Articles - Wisconsin State Journal

Just after dark on Friday, Dec. 5, my phone at home rang and on the other end was an excited grandmother.

"You must watch Ghost Whisperer,'" Rita Kozmits said.

"Ghost what?"

"On CBS. Seven o'clock. Isabelle is on."

It had been several years since I had talked to Kozmits -- and about that long since I'd watched an hour-long drama on network television -- but I watched, and was glad I did. Rita's granddaughter, 11-year-old Isabelle Fuhrman, gave a terrific performance.

It turns out Isabelle, who also stars in a big Warner Bros. movie, "Orphan," scheduled for release next summer, is a hot property in Hollywood.

Her new career allows me a chance to add a chapter to a remarkable family saga that I first wrote about a decade ago this month.

That first column was about Elina Fuhrman -- Rita's daughter and Isabelle's mother -- and her journey from Moscow to Madison.

Elina -- or Lina, as she is known -- was born in the Soviet Union in 1969. Her mother, Rita, enrolled her early in ballet and English classes.

By the time Lina was 20, in 1989, she was hoping to come to the United States. She'd line up at the Aeroflot office near Gorky Park in Moscow to purchase a plane ticket. She waited, unsuccessfully, for several days, knowing it was not uncommon for people to wait months for plane tickets out of Moscow.

Suddenly one of the "line keepers" approached Lina and said, "Can you leave tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?"

"We've had a cancellation. If you want to go tomorrow, the ticket is yours."

Twenty-four hours later, on Dec. 23, 1989, Lina was standing in front of the holiday tree in Rockefeller Plaza, munching on the first slice of pizza she'd ever eaten. She had $60 in her pocket and when she called home to Russia, her mother was frantic.

Rita said, "What if they not give you a job?"

While in Moscow, Lina had met an American student, David Roberts, from Madison. She called him and he said the first thing she needed to do was get out of New York City. Roberts sent her a plane ticket to Madison.

Lina hadn't been in town very long when Eve Galanter, then working in the Madison office of Sen. Herb Kohl, introduced her to a young man named Nick Fuhrman, who had chaired the Republican Party of Dane County and would eventually run for the Madison area congressional seat.

Nick and Lina were married in May 1991 at the Madison Club. Rita came from Russia for the wedding. She came again in 1993, when her first granddaughter, Madeline, was born, and decided to stay.

Nick ran for Congress in 1998, but lost in the Republican primary. He and Lina moved to Atlanta, where Lina got a job as a reporter with CNN.

Rita stayed in Madison, and in the summer of 2000, when I was looking for a good July 4 column, I settled on Rita. Nearly 60, she had decided she wanted to be a U.S. citizen.

She talked to me of her struggles learning English. She said watching TV helped. Now she was studying hard for the citizenship exam. Early one morning, she took the bus, alone, to Milwaukee for an oral exam with an INS officer. Rita, who had a job working at Target, said it reminded her of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"

She passed her exam and I was pleased when, in August 2000, she asked if I could drive her to the federal courthouse in Madison where she would take a spoken oath in front of U.S. Judge John Shabaz and officially become a citizen. Shabaz had married Nick and Lina.

Rita was so proud of becoming a citizen. She was even prouder of her granddaughters, Madeline and her younger sister, Isabelle, who were with their mom and dad in Atlanta.

Lina told me this week that Isabelle's show business career began several years ago, "almost as a fluke." Lina's CNN affiliation led both her daughters to audition for a Cartoon Network production, which Madeline found boring (she's the athlete in the family), but Isabelle loved.

Before long casting people were telling Lina that Isabelle had something special, and she needed a Hollywood agent. They resisted for a time, but Isabelle's natural talent kept landing her roles.

Finally, they not only got the agent, Lina moved with the girls to Los Angeles. Isabelle got a role in "Hounddog" with Dakota Fanning, and the guest shot on "Ghost Whisperer." Next summer's "Orphan" is her biggest role yet.

Lina is working as a freelance journalist, doing magazine pieces for In Style and Travel and Leisure. Nick has kept his job consulting with the state of Georgia on developing the aerospace industry in the state, but he spends a week or two a month with the family in California.

Rita has retired from Target, and remains in Madison, though she visits Los Angeles often.

After the "Ghost Whisperer" episode, Rita called me again.

"Did you watch? Wasn't she great?"

I told her it must be in the genes.

Dec 16th 2008