{"id":557838,"date":"2026-04-01T08:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/557838\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T08:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:11:09","slug":"actress-and-playwright-was-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/557838\/","title":{"rendered":"Actress and Playwright Was 75"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJessie Jones, a TV actress who became a succesful playwright with \u201cDearly Departed<\/a>\u201d and the Jones Hope Wooten Comedies, died March 20 in Washington, D.C. after a long illness. <\/p>\n

\n\tHer friend and writing partner Jamie Wooten announced her death. <\/p>\n

\n\tThroughout the \u201980s, \u201990s and beyond, Jones had guest appearances in shows including \u201cNight Court,\u201d \u201cNewhart,\u201d \u201cDesigning Women,\u201d \u201cMurphy Brown,\u201d where she played Betty Hooley, \u201cWho\u2019s the Boss,\u201d \u201cPerfect Strangers,\u201d \u201c\u201dGrace Under Fire\u201d and \u201cMelrose Place.\u201d She also appeared in TV movies including \u201cThe Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom,\u201d \u201cEverybody\u2019s Baby: The Rescue of Baby Jessica,\u201d (where she starred alongside Patty Duke and Beau Bridges), and the oft-shown \u201cWife, Mother, Murderer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe also wrote episodes of the Warner Bros. sitcom \u201cFor Your Love\u201d and installments of the children\u2019s series \u201cTeacher\u2019s Pet,\u201d starring Nathan Lane. <\/p>\n

\n\tAs Jones wound down her acting career, she became a successful playwright and co-created the Off-Broadway Southern funeral comedy \u201cDearly Departed,\u201d which went on to be performed by theater companies across the country. She also co-wrote the screenplay for Fox Searchlight\u2019s film adaptation \u201cKingdom Come\u201d with Whoopi Goldberg and LL Cool J. <\/p>\n

\n\tShe formed a writing partnership with her friends Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, and they went on to create Southern-flavored comedies such as \u201cThe Sweet Delilah Swim Club,\u201d \u201cThe Red Velvet Cake War,\u201d \u201cChristmas Belles,\u201d \u201cThe Savannah Sipping Society and 26 other titles, published by Concord Theatricals. The Jones Hope Wooten Comedies have been widely produced and translated into many languages. Her partner Wooten said she was the most-produced female American playwright.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe is survived by her sisters, a brother-in-law, a niece and nephews, and by her friend and writing partner Wooten.<\/p>\n

\n\tDonations may be made to Planned Parenthood<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jessie Jones, a TV actress who became a succesful playwright with \u201cDearly Departed\u201d and the Jones Hope Wooten…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,247528,88,247529],"class_list":["post-557838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-dearly-departed","tag-entertainment","tag-jackie-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}