Introduction:

For those of you who remember me as the innocent, blond, blue-eyed ingnue of Oklahoma! and
Carousel and The Music Man, the real-life, everyday me is far removed from the characters of Laurey, Julie, and Marian the librarian. While I was proud to sing great American standards such as People Will Say Were in Love, If I Loved You, and Till There Was You for the very first time on-screen, I have never myself been that innocent or ever been that kind of an ingnue. Similarly, for those of you who remember me as Mrs. Partridge of The Partridge Family, while I adored being a real-life mother to my four boys (Shaun, Patrick, Ryan, and David, who is my stepson), I am nowhere near as breezy and uncomplicated as Mrs. Partridge. And Im not a spoiled Hollywood movie star or a jaded TV icon, either. Deep down I am a small-town girl from Smithton, Pennsylvania, who made movies with such actors as Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Burt Lancaster, Glenn Ford, David Niven, Rossano Brazzi, and Pat Boone. I appeared on TV with my stepson, David Cassidy, and the rest of the wonderful cast of The Partridge Family, but also with Farrah Fawcett, Richard Pryor, Jerry Lewis, and Dean Martin. I partied with Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Joan Collins; I performed for President Eisenhower, President Johnson, President Ford, President Reagan, and the first President Bush; and I rubbed shoulders with Sammy Davis Jr., Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Orson Welles, Warren Beatty, George C. Scott, and Cary Grant. And I was married twice: first to the ultimate lothario, Tony Awardwinning star Jack Cassidy, and then to the zany actor/producer Marty Ingels, who is my current husband. Along the way, I won an Academy Award as well. But deep down I remain that small-town girl from Smithton, Pennsylvania, and in the dead of the night, in my secret soul, I still sometimes wish I had taken a different path and never gone into show business, but followed my dreams and become a veterinarian instead. In this memoir you are going to meet the real, flesh-and-blood Shirley Jones, not just the movie star or Mrs. Partridge. While my life may, on the surface, seem to be full of glitter and glamour, from the inside looking out that is far from the whole. In my private life, Ive had struggles, dilemmas, and tragediessome of the same struggles, dilemmas, and tragedies that many other women of my generation have had to cope with: the early death of a parent, marriage to a rampantly unfaithful first husband, watching helplessly while a child battled a drug habit, trying to make peace between a second husband and children from a previous marriage, and all the usual challenges in growing old. And then there is my sexuality, when I was in my prime and now that I am on the threshold of my eighties. I plan to tell the truth about that aspect of my life, and to rip away the seven veils and reveal every facet of Shirley Jones, however shocking that may be to you or Mrs. Partridge or Marian the librarian. So bring out the smelling salts, hang on to your hats, and get ready for the surprise of your lives!