Whenever you read a biographical article about the legendary Johnny Cash, you’re bound to find ample mention about June Carter, the love of his life, the woman who stood by his side for 35 years.
True enough, Cash and Carter toured the country as the undisputed king and queen of country music.
Vivian Liberto gets a few lines barely, although she was Johnny’s first wife and the mother of his four daughters.
It was she, after all, who supported him during the early years of his career and tried to help with his drug and alcohol problems.
So, who was Vivian Liberto, and how come she lost one of the fascinating men of that generation?
10 /10 The Ice Rink Meeting
The story of Vivian Liberto and Johnny Cash begins in 1951, at an ice rink in San Antonio, Texas. She was 17 and he 18. It was love at first sight and what followed was a whirlwind romance.
A brief one, though. Only three weeks later, Johnny Cash was shipped to Germany as an Air Force trainee.
At such a young age, you’d expect the two teenagers to move on and forget everything. They didn’t.
Cash wrote her tons of love letters, promising her, “You are the only one for me — for always.” Those 10,000 pages of love letters were what kept their romance going.
9 /10 The Quick Marriage
Johnny Cash came back home in 1954 and found Vivian waiting. They picked up right where they left it. “I just fell into his arms, he scooped me up, and we kissed.”
One month later, they were married in St. Anne’s Catholic Church in San Antonio. Johnny Cash was 21 and just a regular guy.
He earned a living selling appliances, and he hated it. They moved to Memphis, and the babies started arriving, four of them, all girls.