Tara Cash

Tara Cash (born 24 August 1961) is an American actress, producer, and costume designer. She is the daughter of American country music legend Johnny Cash and his first wife Vivian Liberto.

Early life

Tara Cash was born as Tara Joan Cash on August 24, 1961, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Liberto. She is the youngest of four daughters; her three older sisters are Rosanne Cash (born 24 May 1955), Kathy Cash (born 16 April 1956), and Cindy Cash (born 29 July 1959).

Johnny Cash married Vivian Liberto in 1954. The two had met in July 1951 at a roller skating rink in her native San Antonio, while Cash was there in an Air Force training. Around a year after the marriage, he met singer June Carter Cash in 1955 while on a tour. Cash's drug and alcohol abuse, his frequent run-ins with the law, and his affair with June Carter ultimately led Liberto to file for a divorce in 1966.

Her parents divorced in 1967 when Tara was 6 years old. Subsequently, she was raised by her mother in Ventura, California, spending her summers between traveling on the road with her father, and spending time with him in his home on Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee. 

After the divorce, Johnny married June on March 1, 1968.

Tara has appeared in various documentary features revolving around her legendary father, most notably Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music (1969), The Life and Times of the Cash Family (1999), and Johnny Cash Memorial Tribute (2003).

In 1981, Tara appeared in the role of a student in director Gary Nelson's TV drama The Pride of Jesse Hallam, starring Johnny Cash, Brenda Vaccaro, and Eli Wallach.

As a costume designer, her credits appear in two projects: Bernard L. Kowalski's Nashville Beat (1989) and Nicolas Gessner's Tennessee Waltz (1989).

In 2020, Tara co-produced My Darling Vivian — a biographical documentary feature that looks at the romantic and dramatic journey of her mother Vivian Liberto. She co-produced the documentary with her nephew Dustin Tittle (son of Kathy Cash and her husband Jimmy Tittle) and Dustin's husband Matt Riddlehoover. Riddlehoover also directed the film and said of the opportunity, "For nearly fifty years, Vivian Liberto felt she had been silenced and erased, so it is truly a gift to be able to bring her story into the homes of viewers across the country."

The documentary features several celebrated Hollywood figures including Reese Witherspoon, Joaquin Phoenix, Kristen Wiig, John C. Reilly, Lucille Ball, Kris Kristofferson, Tim Robbins, Willie Nelson, and Holly Hunter.

The film premiered at the 2020 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, and has received applause from film critics. Joe Leydon of Variety says, "An exceptional documentary...a fascinating and affecting corrective counterpoint to the Johnny Cash mythos." Stephen L. Betts of Rolling Stone commented, "Thoroughly engrossing, often heartbreaking…looks at the promising beginnings and turbulent end of Liberto's romance and family life with Cash via intimate, never-before-seen footage, photographs, and a wealth of personal letters the two wrote to each other while Cash served in the military."

Tara lives with her husband Fred Schwoebel and two boys in Portland, Oregon.