Joanne King Herring (born July 3, 1929) is an American socialite, businesswoman, political activist, philanthropist, diplomat, and former television talk show host. Originally from

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, Texas, she is best known for influencing policy through her long association and political relationship with

President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan () is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The president is the nominal head of the executive and the supreme commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

Zia-ul-Haq (1977–88). Herring also served as the honorary

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

at the Consulate-General of Pakistan based in Houston; on special request and favor of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq she is also the recipient of the ''Jinnah Medal'', one of Pakistan's highest honors. Throughout the 1980s, Herring lobbied for United States support for the

Mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...

in Afghanistan in collaboration with

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

Charlie Wilson. These events inspired the book '' Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History''; Herring is portrayed by actress

Julia Roberts Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. Known for her leading roles across various genres, she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and three Golden Globe Award ...

in the 2007 film '' Charlie Wilson's War''. Since the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, Herring has stated that she "did not make

al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

" and that she "cannot predict the future." Herring's second book, ''Diplomacy and Diamonds: My Wars from the Ballroom to the Battlefield'', was released on January 1, 2011.

Life and work

Herring was born Joanne Johnson in Houston, the daughter of Maelan (McGill) and William Dunlap 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 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, but left after her second 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. In the late 1950s, she began a 15-year-long hosting tenure for the eponymous daytime talk show ''The Joanne King Show'' on Houston's

KHOU-TV KHOU (channel 11) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Conroe-licensed Quest station KTBU (channel 55). The two stations share studios on Westheimer Road near ...

station. By 1974, her show had moved to KPRC.

Media appearances

Herring appears as herself in the comic 1999 documentary feature ''Five Wives, Three Secretaries and Me'' and the 1970s

German television Television in Germany began in Berlin on 22 March 1935, broadcasting for 90 minutes three times a week. It was home to the first regular television service in the world, named ''Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow''. In 2000, the German television marke ...

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 Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Marshall Plan Charities

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". The organization unites the efforts of various NGOs concerned with the Afghan people in hopes of providing villages with clean water, food, healthcare, schools, and jobs.

Involvement with Zia-ul-Haq

Herring is known for her long association and with

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of Pakistan Zia-ul-Haq. Her contacts with Zia dated back to the early 1970s, when he, as a brigadier-general, was a contingent commander of Pakistani military formations in Jordan. In 1980, Zia convened and held a dinner in honor of Robert and Joanne Herring in

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

. About the

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...

program run against the prime minister Zulfikar Bhutto, Herring reportedly defended Zia's action. She also wrote that ulfikarBhutto "was tried by his own judges and convicted of murder. The

Koran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

serves as the unofficial

constitution of Pakistan The Constitution of Pakistan ( ; ISO 15919, ISO: '' Āīn-ē-Pākistān''), also known as the 1973 Constitution, is the supreme law of Pakistan. The document guides Pakistan's law, political culture, and system. It sets out the state's outlin ...

. It exacts an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. If you murder, you must die. The only thing Zia did was to not commute Bhutto's sentence. In a country whose constitution demanded capital punishment for murder, Zia could not violate the Law." In '' Charlie Wilson's War'',

George Crile III George Washington Crile III (March 5, 1945 – May 15, 2006) was an American journalist most closely associated with his three decades of work at CBS News. He specialized in dangerous and controversial subjects, resulting in both praise and c ...

maintained that "Herring was said to have been a most trusted American adviser in President Zia's administration." It was Herring who acquainted Charlie Wilson with Zia who later secured major funding for Pakistan's anti-communist policies. Over the years, Herring's influence on Zia and his

military administration Military administration identifies both the techniques and systems used by military departments, agencies, and armed services involved in managing the armed forces. It describes the processes that take place within military organisations outs ...

grew further, and Zia became so enamored with her that he would interrupt cabinet meetings to take her call. Said Foreign minister Yaqub Khan in his memoirs: "She absolutely had his ear, it was terrible!" Zia neglected protocols and dismayed the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

when he appointed her his honorary

at the

-based Consulate-General of Pakistan. In a public ceremony held in Pakistan, Zia personally honored her with Pakistan's highest civilian honor, the Tamgha-e-Quaid-e-Azam (lit. ''Jinnah Medal''). She paid tribute to Zia in her 2011 autobiography. Husain Haqqani, former Pakistan Ambassador and former adviser to three Pakistani prime ministers, described Herring as "known more for glamour than for political wisdom", and Zia "showered her with hospitality to use her connections"., page 256 Haqqani described her as knowing "little about the country," criticizing her for inaccurately describing Pakistan as an "Arab nation" in her memoirs.

Awards

* Received the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge Award in the 1960s * Knighted by the King of Belgium in the 1970s * Made roaming Ambassador of Pakistan in the 1980s, and received the Tamgha-e-Quaid-e-Azam, the highest honor given by the nation of Pakistan. *

International Women's Forum The International Women's Forum (IWF), founded in 1974 as the Women's Forum of New York, is an invitation-only women's organization with some 7,800 members. Its mission is "to support the women leaders of today and tomorrow". The IWF hosts two co ...

"Women Who Make a Difference" Award, 1987 * Made a Dame in the Royal Order of Francis I in 2011 * Inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame in 2014

References

External links

*
"25 Most Beautiful Houstonians: Compassion and generosity make for a beautiful community"
''H Texas magazine'', August 2007
Marshall Plan Charities
joanneherring.com
Film Footage of Joanne King Herring (1970)

Texas Archive of the Moving Image The Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) is an independent 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2002 by film archivist and University of Texas at Austin professor Caroline Frick, PhD. TAMI's mission is to preserve, study, and exhibit Texas film ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herring, Joanne 1929 births American activists American expatriates in Pakistan American socialites American women television personalities American women in politics Anti-communism in Pakistan Conservatism in Pakistan Living people Military government of Pakistan (1977–1988) Pakistani-American history People from Houston People of the Soviet–Afghan War Recipients of Tamgha-e-Quaid-e-Azam Television personalities from Texas University of Texas at Austin alumni