Unlike Trixie, she acts only as the hostess and not as a prostitute herself. Joanie Stubbs was abused by her father, who used her to coerce her sisters to sleep with him to "see to his needs since Mama was gone," as she stated.
Her father was also known to have pimped her sisters out as prostitutes. Cy Tolliver bought her from her father. Joanie arrives in Deadwood in a wagon train for the Bella Union , along with Cy Tolliver and a group of prostitutes. Al Swearengen visits the new establishment in fear of it taking away business from the Gem. She encourages him to return when it opens that evening. Al tries to converse with Cy to attempt to agree on rates so not to start any arguments or competition, to which Joanie says they are going to let the market sort itself out.
She later speaks with Cy while Bill Hickok is playing cards. Cy encourages Joanie to spread her wings and form her own brothel, though he may not be very committed to the idea.
She leaves the Bella Union to open the Chez Amis , importing high-class and experienced prostitutes from the East with her friend Maddie. Unfortunately, Maddie has funded the operation with funds from Francis Wolcott who is violent toward women and has killed prostitutes before.
When Tolliver discovers this and tries to blackmail Wolcott, Wolcott kills several of the women including Maddie. Joanie arranges for the surviving prostitutes to be spirited to safety by Charlie Utter , but remains sitting alone in her shuttered place of business with her dreams of independence destroyed.
