Jo Franklin biography: 13 things about journalist born in Chicago, Illinois

Josephine Anne “Jo” Franklin was an American journalist born in Chicago, Illinois, United States to an upper middle class family. She and Hugh Trout Sr., a surgeon, have two children together.

While attending the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, Franklin spent a semester in Lebanon and became fascinated with the Middle East. She went on to make documentaries about Saudi Arabia and the Middle East for PBS.

During the early 1990s, Franklin self-published a romantic novel set during the Persian Gulf War, which she wanted to be turned into a film. However, sales flopped and she owed the book’s marketer $25,000, which was never paid.

Franklin spent the last days of her life in Florida. Here are 13 more things about her:

1. From 1964 to 1968, she attended the University of Florida where she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and government.
2. In 1981, she gave birth to Ashley Trout. In 1985, she gave birth to Hugh Trout Jr.
3. In 1989, she presented “Days of Rage: The Young Palestinians”, a documentary aired on PBS.
4. By 1996, she was divorced from Hugh Sr., who lived in Washington, D.C., USA. Custody of their two children went to him.
5. In 2004, when Ashley was hospitalized in Japan after a rock climbing accident, she lied by saying she would commandeer the private jet of Colin Powell, the then U.S. Secretary of State who she claimed was her friend, to come and rescue her.
6. In 2005, she donated her films to the archive of the University of California in Los Angeles, California, USA but refused to pay for them to be digitized so they were immediately returned to her. Also that year, she met with Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S., inside the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C.
7. In 2009, she went to her father’s funeral, which marked the last time she saw her children. She inherited around $400,000 after her father’s death.
8. In 2013, she was evicted from her rental home in Santa Ynez, California so she moved to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. In the same year, she told University of Florida officials that she would donate $2 million in return for the creation of the Josephine A. Franklin Chair in Islam and Politics in her honor.
9. In 2014, University of Florida officials arranged a gala at Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C. to honor her, which was canceled because the $2 million check she donated bounced. At the time, she was sleeping under the stairwell of a parking garage in Palm Beach Gardens. Shortly after, she started showing up at Starbucks in Florida where she made friends.
10. In 2017, she was arrested after she was found sleeping by a dumpster near a bank. In 2018, she was found under a staircase at a hotel car park.
11. In March 2020, she told friends she was working on a military adventure screenplay that she would send to Prince Harry.
12. In 2022, she was arrested for shoplifting at a CVS Pharmacy where a witness saw her place two Black Box Cabernet Sauvignons into her bag. That year, his brother George Franklin rented an apartment in West Palm Beach, Florida and asked her friends in Starbucks to pretend they needed a house sitter. She was convinced to move in without knowing it was being paid by his brother at a cost of $2,100 a month. Also that year, her children emailed her but she never replied.
13. On July19, 2023, she died from heart failure in West Palm Beach. She was 76.