[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 30, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9164-S9165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SELMA JEAN COHEN

   Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I would like to call to the 
attention of my colleagues the life of Selma Jean Cohen, a native 
Marylander who dedicated her life to caring for ill and handicapped 
children and adults. Mrs. Cohen passed away on July 2 at the age of 75.
  Mrs. Cohen was born Selma Jean Lattin and graduated from Forest Park 
High School in 1930. She married Leonard Cohen in 1942, and had two 
sons. While raising her children, Selma Cohen was very active in her 
community. She was the PTA president at Louisa May Alcott Elementary 
School, as well as the Cub Scout den mother and president of her 
synagogue sisterhood.
  After raising her children, Selma Cohen served as the Maryland State 
Health Department Director of Nursing Home Bed Registry for 25 years, 
finding

[[Page S9165]]

nursing home beds for seniors and the ill across Maryland. Mrs. Cohen 
was instrumental in bringing nursing home quality and safety concerns 
to the attention of authorities. She also volunteered her time at the 
Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital.
  As a volunteer manager at the Baltimore Ronald McDonald House for 10 
years, Selma Cohen worked with families who had children in the 
hospital for serious illnesses. She also volunteered at Mount 
Washington Pediatric Hospital. Mrs. Cohen is remembered for the 
tremendous joy and fulfillment she derived from working with children 
and the way she cared for them as though they were her own.
  Despite her long battle with cancer, Mrs. Cohen never lost her 
cheerful outlook, her sense of humor or her great zest for life. In 
fact, two days before her death, she was asking how her favorite team, 
the Baltimore Orioles, was doing.
  I know my colleagues join me in paying tribute to Mrs. Cohen's many 
years of service to our community. Mrs. Cohen was a great mother, a 
great wife, a great advocate for seniors and children and a great 
Marylander.

                          ____________________