Saturday, June 20, 2009

The attractive brunette wades in her pool in the glossy magazine photo, hand on hip, talking on her cell phone. Her story, which appears in the July edition of Marie Claire, is entitled "When White-Collar Hubbies Go to Jail."

Bernadette Noe, 49, a Tavernier resident and attorney, and husband, Tom Noe, were once high rollers in the Ohio Republican Party, attending both George W. Bush inaugural balls. He was Bush's chief Ohio fund raiser and she served dual roles as chairwoman of the Lucas County (Toledo) Republican Party and the chair of the Lucas County Board of Elections.

Then, like Humpty Dumpty, the politically well-heeled couple took a great fall.

Now he is in federal prison serving an 18-year sentence after being convicted in the theft of $13 million from an Ohio investment fund, and she has moved on with her life, recently joining the Russ Cullen law firm while raising their youngest child, a daughter attending Florida Keys Community College.

The Marie Claire article focuses on Noe's life after her husband's public downfall and how she deals with the adversity.