Rita Jenrette

Rita Jenrette (née Carpenter) is an American actress, television journalist, and real-estate executive.

Jenrette earned her bachelor's degree in history, cum laude, from the University of Texas in 1971.

In 1973, she became the director of research for the Republican Party of Texas. In 1974, Jenrette was a visiting lecturer at the Taft Political Institute at Trinity University. In 1975, she was opposition research director of the Republican National Committee, under the chairmanship of Mary Louise Smith. On September 10, 1976, she married freshman Democratic whip John Jenrette (of ABSCAM notoriety) of South Carolina, 18 months after meeting him on Capitol Hill.

In 1977, Jenrette worked as a research associate at the Office of Technology Assessment then under the co-chairmanship of Senators Hubert H. Humphrey and Edward M. Kennedy. She co-authored a report with Ray Hoehle on the Food for Peace program, which was presented to the Presidential Commission on World Food Hunger.

In 1978, Jenrette was picked by the Washington Post Sunday magazine as one of four dynamic young women of Washington, DC.

She was a Clairol model.

She has written two published books. My Capitol Secrets appeared in 1981 and detailed her experiences as a Congressional spouse. Conglomerate, an online romance novel, was published in 1985. She reports that Roger Ailes offered her a position as a Washington television correspondent, but she declined.

In the 1980s, Jenrette appeared in several plays, movies, and television series. In 1982, Jenrette received the Drama-Logue Critics Award for her performance in The Philadelphia Story. On-screen, she appeared in Fantasy Island (1982), Zombie Island Massacre (1984), and The Equalizer (1988). Her last television series role was in Dream On (1992), as Reporter Jennifer Klarik.