[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 83 (Thursday, June 20, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1110]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING JANET COHN OF CONNECTICUT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN B. LARSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 20, 2002

  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and pay 
tribute to Janet Cohn of Connecticut, who died on April 25th at 92 
years young. Mrs. Cohn was the wife of the late Yale Cohn, who passed 
away in 1995, and mother of the Secretary of the Connecticut State 
Democratic party. She was an active member of the League of Women 
Voters as well as various other West Hartford organizations.
  Born in New York City, Mrs. Cohn moved to Connecticut where she 
skipped two grades and graduated from Rockville High School as class 
valedictorian at the age of 16. From there she went on to work at the 
Aetna Insurance Company due to the fact that college was financially 
out of the question.
  At Aetna, her exceptional skill as a typist was widely known as well 
as her tendency to distract most of her gentleman co-workers with her 
flapper skirts, as she would gleefully report to all those who 
inquired.
  Mrs. Cohn met Yale at a dance for Jewish singles and married in 1933. 
Soon after, her skills in the workplace caused the company to break its 
then longstanding policy of firing female employees after they married. 
After she left Aetna, she took up the books at her husband's fish 
store, the Bostonian Fishery.
  A self-proclaimed ``old fashioned girl,'' Mrs. Cohn refused to bow to 
the increase in technology over the years, which meant that she never 
used a videotape recorder or flew in a plane. Her lack of travel only 
increased her focus on the welfare of her community. After moving to 
West Hartford in 1964, she became chairwoman of her voting district, 
pitching in wherever she felt that she was needed most.
  In addition to her love of politics, Mrs. Cohn found time for her 
love of painting, making hand painted cards for the birthdays of all of 
the many members of her family. She even found the time to serve as a 
Justice of the Peace, a role she gladly played at the age of 91 for her 
own granddaughter's wedding ceremony. She leaves behind two daughters, 
four grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
  Janet Cohn was an exceptional human being whose love of life was 
contagious to all those she came into contact with. She will truly be 
missed by the community she served for so many years, but most of all 
by her loving family.

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