Jayne Kennedy Overton

Nov 30, 2011 on TV one at 8:00 PM

Summary

When Jayne Kennedy-Overton became the first African-American woman to be crowned Miss Ohio, she established herself as the trailblazer that she would continue to be through many stages of her career. Kennedy-Overton briefly modeled with the Wilhelmi... (more)na Modeling Agency, then headed West and got work as a dancer on both the Dean Martin Show and Laugh-In. But it was her work with Muhammad Ali Professional Sports and CBS's NFL Today that she is most known for. Kennedy-Overton became the first women sportscaster when she co-hosted NFL Today. Having made a name for herself in broadcasting, Kennedy-Overton also had great success as an actress, winning an NAACP Image Award for her performance in Body & Soul, where she played opposite her first husband, Leon Isaac Kennedy. As a promotion for the film, Kennedy Overton became the first African American woman to grace the cover of Playboy. Her divorce from Leon Isaac Kennedy resulted in a less distinguished "first" - Kennedy found herself unwittingly the star of the first celebrity sex tape. After the breakup Leon released their private home video to the public - the tape is still a big seller over 30 years after the fact. Kennedy Overton re-established herself in the 80s as a fitness guru with her workout video, Love Your Body, and became a spokeswoman for the soft-drink Tab. She married actor Bill Overton, and left the limelight to start a family and raise three children.

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Nov 23, 2011

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