Playwright Jessie Jones Dies At 75
The Jones Hope Wooten writer became one of the most widely produced playwrights in American theatre
Jessie Jones, a playwright whose comedies became staples of regional and community theatre across the United States, died March 20 in Washington, D.C., following a long illness. She was 75.
Best known for her work as part of the writing trio Jones Hope Wooten, Jones co-authored more than two dozen plays with collaborators Jamie Wooten and Nicholas Hope. Their Southern-set comedies, including Dearly Departed, The Sweet Delilah Swim Club, The Red Velvet Cake War, Christmas Belles, and The Savannah Sipping Society, have been widely produced in all 50 states and more than 25 countries.
Published by Concord Theatricals, the group’s plays became mainstays for regional, stock, and amateur companies, with Wooten noting that Jones was the most-produced female American playwright.
Dearly Departed, one of her best-known works, premiered Off-Broadway and went on to be adapted into the Fox Searchlight film Kingdom Come.
Jones also enjoyed a career as a television character actor, appearing in numerous series throughout the 1980s and ’90s. Her credits included guest roles on Murphy Brown, Newhart, Night Court, Designing Women, Perfect Strangers, Grace Under Fire, Melrose Place, Judging Amy, Cold Case, and Who’s the Boss?.
Her family has requested that donations in her memory be made to Planned Parenthood.
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