Janet Langhart facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Janet Langhart
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Janet Langhart in New York City, 2006
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| Born | Janet Leola Floyd December 22, 1941 Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer, journalist |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse |
Melvin Anthony Langhart
(m. 1968; div. 1969)Robert Kistner
(m. 1978; div. 1989) |
Janet Leola Langhart Cohen, born Janet Leola Floyd on December 22, 1941, is an American journalist and author. She started her career as a model before becoming a television weather reporter.
She leads her own company, Langhart Communication. Janet is married to William Cohen, who used to be the United States Secretary of Defense. She has written two books about her life, one of them with her husband. In 2009, her play Anne and Emmett was first shown. This play was inspired by the lives of Anne Frank and Emmett Till.
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Growing Up and School
Janet Leola Floyd was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1941. She and her mother, Mary Floyd, lived in a public housing area. Her mother worked as a maid and a hospital secretary. Both her parents were African-American. They also had European and Native American family roots.
Janet's mother, Mary, and her father, Sewell Bridges, knew each other from a young age but never married. Bridges served in World War II and did not stay with the family after the war. Janet's mother later married a Baptist preacher, but they divorced. Janet, her brother, and her sister were raised by their mother.
In 1959, Janet graduated from Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis. She was part of the school band and the debate team. From 1960 to 1962, she went to Butler University. After her first year, her scholarship ended, so she could not continue. She then took some classes at Indiana University before starting full-time work.
Her Marriages
Janet Floyd married Melvin Anthony Langhart in 1968, but their marriage lasted only three months. Her second marriage was to Dr. Robert Kistner in 1978. He was a professor at Harvard Medical School. They divorced ten years later. In 1996, she married Senator William Cohen.
Her Career in Media
In 1962, Janet Langhart began her career as a model in Chicago. She worked for stores like Marshall Field's and for the Ebony Fashion Fair. In 1967, she won the title of Miss Chicagoland.
At age 29, Langhart became the first black "weathergirl" for WBBM-TV in 1970. Before that, she was a "weather gal" at WCIU. Around this time, she also hosted a morning interview show for women in Indianapolis called "Indy Today." She traveled between Indianapolis and Chicago to do both shows.
Langhart became a well-known black television journalist. In 1973, she joined Boston's WCVB-TV. She co-hosted the morning show Good Day! She worked there off and on between 1973 and 1987. By 1976, Good Day was shown on 75 TV stations across the U.S.
She became famous for her interviews with celebrities and news-makers. She spoke with people like singer Marian Anderson, jazz star Louis Armstrong, and singer Tony Bennett. She also interviewed Rosa Parks and David Duke. She became friends with comedian Dick Gregory, Muhammad Ali, and lawyer F. Lee Bailey. She says civil rights leaders Melnea Cass and Martin Luther King Jr. were her mentors.
In 1978, NBC hired her, and she moved to New York. She hosted a daily talk show called People to People. This show was soon renamed America Alive. Langhart became a traveling reporter and co-host. The show was canceled after only six months.
After that, Langhart worked on a TV show in New York City called 9 Broadcast Plaza. She then returned to Boston TV, creating special programs. She also made some appearances on Good Day again. In 1989, she started doing segments for Entertainment Tonight. By 1990, she was named their New York correspondent.
Langhart was later fired from Entertainment Tonight. She believed it was because she asked Arnold Schwarzenegger about his father's Nazi background. She said, "I was terminated by The Terminator". Later, she was a commentator on Black Entertainment Television (BET). She has also written for the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe. She has been a spokesperson for U.S. News & World Report and Avon Cosmetics. She identifies as a liberal Democrat.
Life with William Cohen
Langhart met William Cohen during a phone interview when she was in Boston and he was a Congressman from Maine. They met in person later when she worked for BET in Washington, D.C.. Andrew Young arranged an interview for her with Cohen. They became friends and started dating after they both divorced. They married at the United States Capitol on Valentine's Day in 1996.
Cohen, a moderate Republican, was chosen by President Bill Clinton to be his Secretary of Defense. When William Cohen became Secretary of Defense, Janet Langhart-Cohen was known as "First Lady of the Pentagon." She had a public role while Cohen was in office.
She started several programs to support military and civilian workers at the Defense Department. These included the Military Family Forum and the Pentagon Pops concert series. She also had a volunteer job as "First Lady of the USO." She helped get celebrities and others to work with the United Service Organizations.
In 1999, Langhart-Cohen started the Citizen Patriot Organization (CPO). This group honors "those who serve, protect, and defend the United States of America." The CPO gives out an award to people like Jack Valenti and John McCain. The group also organized events like a Homeland Defense Tour. This tour showed appreciation to first responders at the September 11 attacks sites. They also had a Citizen Patriot tour for military locations overseas.
Her Books and Plays
Langhart wrote a book about her life called My Life in Two Americas; From Rage to Reason (2004). She and her husband William wrote a book together called Love in Black and White (2007). This book talks about race, religion, and the things they share in their lives.
Langhart also wrote Anne and Emmett. This is a one-act play that imagines a conversation between Anne Frank and Emmett Till. Anne Frank was a German Jewish girl who died in a Nazi concentration camp. Emmett Till was an African American boy from Chicago who was killed in Mississippi. Both were young teenagers when they died. The play first opened in 2009.
