Janet Langhart Biography
Janet Langhart is an American television journalist and anchor. She was born as Janet Leola Floyd. She is also known as Janet Leola Langhart Cohen. Janet is also an author. Janet serves as President and CEO of Langhart Communication. She is the spouse of former Defense Secretary William Cohen. Langhart has written two memoirs one with her husband. Langhart began her career in Chicago as a model.
Janet Langhart Age
Langhart was born on 22 December 1940 in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is 78 years old. Her star sign is Capricorn.
Janet Langhart Education
Langhart earned her high school diploma from Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis. She was a member of the band and debate team. Janet later attended Butler University. After her freshman year, the scholarship money expired, and she was unable to continue. Langhart then took some extension courses at Indiana University, before going to work full-time.
Janet Langhart Family
Janet is the daughter of Mary Floyd and Sewell Bridges. Bridges served in World War II. He later abandoned his family after the war. Langhart lived with her mother in an Indianapolis housing project. Her mother worked as a maid and hospital ward secretary. Both her parents were African-American but they also had European and Native American ancestry.
Her mother married a Baptist preacher. They later divorced. Janet has a brother and sister. They were all raised by their mother.
Janet Langhart Career
Langhart began her career in Chicago as a model. She worked for Marshall Fields and the Ebony Fashion Fair. She won the title of Miss Chicagoland in 1967. At the age of 29, Langhart became the first black weathergirl for WBBM-TV in 1970. She also began hosting an early morning interview program for women on WISH-TV in Indianapolis. It was called Indy Today.
Doing both shows made it necessary for her to commute between Indianapolis and Chicago. Langhart became a well-known black television journalist at numerous stations. She joined Boston’s WCVB-TV for the first time in September 1973. Janet co-hosted the morning program Good Day!. She would leave and return several times between 1973-87.
Janet Langhart Good Day
Good Day was being aired to 75 television stations across the United States. She became known for her interviews with celebrities and news-makers. Among the famous people with whom she interviewed were contralto Marian Anderson, jazz star Louis Armstrong, and popular singer Tony Bennett. She also spoke to Rosa Parks and David Duke.
Langhart became friends with comedians Dick Gregory, Muhammad Ali and F. Lee Bailey. Janet also said her mentors include Boston civil rights leader Melnea Cass, and Martin Luther King, Jr. She joined Boston’s WCVB-TV for the first time in September 1973. She co-hosted the morning program Good Day! (originally titled Good Morning!).
Among the famous people with whom she spoke were contralto Marian Anderson, jazz star Louis Armstrong, and popular singer Tony Bennett, as well as Rosa Parks and David Duke. She became friends with comedians Dick Gregory, Muhammad Ali, and F. Lee Bailey. Janet said her mentors include Boston civil rights leader Melnea Cass, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Janet Langhart NBC
She was hired by NBC in mid-1978 and relocated to New York to host a daily talk and interview show called People to People. The new show was soon renamed America Alive, and Langhart became a roving correspondent and co-host. Langhart worked on a television show at WOR-TV in New York City called 9 Broadcast Plaza.
Janet returned to Boston television, producing some special programming for WNEV-TV (channel 7). She then briefly rejoined WCVB-TV (Channel 5), making some appearances on Good Day. Langhart began doing segments for Entertainment Tonight and by early 1990. The show named her it’s New York correspondent.
Langhart was later fired from Entertainment Tonight. She believed the reason was that she asked Arnold Schwarzenegger, about his father Gustav Schwarzenegger’s Nazi background. Apparently violating an agreement he had with producers. Later, she was a commentator on Black Entertainment Television (BET). She has also worked as a correspondent for the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe.
Janet has been a spokeswoman for U.S. News, World Report, and Avon Cosmetics. Politically, she says she identifies as a liberal Democrat.
Marriages | Husband | Children
Janet was previously married to Melvin Anthony Langhart in 1968. The marriage only lasted three months. Her second marriage was to Dr. Robert Kistner. He was a Harvard Medical School professor who specialized in the treatment of endometriosis. The two were married in 1978 but Langhart filed for divorce a decade later. She subsequently married Senator William Cohen in 1996.
Marriage to Cohen and Pentagon life
Langhart met William Cohen during a long-distance interview when she was based in Boston. At the time he was a Congressman from Maine. They did not meet in person until Langhart worked for BET in Washington, D.C. The pair started dating after each divorce. The couple got married in the United States Capitol on Valentine’s Day 1996. Cohen, a moderate Republican, was appointed by President Bill Clinton as his Secretary of Defense.
After William Cohen became Secretary of Defense, Langhart became known as “First Lady of the Pentagon. She had a visible public role while Cohen was in office. She spurred several initiatives to support the morale and well-being of military and civilian employees of the Defense Department.
Langhart was given a volunteer position as “First Lady of the USO” and helped recruit celebrities and civilians to work with the United Service Organizations. She founded the Citizen Patriot Organization (CPO), a non-profit dedicated to recognizing those who serve, protect, and defend the United States of America. The group periodically presents a CPO Award.
The award has been given to Jack Valenti and John McCain. The group has also organized events including a Homeland Defense Tour. This brought appreciation events to first responders at the September 11 attacks sites and other domestic locations. It also brought a Citizen Patriot tour to military locations overseas.
Janet Langhart Net Worth
In June 2009, her one-act play Anne and Emmett premiered at the United States Holocaust Museum. Langhart has an estimated net worth of $600,000 USD.
Cohen Anne And Emmett
Anne and Emmett is a play by American Janet Langhart Cohen. It explores an imaginary conversation between Emmett Till, an African American, and Anne Frank, a German Jew. The show features recorded narration by Morgan Freeman and a score by Joshua Coyne.
Janet Langhart Books
- Anne and Emmett
- From Rage to Reason: My Life in Two Americas – 2004