First Wife and the Subject of This Enduring Hit

Yes, I’ll admit that I’m a fool for you / Because you’re mine, I walk the line. So sang country legend Johnny Cash in his 1956 hit single “I Walk the Line”. He had penned the song for his then-wife, Vivian Liberto, who worried his long stretches on the road would lead to infidelity. Of course, we all know how this story ends—Johnny Cash met June Carter, fell in love, ended his marriage to Vivian, and wed his second wife.

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But Vivian Liberto’s story didn’t end there, and in fact, she told it herself in her 2007 memoir  I Walked the Line: My Life With Johnny. The best-seller was published posthumously, as Vivian Liberto Distin died on this day (May 24) in 2005 from complications of lung cancer and related surgery in Ventura, California. She was 71 years old.

About Vivian Liberto’s Marriage to Johnny Cash

Born April 23, 1934, in San Antonio, Texas, Vivian Dorraine Liberto got her first brush with show business when she and her mother performed as assistants for her father’s amateur magician acts.

In July 1951, a 17-year-old Vivian met a 19-year-old Johnny Cash at a roller skating rink in San Antonio. Cash, who had recently enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Brooks Air Force Base, approached her and asked to skate together.

This kicked off an intense courtship that continued even when the Man in Black shipped overseas to Germany. The pair married in San Antonio on August 7, 1954, one month after Cash’s discharge from the Air Force. They would have four daughters together—Rosanne, Kathleen, Cindy, and Tara.

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They then moved to Memphis, where Cash worked as a door-to-door appliance salesman until his successful audition for Sun Records. Then, everything changed in the blink of an eye.

After the Divorce

Suddenly, Vivian’s husband was constantly on the road, and the couple moved to California after the birth of their third daughter, Cindy. When he was home, Johnny Cash would often disappear into booze and pills.

Her husband’s substance use—on top of his well-known affair with June Carter—eventually led to Vivian Cash filing for divorce in 1966. The Catholic Church excommunicated her for ending her marriage until the “Ring of Fire” singer wrote to the archdiocese taking full responsibility for the breakdown of their relationship.

[RELATED: Before June, There Was Vivian: Remembering Johnny Cash’s Controversial First Wife]

Vivian remarried police officer Dick Distin in 1968. They remained together until her death on May 24, 2005. In her later years, she enjoyed gardening and volunteer work.

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