Janis F. Kearney facts for kids

Janis Faye Kearney (born September 29, 1953) is an American author, speaker, and publisher. She is best known for being the personal diarist for President Bill Clinton. She held this important role from 1995 to 2001.

Janis F. Kearney's Early Life and Education

Janis F. Kearney was born on September 29, 1953, in Gould, Arkansas. She was the 14th of 19 children born to Ethel V. Curry Kearney and Thomas James Kearney. Her father was a sharecropper, meaning he farmed land owned by someone else and paid rent with a share of his crops. Her mother was a homemaker who helped with the family's cotton crops.

From a young age, Janis worked hard. She spent her summers chopping cotton and autumns picking it. By age nine, she also helped care for her younger siblings and cooked for the family. Despite this, every evening, she and her siblings learned reading, writing, and math at home. They always did well in school during the winter months.

Almost all of the Kearney children graduated from college. Many went on to earn advanced degrees from top universities. These included schools like Harvard, Yale, Brown, and Stanford.

After finishing Gould High School in 1971, Janis attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. She got married and had one child while in college. In 1976, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. She continued her education while working, taking classes towards a master's degree.

Working Life and Public Service

In 1978, Janis Kearney started working for the State of Arkansas. For three years, she managed a program called the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. Then, for six years, she directed information for a national system that tracked migrant students.

In 1987, she became the managing editor of the Arkansas State Press newspaper. This paper was owned by civil rights activist Daisy Bates. Just three months after Janis joined, Daisy Bates retired. Janis then bought the newspaper from her. She published the weekly newspaper in Arkansas for five years.

In 1992, Bill Clinton, who was then the governor of Arkansas, decided to run for U.S. President. He hired Janis Kearney to help with his campaign. She had met him through her work with the state government and as a newspaper publisher. Governor Clinton had also taught some of her brothers in law school. He had even appointed three of her family members to important state jobs. Janis took a break from her newspaper in 1992. Her sister, Janetta Kearney, ran the paper while she was away.

Working in the White House

After Bill Clinton won the election in 1993, Janis Kearney worked in his transition office in Little Rock. When he became President, she moved to Washington, D.C. She first worked as a media affairs officer at the White House. Later, she became the director of public communication for the U.S. Small Business Administration.

In 1995, Janis Kearney was chosen for a very special job. She became the first-ever personal diarist to a U.S. President.

In this role, Janis kept a daily record of President Clinton's activities. She attended meetings, events, and press conferences. Her job was to create a detailed history of his days as President. Her diary was later given to the Clinton Library for future generations to read.

Writing and Publishing Books

In 2001, Janis moved to Chicago. She also started a two-year program at Harvard University. There, she began writing a book about President Clinton. The book was called Conversations: William Jefferson Clinton-From Hope to Harlem.

She continued her research and writing at DePaul University. In 2003, she became a lecturer for Chicago City Colleges. During this time, Janis also wrote a newspaper column called "Politics Is Life." It appeared in African-American newspapers across the country. Her book Conversations was published in 2006. It included interviews with President Clinton and many African-American people who knew him.

Janis Kearney started working on her first book, Cotton Field of Dreams, in 1973. This book was about her father's life story. After many years, she changed the book into a personal memoir. It included stories about her father and her family. She worked on the book for ten more years. In 2004, Janis started her own publishing company, Writing Our World (WOW) Press. She published Cotton Field of Dreams that same year.

In November 2008, Kearney published her first novel, Once Upon a Time There Was A Girl: A Murder at Mobile Bay. She also published a second memoir, Something to Write Home About: Memories of a Presidential Diarist. In 2013, she wrote a biography about her mentor, Daisy Gatson Bates. It was called "Daisy: Between a Rock and a Hard Place." In 2014, she published "Sundays with TJ: 100 Years of Memories on Varner Road," about her father's life.

In 2016, Janis was honored by being inducted into the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame. That same year, she received the University of Arkansas Lemke Journalism Award. In 2014, Janis helped start the Celebrate! Maya Project. This is a nonprofit group that shares the life and legacy of poet Maya Angelou with schools and communities. It also creates arts, literacy, and poetry programs for young people. In 2015, she founded the Read.Write.Share Writers Weekend. This event helps new writers connect with others and share their stories.