Janis F. Kearney facts for kids

Janis Faye Kearney, born on September 29, 1953, is an American author, speaker, and publisher. She is best known for being the personal diarist for President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 2001. This special job meant she kept a daily record of the President's activities.

Early Life and Education

Janis F. Kearney grew up 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, which means 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 age seven, Janis spent her summers working in the cotton fields. By age nine, she also helped care for her younger brothers and sisters and cooked for the family. Even with all this work, every evening she and her siblings learned reading, writing, and math at home. They always returned to school in the winter ready to learn more.

Almost all of the Kearney children graduated from college. Many went on to study at top universities like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. After finishing Gould High School in 1971, Janis attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism in 1976. She also continued her education while working, taking classes towards a master's degree.

Professional Career Beginnings

In 1978, Janis Kearney started working for the State of Arkansas. She managed a program for three years and then directed information for a national student records system for six years.

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

Working with President Clinton

In 1992, when Bill Clinton decided to run for U.S. President, he hired Janis Kearney. He knew her from her work with the state government, her newspaper, and her family. Governor Clinton had taught some of her brothers in law school. Janis took a break from her newspaper to work as the director of his campaign's Minority Media Outreach. Her sister, Janetta Kearney, ran the newspaper while Janis was away.

White House Roles

After President Clinton was elected in 1993, Janis worked in his transition office in Little Rock. Then, she moved to Washington, D.C., to join the President. She first worked as a White House media affairs officer. Later, she became the director of public communication for the U.S. Small Business Administration.

In 1995, Janis Kearney was given a very special job: she became the first-ever personal diarist to a President. In this role, she kept a daily diary of President Clinton's activities. She attended meetings, events, and press conferences to create a living history of his time in office. Her diary was later given to the Clinton Library.

Author and Publisher

In 2001, Janis moved to Chicago. She became a fellow at Harvard University where she started writing a book about President Clinton. The book was called Conversations: William Jefferson Clinton-From Hope to Harlem. She continued her research 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." Her book Conversations was published in 2006. It included interviews with over 100 African-American people and President Clinton himself.

Starting Her Own Publishing Company

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, which is a story about her own life and memories. She included stories about her father and her family.

In 2004, Janis started her own publishing company called Writing Our World (WOW) Press. She published Cotton Field of Dreams that same year.

More Books and Projects

In 2008, Janis 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 book about her mentor, Daisy Gatson Bates, called "Daisy: Between a Rock and a Hard Place." In 2014, she published "Sundays with TJ: 100 Years of Memories on Varner Road," which was about her father's amazing life.

Janis Kearney was honored for her writing. In 2016, she was 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, reading, and poetry programs for young people. In 2015, she started the Read.Write.Share Writers Weekend. This event helps new writers connect with others and share their stories.