Shirley Mae Jones is an American singer and actress of stage, film and television. In her six decades of show business, she has starred as wholesome characters in a number of well-known musical films, such as Oklahoma! (1955), Carousel (1956), and The Music Man (1962). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a vengeful prostitute in Elmer Gantry (1960). She played the lead role of Shirley Partridge, the widowed mother of five children in the musical situation-comedy television series The Partridge Family (1970 74), which co-starred her real-life stepson David Cassidy, son of Jack Cassidy.
