Joanne Carson, actress and second wife of Johnny Carson, dies at 83

Joanne Carson, the former wife of late-night television legend Johnny Carson and later a talk show host herself, has died at the age of 83.

Carson had been in declining health and was in hospice care, said Ed Rada, the executor of her estate. She died Friday at her home in Los Angeles and had suffered from a lung ailment since 2011.

A former Pan Am flight attendant and model, Carson spent time as a television talk show host. But it was her husband’s career that propelled them into Hollywood royalty.

Their marriage ended after nine years and Carson went back to work as a television talk show host in Los Angeles, earned a doctorate and worked as a metabolic therapist. She devoted time and money to helping animals, particularly dogs with epilepsy.

She had also forged a close friendship with writer Truman Capote, who helped her with a memoir, though it was never published. Capote died in 1984 at her Los Angeles home, where he kept a writing room.

Joanne Carson had a second marriage to Richard Rever. It also ended in divorce.

She had no children.