Janet Langhart

Janet Langhart Cohen (born December 22, 1941), is an African American model, television journalist and author. She also has been known as Janet Floyd and Janet Langhart. She is the spouse of former Defense Secretary William Cohen. She is President and CEO of Langhart Communications.

Biography

She was born Janet Leola Floyd in Indianapolis and raised in an Indianapolis housing projects by her mother, who was African-American, and worked as a maid and hospital ward secretary [ [http://www.nndb.com/people/451/000051298/ Janet Langhart ] ] Her father, Sewell Bridges, an African-American man, served in World War II and abandoned his family after the war.cite news
url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_1_56/ai_66455756
title=Pretty Powerful
author=Lisa Frydman
publisher=Chicago Sun-Times
date=June 9 2004
accessdate=2007-04-10] .

She was married to Melvin Anthony Langhart for one year. Her second marriage was to Dr. Robert Kistner from 1978-1989; Kistner committed suicide one year later in 1990. Kistner was a Harvard Medical School professor who specialized in the treatment of endometriosis [New York Times Obituary, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE6DF1330F933A25751C0A966958260|Robert W. Kistner, 72, Gynecologist, Is Dead] , February 10, 1990.] .

On February 14 1996 she married U.S. Senator William Cohen. She and Cohen first became mutual admirers in 1974 during an interview in Boston, when he was a Congressman from Maine, but did not meet in person until she worked for BET in Washington and Andrew Young set up a news interview for her. They remained friends, and after both became single again, they began dating when Langhart asked Cohen to take care of a dog that had turned up at the BET offices. The couple were married in the U.S. Capitol on Valentine's Day 1996. Cohen, a Republican, was chosen to serve as Pres. Clinton's Secretary of Defense, Langhart is a Democrat.

When her husband became Secretary of Defense, Langhart was known as "First Lady of The Pentagon" due to her active and visible public role while Cohen was in office. She spurred several initiatives aimed at and well-being of military and civilian employees of the Defense Department, including the Military Family Forum, the Pentagon Pops concert series, the Secretary of Defense Annual Holiday Tour (an entertainment revue), and her own series of interviews on Pentagon TV, Special Assignment. She was given a volunteer position as "First Lady of the USO" and helped recruit celebrities and civilians to work with the organization.cite news
url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_1_56/ai_66455756
title=Janet Langhart Cohen: First Lady Of the Pentagon
author=Lynn Norment
publisher=Ebony magazine
date=November 2000
accessdate=2007-04-10] .

In 1999, she founded Citizen Patriot, a non-profit dedicated to recognizing "those who serve, protect, and defend the United States of America." The group presents a periodic CPO Award, which has been given to Jack Valenti and John McCain, and has organized events including a Homeland Defense Tour, which brought USO-like appreciation events to first responders at the September 11 attacks sites and other domestic locations, and a Citizen Patriot tour to military locations overseas.

Media career

Langhart began her career in Chicago as a model, where she worked for Marshall Field's and the Ebony Fashion Fair, and she was named Miss Chicagoland. At 28, she became the first black "weathergirl" for WBBM-TV. She became a noted black television journalist at a variety of outlets, and interviewed personalities including Rosa Parks and David Duke. She became friends with Muhammad Ali and F. Lee Bailey, and considered Martin Luther King a personal . Her multiracial background hampered her at times, as she was allegedly "too black for a white audience, too white for a black audience."

She worked on a television show called 9 Broadcast Plaza alongside Richard Bey. She was fired from "Entertainment Tonight" in 1990 after she asked Arnold Schwarzenegger, apparently violating an agreement he had with producers, about his father Gustav Schwarzenegger's war service for Nazi Germany. "I was terminated by The Terminator", she remarked. Later, she was a commentator on Black Entertainment Television. She has also worked for the "Boston Globe" and WCVB-TV in Boston. [cite news
url=http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2004/05/12/langhart_cohen_has_a_read_on_barnicle/
title=Langhart Cohen has a read on Barnicle
publisher=Boston Globe
date=May 12 2004
accessdate=2007-04-10] , and she has been a spokeswoman for "U.S. News and World Report" and Avon Cosmetics.

Writing

Langhart is the author of a memoir, "My Life in Two Americas; From Rage to Reason".

With her husband William Cohen (former Senator and former Secretary of Defense) in February 2007 she released "Love in Black and White." It is a memoir about race, religion, and the bonds Langhart and Cohen share over similar life circumstances and backgrounds [Washington Post, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081701514.html "Names & Faces,"] Friday, August 18, 2006; Page C03. ] .

She is currently working on a symbolic one-act play of an imagined conversation between Nazi child victim Anne Frank and Emmett Till, a child victim of the Jim Crow southern United States.

References

External links

* [http://www.langhartcommunications.com/expertise.html Langhart Communications] biography
* [http://www.citizenpatriot.org/founder.html Citizen Patriot] organization, founded by Janet Langhart