Florence Cohen

Florence Cohen (born July 28, 1917), a pioneer public sector union leader with the Rural Electrification Administration from 1936 to 1943 and a longtime Philadelphia civic, political and feminist leader, and Philadelphia city official was born in New York City on July 28, 1917. Her father Harry was a garment maker and her mother was a housewife who died in the Influenza Epidemic of 1918, also known as the Spanish Flu. She was then raised by her mother's mother, an immigrant from the Russian Pale of Settlement, as the youngest of nine children.

Biography
She began working for the Rural Electrification Administration as a secretary under her maiden name of Florence Herzog in 1936. Her note-taking skills led her to become secretary of her union local for Rural Electrification workers shortly after she was hired. She enrolled in George Washington University as an evening student, earned a degree in Economics and ultimately became a statistician for the REA.

She was a small part of a massive national effort located within the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide rural electrification. In 1930 , only 13% of all farms had electricity, but by 1950, 93% of all farms had electricity. Her experience with the REA would typify her life: she had the capacity to identify with people with problems she had not personally experienced. In 1994, Congress would convert the Rural Electrification Administration into the Rural Utilities Service.

She worked closely with David Cohen, an agency attorney elected as President of her labor union in 1938, and married him in 1946 when he returned to the United States after service as a U.S. Army staff sergeant in New Guinea during World War II.

She was working as a union organizer at the time of the birth of her first child in 1949. While raising four children, all of whom would follow her into community activities and public service-Mark, Denis, Sherrie, and Judy-she earned a master's degree in education at the University of Pennsylvania. She would later become an administrator in the epidemiology program at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, after having taught in the Philadelphia School District and at the Community College of Philadelphia.

Her child rearing years were years of great activism. She and her husband hosted meetings of the Northwest Philadelphia Chapter of the American Jewish Congress at their home, and she recruited people to lobby the Pennsylvania General Assembly to enact fair housing legislation.

She was a co-founder of the Ogontz Area Neighbors Association in 1959, was its first long-serving President, and a board member for many years after her last term as President was completed. The Ogontz Area Neighbors Association is still active and will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2009.

She co-founded and was the first chair of the 17th Ward Women's Democratic Club. She co-founded and was the first chair of the New Democratic Coalition of Philadelphia, a leader of the Philadelphia political reform movement in the 1970s. She served as a Democratic committeewoman in the 17th Ward, 20th Division and as a delegate to the 1996 Democratic National Convention.

She was an early member of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization of Women and the Philadelphia Chapter of the Women's Political Caucus.

After her son Mark B. Cohen's election to the Pennnsylvania legislature in 1974, Florence Cohen encouraged fellow caucus member Ruth Harper, a modeling school owner, to run for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1976. Harper defeated an incumbent and serve for 16 years, during which time she was a champion of women's rights and a member of the Democratic National Committee.

Florence Cohen's activism often got her husband involved as well. David Cohen handled his first zoning on a pro-bono basis for the Ogontz Area Neighbors Association in 1960 and continued to be active on pro-bono cases for neighborhood associations around the city until his death in 2005.

She was an active volunteer for her husband when he served as the 8th District City Councilman from 1968 through 1971, writing legislation and resolutions and meeting with community organizations. For the first 17 years of his 26 year tenure as Councilman at Large, she served as his Chief of Staff, earning widespread praise for her performance in that role.

Five months after her retirement from the Philadelphia City Council staff, he became seriously ill, and she spearheaded the gaining of appropriate medical treatment for his recovery, and assisted him as a volunteer for the next nine years in performing Council duties of constituent advocacy, legislative oversight, and passage of legislation.

In their last joint public appearance, receiving the 17th Annual awards from the Bread and Roses foundation on September 12, 2005, he praised her and said "When people say Dave and Florence, they mean Florence and Dave. She was my teacher...."

After his death at the age of 90 on October 3, 2005, she became deeply involved in preserving his legacy. Like her husband a strong opponent of ageism, she sought, at age 88, Democratic Party support to fill out his unexpired term. After another longterm aide of Councilman Cohen, Bill Greenlee, 53, the Democratic Leader of the 15th Ward, whose job responsibilities in the field of constituent service kept him in close touch with ward leaders and other community leaders, was selected by the Democratic ward leaders to fill out the term in 2006, she strongly endorsed his general election candidacy.

She attended and spoke at ceremonies announcing awards in Councilman Cohen's name by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and the Community High School of Philadelphia, Philadelphia's first charter school. She pledged funds for annual awards to top male and female students at the Joseph Pennell Elementary School, which all four of her children had attended and where she had been active in the Home and School Association. She determined that her husband's gravestone contained the words "conscience of the city."

Since 2004 an independent living resident of the Watermark (formerly Logan Square East), a multi-level senior citizens housing complex located in Center City, Philadelphia, she joined her fellow residents in numerous activities, including attending a 2006 protest demonstration called by the American Civil Liberties Union against President George W. Bush's policies.

Before her 90th birthday in 2007, she continued to be active. She helped form the local chapter of the national organization Grannies for Peace, and served as its first President. She was elected an officer (2nd Vice President) of the Watermark Residents Association. At the annual swearing-in ceremonies for the officers of the Watermark Residents Association, held in April, 2007, she arranged for the oath of office for each officer to be administered by her son, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Denis P. Cohen.

She became President of the Watermark Residents Association in November, 2007, after the President resigned to move out of the building and the first Vice-President declined to be promoted to President.

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