Jayne County born in Dallas, Georgia in 1947 as Wayne Rogers (Wayne County) a artist, actress, musician and drag performer. When Jayne was 21 years old she upped and moved to New York City where she was a regular at the Stonewall Inn, this was 1968 a year before the riots and at the time it wasn’t unusual for the gay clubs and bars to be raided.
Jayne did take part in the riots on June 28, 1969 and has fabulous memories of that time and the events that took place. During 1969 Jayne was approached by Jackie Curtis a playwright who wanted Jayne to perform in a play that she was writing. The name of the play was Femme Fatale and it was performed at the La Mama theater club, it also starred Patti Smith.
Jayne County was writer and wrote plays like Wank, U Ban to Memory lane and Birth of a Nation which got her the attention of Andy Warhol, who placed her in his movie production Pork.
In 1972 Jayne started a Punk band called Queen Elizabeth at the New York University. One of the early songs was “Queenage Baby” and Jayne says that this song was the inspiration for David Bowies song “Rebel Rebel”.
Jayne went on to be the house DJ at Max’s Kansas City a restaurant and Nightclub in New York City at 213 Park Avenue South. Max’s opened in 1965 a hangout for artist, politicians, poets and musicians, it was a favorite haunt of Andy Warhol and his Factory people. Another patron of Max’s was David Bowie who based his Glam Rock scene there.
Jayne spent a lot of time at Max’s and made friends with the movers and shakers of the Artistic world of the 1970′s. By 1974 the scene had moved on and Max’s closed.
The later 1970′s saw Jayne move to London when the British punk scene (1977) was just emerging. She formed a group called Wayne County and the Electric Chairs , by 1979 the band had broke up and Jayne/Wayne had moved back to the United States. This was when her name was officially changed to Jayne County.
In the 1980′s she appeared in a theatrical production called “Les Girls” with Holly Woodlawn. She eventually returned to London, United Kingdom for a premiere of City of Lost Souls and stayed long enough to record and tour in various bands and after major media coverage, Jayne returned to the United States to New York City.
Jayne was a busy beaver in the 1990′s appearing in the movie Wigstock with Lady Bunny and even wrote a book with Rupert Smith called “Man Enough to be a Women” that was released in 1995.
The present day Jayne County is still very active doing a number of films, musical recordings, blogging and hanging out in New York City as seen in this video from 2009.
Jayne County Stonewall 1960′s Gay Life in NYC