GREAT AMERICANS—JOAN COONEY

This unassuming woman, Joan Ganz Cooney, was born in 1929 in Phoenix, Arizona. After attending the University of Arizona, she worked in media, first as a newspaper reporter and later as a television publicist. Cooney, founded the innovative Children's Television Workshop (C.T.W.) in 1968, with foundation and government funding. Quickly famous for its flagship program Sesame Street C.T.W. filled a void on the airwaves and greatly improved American children's early development.

Over 4,000 episodes and 35 years later, Big Bird and company still fascinates millions of children, and many of us adults as well.
In the mid-1960s, with television growing rapidly, Cooney saw a need for children's programming. She consulted dozens of educators in order to develop her idea for a daily, hour-long show that used language and math education in entertainment. Despite discouragement from both her immediate boss and the president of Channel 13, Cooney found backing from the Carnegie and Ford Foundations, and the U.S. Commissioner of Education. She had a year and $8 million to silence the skeptics. Hiring a stellar creative team -- including Jim Henson, who created the show's Muppet characters, she also had the foresight to establish a collaborative process with educators and child development researchers to plan the show. Soon, creations like Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster and math whiz Count von Count, along with a cast of human characters like Maria and Mr. Hooper, made their debut.

The multiple-award-winning Sesame Street is a national treasure. C.T.W. (renamed Sesame Workshop) continues to produce it along with other children's programming. And Cooney's efforts have been recognized with such accolades as the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which she accepted in 1995 and dozens of others. We have been blessed to have had her with us to help us learn and grow for generations.