Dead Celebrity Alert

Effi Barry, 63, a regal first lady of Washington who endured her husband’s very public sex and drug scandal during his tenure as mayor, died early this morning of leukemia at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis.

Ms. Barry, who most recently worked as an employee in the city health department, was married to former mayor Marion Barry for 12 years. They divorced in 1990, not long after he was captured on videotape smoking crack cocaine in a hotel room with an ex-model and begging her to have sex with him.

She left Washington after the divorce and taught health and sex education at Hampton University, her alma mater, before returning to Washington and supporting her former husband in his successful bid for the Ward 8 D.C. Council seat in 2004. … Read full obituary

Filed under Government/Politics