Jessie Jones, “Murphy Brown” Actress and Acclaimed Playwright, Dies at 75
Jessie Jones, a veteran TV actress and the playwright behind some of the most-produced comedies in American theater history, died March 20 in Washington, D.C., after a long illness. She was 75.
Her death was confirmed by her writing partner and lifelong friend Jamie Wooten, who described her as "a beautiful, hilarious and strong Texas woman with personality plus."
A Life That Started in the Texas Panhandle
Jones was born on August 21, 1950, in the Texas Panhandle. She won a high school essay and speech contest before graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, where her college years were filled with theater and design. She also worked for President Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson at their Austin television station before moving into acting.
Her path into performance began after meeting Nicholas Hope, who asked her to take the lead in his play. From there she built a career that would eventually span two industries.
Two Decades on Television
Jones made her TV debut in 1989 with guest appearances on "Newhart" and "Hooperman," and quickly became a familiar face in American sitcoms throughout the 1990s. Her credits included "Murphy Brown," "Night Court," "Perfect Strangers," "Designing Women," "Who's the Boss?," "Grace Under Fire," "Melrose Place," "Judging Amy," and "Cold Case."
Her most memorable TV role came in a Season 3 episode of "Murphy Brown," where she played Mrs. Betty Hooley — a woman randomly chosen by Candice Bergen's character to be interviewed on air, who turns out to be a bigot. She also appeared in the 1991 film "Switch," the Judy Blume adaptation "Fudge," and the short-lived WB series "You're the One."
Jones picked up TV writing credits on the WB sitcom "For Your Love" and the Emmy-winning children's series "Teacher's Pet" before transitioning fully to the stage.
The Playwright Who Changed American Theater
Comedy writing, as her obituary put it, was where Jones "found her most enduring, and certainly most explosive, success."
Her breakthrough came with "Dearly Departed," a Southern funeral comedy she co-wrote with David Bottrell that premiered Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre in December 1991. The play — centered on a dysfunctional Southern family gathering after the death of its patriarch — spread rapidly through American regional and community theater, performed thousands of times across the country. It was later adapted into the 2001 Fox Searchlight film "Kingdom Come," starring Whoopi Goldberg, LL Cool J, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Anthony Anderson, and Toni Braxton, with Jones co-writing the screenplay.
The success of "Dearly Departed" launched the writing partnership that would define her legacy. Together with Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, Jones formed the Jones Hope Wooten Comedies — a catalog of more than two dozen Southern-flavored plays published and licensed through Concord Theatricals. Their titles include "The Sweet Delilah Swim Club," "The Red Velvet Cake War," "Christmas Belles," "The Savannah Sipping Society," and "Always a Bridesmaid," among more than two dozen others.
The plays have been performed in all 50 U.S. states and more than 25 countries, translated into multiple languages including Japanese and Bulgarian. Wooten described Jones as the most-produced female American playwright — a title that, by any measure of performance history, is not hyperbole.
A Life Lived Fully
In her later years, Jones enrolled in culinary school, taught salsa dancing, and traveled the world. Her obituary describes her as someone who "lit up every room she entered" and whose final word was "beautiful."
She requested no formal celebration of life, with Wooten noting that she felt every performance of one of her plays already served as a celebration. Some of her ashes will be scattered in Rome, a city she loved deeply.
Jones is survived by her sisters Ellen and Laura, brother-in-law Jim McCarthy, niece Margaret McCarthy, nephews Tommy McCarthy, Todd Hyso and Paul Hyso, and her grand-nieces and cousins. Her family asked that donations in her memory be made to Planned Parenthood.
"Jessie Jones did something amazing with her one wild and precious life," Wooten wrote. "She made the world laugh."
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