| Joanne Herring | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 3, 1929 Houston, Texas |
| Spouse | Robert King Robert Herring Lloyd Davis |
Joanne Herring (born July 3, 1929) is a Houston socialite, political activist, businesswoman, and former talk show host.
In the 1980s Herring played a role in helping U.S. Representative Charlie Wilson persuade the U.S. government to train and arm Mujahideen resistance fighters to fight in the Soviet war in Afghanistan, which began in 1979.[1] These events inspired the book Charlie Wilson's War ; Herring is portrayed by actress Julia Roberts in the 2007 film adaptation.
Since the September 11 attacks, Herring has stated that she "did not make al-Qaeda," and that she "cannot predict the future."[2]
Herring remains very active in social circles in Houston, and regularly contributes to and participates in benefits to help American troops and the Afghan people. Her second book, Diplomacy and Diamonds: My Wars from the Ballroom to the Battlefield, is scheduled for release on October 19th, 2011.
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Born in Houston as Joanne Johnson, Herring grew up in the city's affluent River Oaks neighborhood, and her childhood acquaintances included James A. Baker, III, who would later serve as Secretary of State. She enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin, but left after her sophomore year to marry real estate developer Robert King.
A fixture on the Houston social circuit, Herring became notorious for the lavish, decadent birthday party her husband threw for her in 1959. The "Roman orgy"-themed affair included period costumes and a mock slave auction, and was covered by Life magazine and various local news media.[2] In the late 1950s, she began a 15-year-long hosting tenure for the self-titled daytime talk show "The Joanne King Show" on Houston's KHOU-TV station. By 1974, her show had moved to KPRC.
After her divorce from Robert King, by whom she had two sons, Beau and Robin, she met and married oilman Robert Herring after only five dates. During that time Joanne served as honorary consul to both Pakistan and Morocco. After Robert Herring's death, she married Lloyd Davis, owner of Fisk Electric.
Herring has two sons, both of whom live in Houston.
Herring appears as herself in the comic 1999 documentary feature Five Wives, Three Secretaries and Me and the 1970s German television news series V.I.P.-Schaukel. In the former — the story of a Houston businessman who marries five times — Herring playfully introduces herself by saying, "Well, my name is Joanne Johnson King Herring Davis, and I've had almost as many husbands as he's had wives."
Herring has also appeared on CNN with Ali Velshi multiple times to discuss continued American involvement in Afghanistan.
In 2009, Herring founded Marshall Plan Charities, which seeks to "complement the ongoing U.S. military effort in Afghanistan by rapidly and effectively redeveloping normal, healthy civilian life village by village." [3] The organization unites the efforts of various NGO's concerned with the Afghan people in hopes of providing villages with clean water, food, health care, schools, and jobs. With those five things, villages will no longer have to rely on the Taliban to provide them.