From a young age, Jeannette Clift George, a Lamar alumni, dreamed of becoming a world renowned actress and “making it” in New York City. Before her unfortunate passing in 2017, George accomplished many of her childhood dreams and made remarkable strides within the acting community. From being a playwright to an author to a Golden Globe nominee, George’s legacy on Houston and the world will never be forgotten.

Among those that have had the pleasure of knowing George, Kevin Dean, the current artistic producer at A.D. Players knew her for almost 20 years.

“I knew Jeannette when I got hired at A.D. Players as an intern,” Dean said. “I started at A.D. Players as an intern in 1999, so that’s how far back Jeannette and I went.”

George and Dean would often share stories from their lives and impart wisdom onto each other. Among the many stories that George shared with Dean, Dean vividly recalls a funny story that George would light up when telling her friends.

“She used to tell a funny story that she was born under a banner that said “Welcome Hubert” because her parents were convinced that they were going to have a boy,” Dean said. “This was back in the 20s so you didn’t know what gender your baby was going to be, you just had to wait until the baby was born.”

During high school, George stumbled into a theater class and discovered her passion for acting and forged many friendships that lasted her entire life.

“Jeannette always wanted to do theater,” Dean said. “She would always tell people that she wanted to be in the circus because in her mind that was performance and the ultimate entertainment. It wasn’t until she got to high school that she got involved with theater and fell in love with acting.”

After graduating from Lamar, George attended Stevens College for a year to study theater before transferring to the University of Texas. Following college, George immediately headed to New York to make a name for herself.

“Jeannette was very proud of the time she spent in New York as an actress,” Dean said. “It is every young actor’s dream to go to New York and see if you can make it.”

While in New York, between her time as an actress, Jeannette balanced a wide range of jobs to stay afloat.

“As Jeannette went to pursue her career as an actress, she waited tables like everyone does, worked at a department store and did other jobs to support herself as she pursued her dreams,” Dean said.

After spending a few years in New York, George came back to Houston and founded A.D. Players. A.D. Players even took one of her plays, John, His Story, to New York for an off-Broadway run that ran for six weeks.

“Jeannette founded A.D. Players in 1967 with the intent to tell stories about her faith,” Dean said. “A.D. stands for After Dinner so they would travel to people’s homes and perform after dinner. They performed in numerous places from the Swiss Alps to Israel.”

In 1975, after the release of The Hiding Place, a movie where George played Corrie Ten Boom, A.D. Players took a back seat as George traveled the world.

“When The Hiding Place was released, she became famous overnight and she would travel the country and the world speaking to churches and universities,” Dean said.

Along the way, George shared her experiences in five books, including Some Run with Feet of Clay and Daisy Petals. Most of all, George’s legacy is not just cherished through books, but is carried on through those that she jokingly adopted along the way. 

“The theater was her life and she saw the people who worked in the theater as her family, if anything those were her kids,” Dean said. “She was always working and I don’t think retirement was a word in her vocabulary.”

Regardless of her busy schedule, George never failed to make people feel important, warm and loved. 

“She knew so many people and she made everyone feel like she was their best friend,” Dean said. “There are so many people who have said, ‘Oh Jeannette Clift George, she was my best friend of all time.’”