Jane Shirley Smith is known primarily through her marriage to American media entrepreneur Ted Turner, the founder of CNN and one of the most influential figures in the development of modern cable television. Smith was Turner’s second wife, and their marriage lasted for more than two decades, from the mid-1960s until their divorce in 1988. Before marrying Turner, she worked as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines and reportedly met him through a Young Republicans gathering.
For readers searching for Ted Turner’s ex-wife, Jane Shirley Smith is particularly interesting because she was married to Turner during a formative period of his life and business career. Their relationship began before CNN was launched and continued through the years in which Turner expanded from outdoor advertising into television, sports and cable broadcasting. Despite that connection to a major media figure, Smith herself has maintained a comparatively restrained public profile.
Who Is Jane Shirley Smith?
Jane Shirley Smith became part of Ted Turner’s life at a time when he was still building his career rather than the internationally recognized media empire associated with his later years.
Historical accounts identify Smith as a former Delta Air Lines flight attendant. The Society for American Baseball Research records that Turner met her at a Young Republicans gathering and that they married on June 2, 1964. Other biographical reference sources give 1965 as the marriage year, creating a small discrepancy in published records.
Because of this disagreement, the safest description is that Smith and Turner married in the mid-1960s. What is consistent across the available sources is that she was Turner’s second wife and that their marriage ended in 1988.
Smith’s significance in biographies of Ted Turner comes largely from this period of their shared life. Turner was becoming increasingly ambitious in business, while his later career would include the creation of CNN and the expansion of Turner Broadcasting.
Early Life and Background
There is considerably less reliable public information about Jane Shirley Smith’s early life than there is about her former husband. That distinction matters when writing about her because much of the material available online consists of short biographical references rather than extensive interviews or first-person accounts.
Sources identify her as a former Delta Air Lines flight attendant, and a recent historical account also describes her as a University of Alabama graduate.
Her meeting with Turner appears to have taken place through political and social circles in the American South. According to the Society for American Baseball Research’s biography of Turner, he met Smith at a Young Republicans gathering while he was establishing himself in business.
Beyond these details, there is little dependable material that would justify making stronger claims about her childhood, parents, exact birth date or upbringing. Those details are therefore best left out rather than filled with information from unverified online profiles.
Marriage to Ted Turner
Jane Shirley Smith married Ted Turner shortly after the end of his first marriage to Julia “Judy” Nye. Turner and Nye had married in 1960 and divorced in 1964. Smith subsequently became Turner’s second wife.
The precise wedding year is one of the few areas where reputable reference material is inconsistent. The Society for American Baseball Research gives June 2, 1964, while sources such as the Encyclopedia of TV & Radio and other reference works list the marriage as beginning in 1965.
Rather than treating the disagreement as settled, it is more accurate to acknowledge it.
Their marriage covered a remarkable period of transformation in Turner’s professional life. When they married, Turner was still closely associated with his family’s outdoor advertising business. During the following decades, he moved aggressively into broadcasting and became a major force in American television.
Turner eventually founded CNN, which launched in 1980 as the first 24-hour television news network. He also developed a much broader media and sports portfolio, including Turner Broadcasting and ownership of the Atlanta Braves.
Smith was therefore married to Turner before and during the rise of the business empire that would make him internationally famous.
Jane Shirley Smith and Her Children
Smith and Turner had three children together: Rhett, Beau and Jennie. Current biographical coverage identifies these three as Turner’s children from his second marriage.
Their eldest son, Rhett Turner, was reportedly named after Rhett Butler, the character from Gone with the Wind. Rhett later developed interests of his own in environmental work, photography and filmmaking.
Their other children, Beau Turner and Jennie Turner, have also been associated with environmental and conservation interests. Recent coverage of the Turner family describes all three of Smith’s children as continuing aspects of the conservation legacy associated with their father.
It is worth separating the public record concerning the children from assumptions about Smith’s personal life. While her children have occasionally appeared in media coverage because of their father and their own activities, there is not enough reliable information to construct an extensive account of Smith’s day-to-day role as a mother.
Life During Ted Turner’s Rise in Media
The years of Smith’s marriage to Turner coincided with some of the most consequential developments in his career.
Turner took over leadership of his family’s advertising company after his father’s death and gradually transformed the business. He subsequently moved into television, acquired and developed broadcasting properties, and became an important figure in cable television. His launch of CNN in 1980 was particularly significant because it introduced a continuous television news model that later became a worldwide standard.
Turner’s ambitions extended beyond television. He became an important figure in professional sports and sailing, winning the America’s Cup in 1977 with Courageous. His business activities and competitive personality eventually made him a highly recognizable public figure.
Jane Shirley Smith, by contrast, did not develop a comparable public career. Contemporary and retrospective accounts generally place her in the background while Turner’s professional profile expanded.
That contrast helps explain why searches for Smith often produce information about Turner rather than a long independent biography of her.
Divorce in 1988
Jane Shirley Smith and Ted Turner divorced in 1988, ending a marriage that had lasted more than two decades. The year is consistently reported in biographical reference sources.
The divorce occurred after a period in which Turner had already established himself as a major force in American broadcasting. By then, CNN had been operating for several years, and Turner Broadcasting had become a significant media enterprise.
Turner later married actress Jane Fonda in 1991. Their marriage lasted until 2001.
Smith did not subsequently become a major fixture in entertainment media, and reliable sources provide relatively little information about her life following the divorce.
Why People Search for Jane Shirley Smith
Searches for Jane Shirley Smith are largely driven by interest in Ted Turner’s ex-wife and the family history of the CNN founder.
People commonly want to know:
- Who was Jane Shirley Smith?
- When did she marry Ted Turner?
- Was she Ted Turner’s first or second wife?
- How long were they married?
- How many children did they have?
- Who are Rhett, Beau and Jennie Turner?
- What did Jane Shirley Smith do before marrying Turner?
- What happened to the couple after their divorce?
The interest has also been renewed by retrospective coverage of Ted Turner’s life. Turner died on May 6, 2026, at age 87, prompting renewed reporting about his career, family and three marriages.
That renewed attention has naturally brought Smith back into searches about Turner’s personal history.
Jane Shirley Smith’s Place in the Turner Family Story
Although Jane Shirley Smith did not build the public career that her former husband did, her place in the Turner family story is significant.
She was married to Turner during the transition from his early business career to his emergence as a major media entrepreneur. She was also the mother of three of his five children. His other two children, Laura and Teddy, were born during his first marriage to Julia Nye.
This makes Smith an important figure when reconstructing the personal side of Turner’s biography, particularly the years before CNN became a household name.
At the same time, her story illustrates why a biography should distinguish between a person’s own public record and the fame of someone they were married to. Most available information about Smith concerns her relationship with Turner, her children and the period in which their marriage took place.
Privacy, Accuracy, and Public Information
Jane Shirley Smith’s biography is a good example of why responsible celebrity and public-figure research should not turn gaps in the public record into speculation.
Reliable sources establish several core facts: she worked as a Delta Air Lines flight attendant, met Turner through a Young Republicans gathering according to historical accounts, married him in the mid-1960s, had three children with him, and divorced him in 1988.
Other details about her private life are much less firmly documented. Claims concerning her exact age, current residence, personal finances, later relationships or other private matters should not be presented as established facts without strong sourcing.
That approach is particularly appropriate for Smith because her public identity has largely been connected to a famous former husband rather than to an extensive independent media career.
Conclusion
Jane Shirley Smith occupies a distinctive place in the biography of Ted Turner. A former Delta Air Lines flight attendant, she became Turner’s second wife during the mid-1960s and remained married to him until 1988. Together they had three children—Rhett, Beau and Jennie—while Turner progressed from the family advertising business into the broadcasting ventures that eventually made him a household name.