Actress Jessie Jones, who found success as a comedy playwright with “Dearly Departed” and had many guest roles on television, died on March 20. She was 75.
She died in Washington, D.C., after a long illness, according to her friend and writing partner, Jamie Wooten.
According to her obituary, Jones was a “playwright, actress and damn fine cook.“
She “has made her final exit, stage left, leaving behind hit comedies, memorable performances, and recipes so delicious it would make your mouth jealous of your stomach,” her obituary read.
Jones was born in the Texas Panhandle on Aug. 21, 1950. She won a high school essay and speech contest before graduating from the University of Texas, Deadline reported.
Jessie Jones Dies: TV Actor & Prolific Playwright Was 75 https://t.co/13Fe98DL1d
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) April 1, 2026
She got her start on television during the late 1980s and appeared in guest roles on shows such as “Murphy Brown,” “Newhart,” “Night Court,” “Hooperman,” “Designing Women,” “Perfect Strangers,” “Melrose Place,” “Grace Under Fire,” “Judging Amy,” “Cold Case” and “Who’s the Boss?”
According to Variety, she also appeared in TV movies including “The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom,” “Everybody’s Baby: The Rescue of Baby Jessica,” and “Wife, Mother, Murderer.”
By 2000, Jones had pivoted from acting to writing plays, Deadline reported. Her works included the Southern-funeral comedy, “Dearly Departed,” and she co-wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of “Kingdom Come” that starred Whoopi Goldberg and LL Cool J, Variety reported.
In tandem with friends Wooten and Nicholas Hope, Jones created the Jones Hope Wooten Comedies. The trio wrote Southern-based plays such as “The Sweet Delilah Swim Club,” “The Red Velvet Cake War,” “Christmas Belles,” “The Savannah Sipping Society and 26 other titles, according to Variety.
“The art of writing comedy is where Jessie Jones found her most enduring, and certainly most explosive, success,” her obituary noted.
The listing went on to note that Jones “lit up every room she ever walked into, where her sparkling conversational skills were put on dazzling display.”
“The woman never met a stranger,” her obituary stated. “This incredibly gregarious and talented lady showed us all how to live a life fully, passionately and purposefully.”
©2026 Cox Media Group
