Jennifer Jackson

Growing up in a family that included eight children in the South Side of Chicago was crowded. Attention was only given to children deemed bold and highly spirited which taught Jennifer Jackson early on that if she wanted to get the recognition she deserve, she had to fight for it. “I'm not out to prove anything: it's just that I'm not at my best unless I'm busy all the time,” says the tall, African-American beauty with raven-colored hair. “What with my time at the Club, hitting the books and posing for a new soft-drink ad, I really need Sunday to catch up with the past week's news. Actually, I'm only sorry there aren't more hours in the day. There are so many things I want to do, and so little time to do them.” Working as a model, studying in college and leaving a trail of broken hearts at Chicago Playboy Club where she works as a Bunny with her twin sister Janis, Jennifer’s plate seemed to be at capacity—until Playboy called with the opportunity of a lifetime. Chosen to be our Miss March 1965 was an honor, but when Jennifer learned she would be the magazine’s first-ever black Playmate of the Month, she was overwhelmed and humbled. “I decided to redecorate my bachelorette pad in Chicago,” giggles the all-natural stunner. “I really went wild fixing up the place, but my Playboy center-spread modeling fee paid for everything.” Seemingly much more excited than Jennifer about her newfound Playmate fame is her supportive twin sister and fellow cottontail, Janis. “We're like opposite sides of the same genetic coin. Jan is the single-minded sibling in the family. When we attended Wilson Junior College together, she spent the entire two years buried in her books, stayed away from all forms of extracurricular activity and wound up with scads of academic honors and a scholarship offer from a downstate university. Me, I'm the proverbial Jack-of-all-trades who can never settle down in any one role when there are so many others left to try. At Wilson, I put in enough studying to earn a respectable average and split the rest of my time among volleyball, tennis and fraternity dances,” explains our athletic Miss March 1965. “The only scholarship I ever won was to the Art Institute of Chicago when I was thirteen, and after six months of design class I was bored to tears. I always kid my twin sister about being more mature because she's older—by a full eight minutes.” Jennifer may be the youngest of the pair, but she likes her men to be older than she is—much older. “When you're only twenty that leaves a pretty big group to choose from,” she says. “I really don’t want a rich man’s favorite son though. Those men aren’t for me.” Be Mr. Right for Playmate Jennifer Jackson, right here on Playboy.