Plain Jayne: A Memoir

From award-winning actress and sports broadcaster Jayne Kennedy comes a compelling, inspirational, and unflinchingly honest memoir about her rise in Hollywood and beyond.

Jayne Kennedy is one of the most photographed, glamorous, and intriguing women ever to set foot in Hollywood. Perhaps best known for her groundbreaking work in 1978-1980 on the Emmy Award-winning CBS program The NFL Today, she's an icon and trailblazer in every sense of the word. From becoming the first Black woman to win Miss Ohio USA, to being the only woman to host the long-running syndicated television show Greatest Sports Legends, and pioneering the fitness industry with her bestselling Love Your Body exercise videos and fitness programs, nobody has had a career trajectory quite like Jayne. And she has never gone on the record about her personal experiences and the resulting joys and scars--until now.

Her candid and conversational storytelling will endear her once again to her existing fans as well as open her up to a new audience that will admire her message of resilience and empowerment. Jayne has long been a beacon of Black and female excellence and has opened doors for female talent and media executives. Inducted into the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in their Television and the Media Landscape exhibit, Jayne is indeed a pioneer. Tracing her upbringing in Ohio and her journey shattering glass ceilings in American contemporary culture, Plain Jayne is a breathtaking story of endurance, survival, and achievement.

Author: Jayne Kennedy
Publisher: Andscape Books
Published: 09/02/2025
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.27lbs
Size: 9.21h x 5.98w x 1.42d
ISBN: 9781368110952

About the Author
JAYNE KENNEDY is an actress, sports broadcaster, television personality, writer, and producer. Her accolades for being a trailblazer are numerous, including the National Sports Media Association's Roone Arledge Award for Innovation, Black Enterprise's Women of Power Summit's Legacy Award, and the NAACP Image Award for Best Actress for the film Body & Soul, which she also produced. Viacom/BET named her one of the Ten Black Female Firsts in TV Journalism Around the World, and in 2018 she was inducted to the prestigious Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington D.C., in the Television and the Media Landscape exhibit, presented in the Oprah Winfrey Wing of the institution.