Vivian Cash

Vivian Distin (née Liberto, formerly Cash; April 23, 1934 – May 24, 2005) was an American homemaker and author. She is notable as the first wife of singer Johnny Cash and mother of their four daughters. She inspired his first hit single "I Walk the Line".^[1]

Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, she grew up in Sicilian-American culture and was raised Catholic. She married Cash in San Antonio, but they separated after several years. He was well known when arrested in 1965 for drug possession. She joined him for support, and photographs were publicized of her during this period. She was subject to discrimination in 1965–1966 related to her racial identity because white supremacists classified her as black based on her photo. Interracial marriage was illegal. White supremacists stated that she was black and thus married illegally to her husband. She and her husband were subject to harassment, and he was boycotted for a year in the South before his manager documented her background as white.

After the couple divorced in 1966, they each married again. She had chief responsibility for raising their daughters. They typically spent time in the summer with their father and stepmother, June Carter Cash, both singer/songwriters.

In 2007 Distin published a memoir, prepared with Ann Sharpsteen, under her former married name of 'Vivian Cash'. Entitled I Walk the Line, it was based on her years with Johnny Cash. She drew from the many letters they exchanged for three years before their marriage, when he was stationed in Europe.