SHIRLEY JONES - A Life of Fame, Family & Faith

THE VETERAN ACTRESS’ PRIVATE LIFE ALWAYS TOOK PRECEDENT OVER WINNING AWARDS

- Amanda Champagne-Meadows

Three generations of her family turned out to commemorate Shirley Jones’ performance in 1962’s The Music Man. “This movie is very personal for our family on a number of levels,” her eldest son, Shaun Cassidy, shared at a screening during the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival. “Four weeks into rehearsal, my mother took the director to lunch and said, ‘I have something to tell you. I’m pregnant!’ ”

The director, Morton DaCosta, promised to keep Shirley’s secret. He disguised her pregnancy with her second son, Patrick, with bustles during the filming of the movie, set in 1912, but the in utero baby refused to be ignored. Months later, as “she and [Robert] Preston are singing on that footbridge, he stepped back and said, ‘What the hell was that?’ ” said Shaun.

“My mother looked down and realized that Patrick had just kicked Preston from the womb!”

Even as Shirley racked up acclaim, including an Oscar, for her singing and acting, family and faith played enormous roles in her life. “I was never without my kids,” Shirley, 89, told Closer in 2014. “I took them everywhere on movie locations — Spain, Italy, England.”