R.I.P.: Joni Lamb, Daystar TV Network Co-Founder, President

Joni, Marcus Lamb

Joni Lamb, president and co-founder of Daystar Television Network, a major Christian televangelism broadcaster, died lasrt Thursday. She was 65.

Daystar announced her death on its website, attributing it to “serious health matters” that were worsened by a recent back injury. The announcement did not specify where she died.

Lamb and her husband, Marcus Lamb, built Daystar into a prominent Christian media empire, turning their family into stars of Christian entertainment. The couple launched the network in Texas in 1997 after starting their first Christian TV station in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1985.Their journey began during a 1983 trip to Jerusalem shortly after they married, when Marcus Lamb felt called by God to start a Christian television station. 

The couple invested their modest savings and energy into the venture, eventually expanding to own 24 stations nationwide. By 2010, Daystar had become the second-largest Christian broadcaster in the U.S. after Trinity Broadcasting Network, reaching audiences in more than 200 countries, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Compared with other televangelists, the Lambs “are younger and come across as more ordinary folks,” rival Christian broadcaster president David Clark told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2001. “They come across as being sincere.”