τPAR@ ` τTEXT ` ┘Kerr, Jean Collins1923╨writer and criticBorn in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in July 1923, Jean Collins graduated from Marywood College in her native city in 1943. In August 1943 she married Walter F. Kerr, then a professor of drama at Catholic University of America, where she had attended summer sessions, and later drama critic for the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Times. She received an M.F.A. degree from Catholic University in 1945. In March 1946 their collaborative adaptation of Franz Werfel╒s novel The Song of Bernadette was produced on Broadway. It was a commercial failure but a worthy apprentice piece. Jean Kerr alone wrote Jenny Kissed Me, which was produced in December 1948 with only slightly greater success. Touch and Go, for which the Kerrs wrote sketches and lyrics, ran for 176 performances from its opening in October 1949, and Jean Kerr╒s sketches in John Murray Anderson╒s Almanac in 1953╨1954 were highly praised. With Eleanor Brooke she wrote King of Hearts, a comedy directed by Walter Kerr that opened in April 1954 and ran for 279 performances. In 1957 she published a collection of comic sketches on domestic life, some of them previously printed in magazines, under the title Please Don╒t Eat the Daisies. The book was a best seller and spawned a popular motion picture and later a television series under the same title. The Snake Has All the Lines, 1960, was in the same vein as the earlier book. Mary, Mary opened on Broadway in March 1961 and enjoyed a huge success, running for 1572 performances before closing in December 1964. Her next play, Finishing Touches, ran from February to July 1973. Other books of hers included Poor Richard, a play, 1964, Penny Candy, 1970, How I Got To Be Perfect, a collection of essays, 1978, and Lunch Hour, a play, 1980. One of the leading producers of light comic prose, Jean Kerr was the recipient of a number of honors, including, with her husband, the 1971 Laetare Medal from the University of Notre Dame. ▐styl ` $ ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ , !I \ !I j !I s !I ü !I ╞ 5¬ ╟ !I !I " !I É !I ƒ !I Ω !I ÷ !I ò !I £ !I ▐ !I ∞ !I ═ !I Θ !I a !I | !I » !I ╣ !I F !I W !I ù !I ú !I │ !I ╛ !I ╞ !I ▌ !I !I !I link `
