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Broadway actress, singer, Shirley Jones gets honorary W&J degree
5/21/2005, 3:05 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) — Shirley Jones is finally getting the college degree that was delayed by a 50-plus year career on Broadway, movies and as the rock 'n' roll mom to television's Partridge Family.
Jones, 71, received an honorary doctor of fine arts degree Saturday at Washington & Jefferson College's 206th commencement.
Jones was raised in Smithton, about 25 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, and about as far due east of the college that will honor her. After graduating high school, Jones planned to study veterinary medicine — after she returned from a summer trip to New York City, financed with $160 borrowed from her father.
But Jones didn't return home or to college after she tried out for the chorus of "South Pacific" and Rogers and Hammerstein cast her in the Broadway production.
"I wanted to become a veterinarian. As God would have it, I was given another path to follow," Jones told the Observer-Reporter of Washington, Pa. "But I most miss not necessarily getting the degree, but the broad experiences you can only get in college."
Besides starring on Broadway, Jones won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1961 for her role as a prostitute in "Elmer Gantry." She gained a new generation of fans playing the role of Shirley Partridge alongside her real-life stepson, David Cassidy, in TV's "Partridge Family."
