Jean Kerr

Date of Birth: July 10, 1922

Zodiac Sign: Cancer

Date of Death: January 5, 2003

Biography

Jean Kerr was an American author and playwright, best known for her humorous takes on domestic life and the trials and tribulations of being a wife and mother. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Kerr gained recognition for her witty and sharply observed writing style, which often drew from her own experiences. She graduated from Marywood Seminary and later attended Marywood College, where she earned a degree in English. Kerr furthered her education with a Master’s degree in Drama from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. In 1943, she married Walter Kerr, a drama critic, and they collaborated on several theatrical projects. Jean Kerr’s most famous work, “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies,” was published in 1957 and later adapted into a successful film and television series. Her other notable works include the plays “Mary, Mary” and “Poor Richard.” Jean Kerr passed away on January 5, 2003, in White Plains, New York, leaving behind a legacy of laughter and insight into the ordinary, yet complex, life of a family woman.

5 Interesting Facts about Jean Kerr

1. “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” was adapted into a 1960 film starring Doris Day and David Niven, and later into a television series that ran from 1965 to 1967.

2. Her play “Mary, Mary” was one of the longest-running plays in Broadway history, running for 1,572 performances.

3. Kerr and her husband Walter had six children, which often provided fodder for her humorous writings.

4. Although Kerr was a successful playwright, she also wrote for magazines such as The New Yorker and Ladies’ Home Journal.

5. She won the Outer Critics Circle Award for her play “King of Hearts” in 1978.

5 Most Interesting Quotes from Jean Kerr

1. “I’m tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That’s deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?”

2. “Women speak because they wish to speak, whereas a man speaks only when driven to speech by something outside himself—like, for instance, he can’t find any clean socks.”

3. “Even though a number of people have tried, no one has yet found a way to drink for a living.”

4. “Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent.”

5. “The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.”

Highest Net Worth Achieved

The highest net worth Jean Kerr achieved is estimated to be around $5 million at the peak of her career.

Children

Jean Kerr and her husband Walter Kerr had six children together: Christopher, twins Colin and John, Gilbert, Gregory, and Kitty. Her experiences raising them often inspired her writings.