Jean Kerr
Jean Kerr | |
|---|---|
| Born | Bridget Jean Collins July 10, 1922 Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Died | January 5, 2003 (aged 80) White Plains, New York, USA |
| Occupation | Author Playwright |
| Nationality | Irish-American |
| Notable awards | Tony Award (1961, for King of Hearts) |
| Spouse | Walter Kerr |
Jean Kerr (July 10, 1922[1] – January 5, 2003) was an Irish-American author and playwright born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and best known for her humorous bestseller, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, and the plays King of Hearts and Mary, Mary.
Personal life
Born Bridget Jean Collins in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Tom and Kitty Collins, Kerr grew up on Electric Street in Scranton, and attended Marywood Seminary, the topic of her humorous short story "When I was Queen of the May." She received a Bachelor's Degree from Marywood College in Scranton and later attended The Catholic University of America, where she received her master's degree and met then-professor Walter Kerr. She later married Kerr, who went on to become a well-known New York drama critic, and they had six children—Christopher, twins Colin and John, Gilbert, Gregory, and Kitty. The Kerrs bought a home in New Rochelle, New York, where Jean wrote King of Hearts, before settling in Larchmont.[2][3] She died in White Plains, New York, of pneumonia, in 2003.
Career
With her husband, Kerr wrote Goldilocks (1958), a short-lived Broadway musical comedy about the early days of silent film. She wrote several highly successful plays, including the Tony Award-winning King of Hearts, as well as the comedy Mary, Mary, which ran for over 1,500 performances and, for a time, held the record for the longest-running non-musical play on Broadway.
She also wrote many humorous magazine essays, typically about her family. Several collections of these were later published in book form and became best-sellers. Her best-known book was Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1957), a humorous look at suburban life from the point of view of former city dwellers. The book was a national bestseller, later adapted for the screen as a vehicle for Doris Day and David Niven and subsequently the basis of a television situation comedy starring Pat Crowley.
Books
- Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1957)
- The Snake has all the Lines (1960)
- Penny Candy (1970)
- How I got to be Perfect (1979)
Plays
- The Song of Bernadette (1946)
- Jenny Kissed Me (1948)
- Touch-and-Go (1949)
- John Murray Anderson's Almanac (1953)
- King of Hearts (1954)
- Goldilocks: A Musical (1958)
- Mary, Mary (1961)
- Poor Richard (1964)
- Finishing Touches (1973)
- Lunch Hour (1980)
References
- Notes
- ^ Some sources cite 1923, but the Social Security Death Index gives her date of birth as 1922.
- ^ The Theater: New Play in Manhattan, April 12, 1954
- ^ Silberstein, Judy; Eisenberg, Paula (March 18, 2003). ""Please Don't Eat the Daisies" House on the Market: An Intimate Tour". Larchmont Gazette. Lynxcom New Media. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
External links
- Walter and Jean Kerr Papers at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
- Life Magazine Images:Walter & Jean Kerr
- "The Theater:New Play in Manhattan". Time. New York, NY. 12 April 1954. Retrieved 18 October 2009.
- "Children Run Longer Than Plays". Time. New York, NY. 14 April 1961. Retrieved 5 December 2008.
- Jean Kerr at Find a Grave
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1922 births
- 2003 deaths
- Marywood University alumni
- 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
- Catholic University of America alumni
- People from Scranton, Pennsylvania
- People from New Rochelle, New York
- Writers from New York
- Writers from Pennsylvania
- People from Larchmont, New York
- Laetare Medal recipients
- American women dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century women writers
- American Roman Catholics