Eloise Cohen’s life took her from the cedar scrub of the Texas Hill Country to the halls of power in Washington, D.C., and ultimately back to Texas. Throughout it all, two great loves dominated her life: her family and Democratic politics, said her son Chris, a former Chicago alderman. A lifelong Democrat who served as a ward committeewoman in Ann Arbor, Mich., Mrs. Cohen, 90, died Tuesday, Dec. 16, at Whitehall North Convalescent Home in Deerfield of Alzheimer’s disease. Born in the hamlet of Ingram, Texas, northwest of San Antonio, Mrs. Cohen was raised on a ranch. After high school in nearby Kerrville, she graduated from Mary Hardin-Baylor College. Like many bright and ambitious young people, she went to work in Washington during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was there that she met her husband, Wilbur, who helped draft the 1935 Social Security Act and later would serve in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, her son said. In addition to raising three boys, Mrs. Cohen became involved in Democratic politics in suburban Maryland. Later, when her husband became a professor at the University of Michigan, she served as a Democratic ward committeewoman in the area. “She knocked on doors, doing everything you do in Chicago, except giving out chickens and jobs,” her son said. Mrs. Cohen also was a committed social activist who took a dozen trips to rural Kentucky to help women there acquire job skills, he said. When she returned to Texas, she helped establish a daytime-care center for disabled seniors. “People liked it so much they named it after her,” her son said. She also is survived by two more sons, Bruce and Stuart; and six grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday at North Shore United Methodist Church, 213 Hazel Ave., Glencoe.
