CLEVELAND— If I had a bucket list, the recent experience of speaking with Jayne Kennedy here at NABJ [National Association of Black Journalists] certainly checked all the boxes.
Scheduled for release in September, Kennedy’s “Plain Jayne” memoir, according to the Penguin Random House press release, “is a breathtaking story of endurance, survival, and achievement.” It describes the award-winning actress and sports broadcaster as “one of the most photographed, glamourous, and intriguing women ever” sharing “her candid and conversational storytelling,” added the release.
To my generation, Pam Grier was the IT in movies in the early 1970s. In the late ‘70s, Kennedy was our Lena Horne, the IT each week during the NFL season on CBS’s The NFL Today as the first Black woman on the Sunday pre-game program (1978-1980). Before that, Black women were only seen on television in non-sports roles, and rarely in lead roles.
She wasn’t blue-eyed or blonde, then and now the usual standard of American beauty, but rather Kennedy was the Black excellence of beauty that Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, and others of an earlier generation had established.
“That’s why the book is called ‘Plain Jayne’, because it’s not about being glamorous,” said Kennedy, now in her mid-70s, as she took questions from former ‘Ebony’ managing editor Lynn Norment during the hour-long program a couple of weeks ago. But she never dismissed the fact that she looked good then and now.
“I’ve been told that I’ve been on the cover more than anyone else,” she said proudly about her multiple “Jet Magazine” cover appearances over the years.
Kennedy’s memoir is 375 pages chock full of stories that made buying a copy well worth it. “It’s about me and my heart and soul,” stressed Kennedy. “I hope that people see that, and I tried to write the book that way.”
Earlier that day before Kennedy’s scheduled appearance at the NABJ Authors’ Showcase, we asked ESPN SportsCenter anchor Christine Williamson if she knew of the 1970s trailblazer. Admittedly, “No, I don’t,” said Williamson.
“I can’t imagine what it was like for her back in the ‘70s, because I know that there’s so many barriers that we’re still trying to cross today,” said the veteran sports studio anchor and analyst at ESPN since 2019.
Later after that encounter, Kennedy told me that she wasn’t surprised: “That’s exactly what I wanted to do [in publishing her memoir] is inspire others, because this shouldn’t be the only position for a Black woman. I’m very proud…they’ve never heard of me. I’m here to tell that’s why I came back.
“The message that I have, particularly for young women, is to believe in yourself and not to be afraid — you have to just do it. There were so many times in my life when people said you can’t do that. I never listened to them. I just forged my way forward.”
Kennedy also was honored by the NABJ Sports Task Force with the Sam Lacy Lifetime Achievement Award during the annual Lacy Pioneer Awards dinner and ceremony August 8 at the NABJ convention in Cleveland.
On her trailblazing and ground-breaking life, “It’s a legacy,” Kennedy said. “For those who have said they know me, and they were proud of me, thank you. I’m here to tell you that’s why I came back.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.