Jean Kerr

Jean Kerr (July 10, 1922^[1]—January 5, 2003) was an American author and playwright.

Early life

Born Bridget Jean Collins in Scranton, Pennsylvania, her best-known book was Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1957), a humorous look at suburban life. The book was a national bestseller, later adapted for the screen as a vehicle for Doris Day and David Niven, and subsequently made into a sitcom.

Kerr was born to parents Tom and Kitty Collins, 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 Masters' 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'.^[2].

Career

With her husband, Jean 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 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 made in book form and became best-sellers.

She died in White Plains, New York, of pneumonia.

Books

• Please Don't Eat the Daisies
• The Snake Has All the Lines
• Penny Candy (1970)
• How I Got to be Perfect

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)

Notes

External links

• Life Magazine Images:Walter & Jean Kerr
• "The Theater:New Play in Manhattan". Time (New York, NY). 12 April 1954. http://time.com/magazine/article/0,9171,823340,00.html. Retrieved 18 October 2009. 
• "Children Run Longer Than Plays". Time (New York, NY). 14 April 1961. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,872288-1,00.html. Retrieved 5 December 2008. 
• Jean Kerr at Find a Grave