Julia Evans Reed

Reed was born in Greenville, Mississippi. She attended the Madeira School, a boarding school in McLean, Virginia. She studied at Georgetown University and American University.[1] Her father, Clarke Reed, was the state chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party for over 10 years. Her mother, Judy Brooks Reed, was from a prominent Nashville family. She grew up hosting and entertaining William F. Buckley Jr. and George and Barbara Bush.[2] When she was thirteen years old, Reed served as a page at the Delta Debutante Club Ball.[3] She was later invited to make her debut at the ball, but declined.[3] Her father was businessman and republican party leader Clarke Reed.[4]

Reed wrote her first article for the Washington Bureau of Newsweek magazine in 1980, when she covered the story about the former headmistress of Madeira shooting her partner Herman Tarnower.[5] She continued with the magazine as a contributing editor and columnist.[6]

Reed started as contributing editor for "Garden & Gun" in 2008 and remained in that position until her death. She was also an editor and writer for Vogue magazine since 1988, where she wrote about politics and culture and did profiles on the Clintons and Bushes and interviews with Oprah Winfrey and Tammy Wynette.[1] She was a contributor to the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, the Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, and Elle Décor.[7]

She was a founding member of the Delta Hot Tamale Festival.[8] Reed opened a bookstore, Brown Water Books, in Wetherbee House in Greenville. She was co-founder of Reed-Smythe Co., an online business supporting independent artisans. In 2019, she was named Cultural Ambassador of Mississippi’s Arts Commission.[9] She served on the board of the Ogden Museum of Art in New Orleans, the Eudora Welty Foundation, and the Link Stryjewski Foundation.[1]

Reed wrote several books on cooking, entertaining, and southern lifestyle.[10]

Her books include:[11][12]

But Mama Always Puts Vodka in Her Sangria

Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns, and Other Southern Specialties

Queen of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena.

The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story (P.S.)

Julia Reed’s New Orleans: Food, Fun, and Field Trips for Letting the Good Times Roll[13]

Julia Reed's South: Spirited Entertaining and High-Style Fun All Year Long

One Man's Folly: The Exceptional Houses of Furlow Gatewood

South Toward Home: Adventures and Misadventures in My Native Land

S Is for Southern: A Guide to the South, from Absinthe to Zydeco (Garden & Gun Books)

Reed was once engaged to an Australian foreign correspondent.[2] Reed was married to John Pearce; the couple divorced in 2016.[5] She maintained two residences in New Orleans and Mississippi, in a property adjacent to her childhood home.[14]