Shirley seems to have a Jones for sex

LOS ANGELES - Shirley Jones appears every inch the ladylike Marian the librarian or sweet farm girl Laurey or cheerfully steady Mrs. Partridge. Her makeup is discreet and her silver hair tidy.

It all adds up to the publicly familiar Shirley Jones, whose crystalline soprano voice and dewy prettiness made her an immediate star in the 1950s film versions of "Oklahoma!" and "Carousel," and who captured a subsequent generation of fans in TV's "The Partridge Family" in the 1970s.

Then there's Shirley Jones, her new autobiography, which turns the 79-year-old actress' image on its head in startling - even shocking - ways.

There's a recounting of her early life and dazzling career. But a substantial part of the book is spent on her troubled marriage to the late Jack Cassidy, the glossily handsome actor and singer whom she describes in a passage as her first lover and "sexual Svengali," and whose lessons she shares candidly.

That includes - X-rated spoiler alert - Cassidy's impressive endowment, Jones' own "highly sexed" nature that made orgasms a breeze, their threesome with another woman ("yuck," she says, when asked about the onetime experiment), Cassidy's pre-marital sexual encounter with Cole Porter that Jones says left her unfazed, and her apparent tolerance for his infidelities.

Her sexuality remains unabated, said the naturally youthful-looking Jones (healthy eating, daily exercise and no plastic surgery, she said). She is eager to quash the idea that age kills passion or friskiness.