Shirley Jones

Actress and singer whose claim to fame was the tambourine-playing mother, Shirley Partridge, on The Partridge Family, where she starred with her stepson David Cassidy. Shirley Mae Jones was born in Pennsylvania; Paul and Marjorie Jones named their only child after the beloved and famous Shirley Temple. Jones began her singing career at the age of six in the Methodist Church Choir and took voice lessons from Ralph Lewando. She attended the Pittsburgh Playhouse in 1952 and went on to New York in 1953. It was here that she landed her first musical role on Broadway as a nurse in ...