Jane Anne Jayroe: Beauty Queen and Media Mogul

Jane Anne Jayroe Photo Credit:http://studentorg.richmond.edu/axo/famous_alpha_chi_alumnae.htm

Her eyes are icy blue like frozen crystals in the Arctic, but they radiate warmth and friendliness contrasting the cold color when she laughs. When she grins, she exposes her nearly perfect pearly-white smile- the same smile that captured the hearts of America in 1967 and helped to win her the illustrious broadcast personality title in Oklahoma and Texas. Jan Anne Jayroe is legend in Sooner Country and in the United States alike for a respectable reason.
Jayroe was born in Clinton, Oklahoma but spent many of her childhood years growing up in Laverne, Oklahoma. She attended Oklahoma City University where she entered the Miss Oklahoma pageant with the help of her sorority. Not only did Jayroe win the Miss Oklahoma title in 1966, she also went on in pursuit of the Miss America title in 1967. After winning the Miss America Pageant, Jayroe married and began to have children. At the age of thirty she had fallen on hard financial times and accepted a job with the state board of education hosting a small “throw-away” show.
Jayroe’s career skyrocketed when the producers of the small government show she worked on sent in a tape to the ABC affiliate in Oklahoma City. When the producers of the ABC station saw her tape, they quickly offered her a job, which she readily accepted. A few years later, the NBC affiliates in Dallas saw tapes of Jayroe and also offered a position as a news anchor on their primetime news program. While in Dallas, Jayroe won the award for “Outstanding News Personality” and received much acclaim for it. After working for four years in Dallas Jayroe returned to Oklahoma City where she lives today with her husband hosting a small program promoting Oklahoma travel.
While Jayroe has an impressive past career, she still has much to say and advise about the current news industry.
“It is very hard to be a mother and a news anchor,” Jayroe said. “Many people think the industry is so glamorous, but in reality it is a lot of hard work and it is very time consuming. If women want to be mothers and work in this business, they have to realize this.”
While being a mother and a media professional is hard, there are other influences to the news industry that could hinder one’s career. According to stateofthemedia.org, evening news viewership was at about 50 million in 1980 and was about 20 million in 2008. This steady decline of viewers makes accessing a job for a journalist difficult.
Jane Jayroe’s career is inspirational to many who aspire to be media professionals. Her wise insight into news industry workings is still applicable to modern journalism. Without Jayroe, the Oklahoma news industry would not shine as bright.