“ Plain Jayne ” by Jayne Kennedy, extinguished the career of the NE Ohio to the role of revolutionary television and beyond

Cleveland, Ohio – Watching the NFL in the late 1970s was not as if it was today – no internet, no cable contracts and certainly no flashy graphics. If you listened to yourself, there was a good chance that you are watching Brent Musburger Anchor which would be the prototypical studio studio, “The NFL Today”, with the former player Irv Cross as an analyst and Jimmy the Greek offering predictions in his non -polished way. But the other face viewers were then an anomaly with a sports cover, an African-American woman named Jayne Kennedy.

Kennedy’s life covers a large and diverse CV. Now 73 years old, his memory “Plain Jayne” was released today – Tuesday, September 2. The title is an improper term, because it is anything but simple.

Kennedy grew up in Wickliffe, and memories of growth among six children in his family during her years of training resonate with her.

“Some people say:” Why are you spending so much time on this part of your life in this book, why don’t you say it in Hollywood? “” She told Cleveland.com. “But I had to say it because it is who I am. This is one of the reasons why the book called “Plain Jayne”. Because it’s me in my heart.

As she writes in the book: “Wickliffe would always be my attachment base, my refuge.”

Its accessible memories support the Ohio northeast reader on the two coasts. It was a project that dates back 25 years.

Years ago, she was doing a television show with the Psychic Kenny Kingston, who insisted: “You know who you want you to write this book? Your grandmother.”

“It cut me off,” she said about the woman she was named and who had happened years ago.

She had a lot of material to write, which created the enigma of what to withdraw. Some memories are fun with authors trapped in a self-aging manner, but Kennedy offers honest catches on what she has accomplished and endured. And she tried to stay humble.

“Even when I won Miss Ohio, I didn’t know I had won. I never saw myself like “Oh Jayne, you are all that. I have never been this type of person. In fact, when she heard “the new Miss Ohio is Jayne Harrison”, she looked around saying: “Who will win, who will win? My sister had to push me, “Jayne, you won”. I always kept my feet on the ground.

“I promised myself that I would never become anyone that Jayne de Wickliffe, Ohio.”

She grew up by idolatrating Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to become an American deputy and she had the chance to meet in Cleveland. She thought about a career in theater or politics. She shaped in adolescence, made television advertisements in Cleveland and spent eight years as an actress. When she heard of the opening on “NFL Today”, she thought: “I can do this job”.

But when he pushed a hearing, he was said to him: “They don’t look for anyone like you.” Translated: they wanted a journalist, and they wanted a white woman. She was not discouraged and found a final race to get a seat at the table: she called Jim Brown, who called in her name. This led to a meeting where she found herself in a room of 16 finalists for the position – and the list started with 2,000 candidates.

It was Kennedy and 16 blond women. But she was there, she was breathing and let the pressure relax it. The configuration test interviews gave candidates for a very short time to prepare. She found her subject and, instead of embarking on a Q and one to prepare, they played Backgammon, a favorite game. This has relaxed them both.

“I said,” I’m just going to be me, I don’t have to exaggerate, I have nothing to prove. “”

But this interview process went well, then was a huge vote of trust.

Musburger got up and said, “It’s Jayne or nobody.”

During her career, she had the chance to interview the boxing promoter Don King (“A whole character”) and the Minnesota Fats (“My father’s father”). But one of the most pivotal figures that has become an ally was Muhammad Ali.

Once, for an Ali-Joe Frazier fight, she jumped a fence in Cleveland to see television in the near circuit.

“They occurred the tickets so that people at the front were trying to go out and everyone in the back tried to enter. And there were tons of people and everyone was growing, pushed, pushed. And they had glass windows, and we ended up being pushed by the glass window. ”

She came out unscathed. She would forge a friendship with the great fighter, who would serve her well in her emerging days in CBS.

His initial contract was only for six weeks as a kind of test. She was in her second week and landed in New York before Ali’s famous revenge with Leon Spinks in New Orleans.

She heard a group of CBS staff frustrated at not having had an interview aligned with Ali. She dodged and said, “I can get you the interview.”

“They looked at me and said,” Who are you? “”

“I wanted to prove to them:” I can do it, get involved for the year “. They didn’t pay me much anyway.

She convinced the network to have her fly in New Orleans and she won the interview.

“The next day,” she said, “I had my contract.”

His ingenuity was not unique. She found ways to survive and move forward. At the beginning, CBS did not pay for her wardrobe, then she concluded an agreement: if I find a shop that provides my outfit, will you give them credit? The network accepted, and this is how a company belonging to blacks in Manhattan, Zagobi Boutique, won a line in generation each week before millions of football fans.

Football was, and is a passion for Kennedy with a strange favorite trio: the Browns of Cleveland, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys.

She remembers a main road near her home with “each door with brown paper on it for Cleveland’s Browns”. Kennedy also ended up working for Browns’ youth programs for about a year before leaving for Los Angeles after winning Miss Ohio in 1970.

For the Steelers, the steel curtain praised has drew its attention, and over the years, the quarter-back Terry Bradshaw has become a good friend.

Then there were the Cowboys, a team that drew its affinity after a cousin took it to a ice cream store. The cousin’s boyfriend, who played for Dallas, bought him a float of banana ice cream. He also bought a fan for life, she said.

Thanks to all her jobs and her interests, she knew something true: she had to get involved in everything she wanted to do – singer, dancer, product girl on Johnny Carson, background dancer, actress, journalist, businesswoman.

“I did not hesitate in my mind,” she said. “None of anything.”

This quiet confidence came when few women were on the sidelines and less in the studio, unlike today with several networks and websites covering all the angles of each game.

“I think you have to be completely persistent,” she offers young women as advice. “You cannot let anyone say no.”

His life and interests are as varied as his CV, an innate curiosity that helped him as a journalist. She appreciated the Beatles. She was an precocious exercise entrepreneur, producing and playing in “Love Your Body” videos.

She also sewn. His mother taught all the daughters of the family how to sew. As Jayne Harrison arrived in domestic economics in high school, she was pro. She had three months to make an apron; It took him two days. Years later, she obtained a last minute ticket for the Oscars. In two days, she designed an outfit.

She always goes strong, an elegant 73. She makes fine jewelry and has a outing perfume. And she launched a company called, appropriately, not yet finished – the mantra of her life.

“I would like people to know that I opened doors to follow it,” she said. “It could be commonplace to say that because many people say that. But I can see the real doors that I opened. ”

By Jayne Kennedy, Andcape Books, 384 pages. $ 28.99.

More information: Jayne Kennedy on Facebook

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