Jerome Martin "Jerry" Haynes (January 31, 1927 – September 26, 2011) was an American actor from Dallas, Texas.

A 1944 graduate of Dallas' Woodrow Wilson High School,[1] he was the father of Butthole Surfers frontman Gibby Haynes.

Haynes began his most famous role in 1961, playing a character who wore a red- and white-striped jacket and straw hat and carried a candy-striped magic cane.

The original show ran for nine years as a live show on WFAA-TV (Channel 8, the ABC affiliate in Dallas owned by the parent company of the Dallas Morning News), with Mr. Peppermint talking with a variety of puppet characters and including everything from cartoons to French lessons.

Early in the run of his show, an accident of fate made Haynes the first to report the Kennedy assassination on local news, together with his WFAA program director, Jay Watson.

We just behaved in a subdued and respectful manner.During these early years, Mr. Peppermint began at 7:30 AM and ran for one hour, competing in its last half-hour with the national CBS broadcast of Captain Kangaroo but usually winning its time slot.

Haynes reported on the Cowboys' home of Texas Stadium as it neared completion and prepared for its inaugural season in 1971.