Joanne Carson, ex-wife of former 'Tonight Show' host, dies at 83

Published April 04, 2016

This Aug. 17, 1963 file photo shows comedian Johnny Carson and his bride, former television personality and model Joanne Copeland, at a reception in his apartment after their wedding at in New York. (AP)

Joanne Carson, the second wife of "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson, has died in Southern California. She was 83.

Ed Rada, the executor of her estate, says Carson died Friday at her longtime home in Los Angeles. Rada says she had been in declining health and was in hospice care.

Born Joanne Copeland in Los Angeles, she married Johnny Carson in 1963, a year after he began hosting "The Tonight Show."

After their divorce in 1972, she became close to writer Truman Capote. He kept a writing room at her house, where he died in 1984.

Rada says she will be interred next to Capote at Westwood Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Joanne Carson had a second marriage late in her life to Richard Rever that also ended in divorce.

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