It was just a few days before the Inauguration when Diane Amos agreed to meet me at Howard’s Café on 9^th Avenue in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset, the neighborhood we both share. We talked about the new administration, her acting career and motherhood.

She speaks about her pride in our nation and how the young vote championed and was instrumental in ushering Barack Obama into the Oval office.

“Nothing has changed but everything has shifted. The civil rights movement was about this -right now. Here it is. My kids will now know a world with a Black President.”

For the past fifteen years, Diane has been the spokeswoman for Pine Sol as well as a comedienne, mother to a son and daughter and a wife. Of her husband James, she says,

“He’s the most emotionally honest person I’ve ever known.”

Her hazel eyes sparkle when she tells me how satisfied she is with her life and that,

“It’s a great privilege to have children come thru you.”

Diane’s mother, Pearl, was influenced by Kahlil Gibran’s, The Prophet and the idea that children come thru you.

“They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself”

Pearl passed that jewel onto her daughter.

“I’m grateful to have that understanding and to experience that kind of love.”

We order breakfast. Customers stream into the café and show Diane some love. They greet Diane with a smile, a nod of recognition or face to face.

She is gracious.

Of her Pine Sol gig she says,

“I think that’s why I still have my job. I’m approachable. I like people.”

The late Ben White, the advertising copywriter was a regular at Diane’s Improv shows with National Theater of the Deranged. He knew Diane Amos would be perfect for his creation of The Pine Sol Lady.

And people have responded positively to Diane and her catch phrase,

“That’s the power of Pine Sol baby!”

Three or four times a year, they re-shoot with a new scenario, but always with Diane at the forefront.

Before re-locating to San Francisco, Diane’s family lived in Indiana. Her parents divorced and Diane’s mother wanted a more compassionate life for her children and her new partner, also a woman and an educator.

Although as a seven year old Diane explains those early years were not without prejudice and inquiries and even though San Francisco was more liberal than the Mid-West,

“My mother and her partner were teaching children honesty and they had to lie.”

I wonder about Diane’s feelings about Proposition 8.

“I’m disappointed. It’s the beginning of what needs to happen. It does not feel hopeless.”

It was that sense of hope and possibility that brought Diane into an artistic life which included choir, drama and stand-up.

She attended Washington High School and her drama teacher encouraged her to perform.

“It was fantastic.”

She was in an improv ensemble, Natural Acts and every weekend they performed around the city.

“We worked off the audience. I had a ball.”

One of her Improv teachers when she was sixteen was Jim Cranna. And now, many years later, they remain good friends. And of her former classmates from Washington High School,

“We still get together for picnic and re-unions.”

Diane admits that she is recognized nearly every day.

Once she was on a remote island in Jamaica,

“An older brother came up to me, no shirt, overalls and he said, Hey…You da Pine Sol lady mon.”

She let out an infectious laugh.

With her Pine Sol commercials,

“You have fifteen seconds.”

She accomplishes not just a pitch but her personality in those fifteen seconds of fame.

Diane enjoys her full body of work: Improv, Stand-up and her commercial work.

On March 21, 2009, Diane will be a featured speaker at Ebony Magazine’s, annual Sisterspeak luncheon at the Marriot Hotel in Oakland. The luncheon series takes its name from the monthly column in the magazine which,

“Celebrates the unique sisterhood of African American women.”

Diane will share her authentic voice, some inspiration and always humor.

That’s the power of Diane Amos, baby!”

NEXT WEEK: MEET DAWN, OWNER, HOLLOW COFFEE.