SELMA COHEN

COHEN
SELMA (nee Orleans) on May 3, 2020. Beloved wife of the late Stanley; Loving mother of Jody Cohen, Paul (Bliss) Cohen, Wendy (Steve Dale) Cohen Reed and Carol (Richard Shippee) Cohen; Devoted grandmother of Nora (Matt), Jessye, Sarah (Maher), Tom (Alyssa), Lucas (Ragha), Gabe, Madeleine, Rafe, Ava and Leah. Services and interment are Private. Contributions in her memory may be made to ACLU, www.aclu.org Born on March 5, 1927 to Joseph and Pearl Orleans, Selma Cohen was raised in East Orange, New Jersey; she died at Atria Center City, a senior living facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Selma was a woman of strong and fervently held convictions. A one-time social worker, champion of civil rights, Democratic Party activist in Montgomery County, Maryland, and White House volunteer for Hillary Clinton during the latter�s tenure as First Lady in the 1990s, she bequeathed her compassion for society�s marginalized and underprivileged peoples to her children and grandchildren, many of whom entered such �helping professions� as teaching, social work, environmental activism, and legal aid for the disadvantaged. She was also an accomplished artist. A cofounder in the 1970s of The Spectrum Gallery in Georgetown, she produced (and sold) numerous oil paintings, both beautiful and occasionally haunting, reflecting a life well-lived but also disrupted intermittently by devastating family tragedy. Her remarkable resilience, attested to by her 93 years on earth, was matched only by the remarkable number of family members and friends who loved her.