Passage: Bill Macy and Elijah Cummings

It happened this past week . . . a pair of losses in two very different fields.

Bill Macy was a versatile stage and film actor with a memorably expressive face. He’s probably best remembered as the long-suffering TV husband of Bea Arthur’s feminist character in the 1970s CBS comedy, “Maude.”

So convincing was his performance, he said, strangers would come up to him and offer sympathy for having such a difficult wife.

Bill Macy was 97.

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland was a real-life giant of the U.S. Congress and an untiring champion of civil rights.

125 Photos

Notable deaths in 2019

A look back at the esteemed personalities who’ve left us this year, who touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity

The son of sharecroppers who moved north to Baltimore, Cummings rose through the political ranks to become Chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee. 

A proud son of Baltimore, his sense of urgency in making the most of his time on Earth was apparent way back in 1996, in the poem he recited in his very first speech to the House:

“I only have a minute, sixty seconds in it. Forced upon me, I did not choose it. But I know that I must use it.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings was just 68.

        
See also: 

      
Story produced by Juan Torres-Falcon.