Overview
- Jones, whose death was announced by partner Jamie Wooten, died March 20 in Washington, D.C., after a long illness.
- She built a busy run as a character actor with roles on Murphy Brown, Night Court and Newhart, including a noted turn as Betty Hooley on Murphy Brown.
- She later co-created the Off-Broadway comedy Dearly Departed, which spread to stages across the country and led to Fox Searchlight’s film Kingdom Come featuring Whoopi Goldberg and LL Cool J.
- Writing as Jones Hope Wooten with Wooten and Nicholas Hope, she published more than two dozen Southern-flavored comedies with Concord Theatricals that were staged in every U.S. state and over 25 countries.
- Wooten said she was the most-produced female American playwright, and her family listed surviving relatives and asked that memorial donations go to Planned Parenthood.