For Hoyer, a Life Of Quiet Victories, Redefined Purpose

Then there were the whispers in Congress: that Hoyer was too ambitious, too slick. After rising in the House hierarchy, he lost a race for whip -- the No. 3 job in the party leadership -- to the lower-key David E. Bonior (Mich.) in 1991.

As Hoyer fought the political battles, Judy was his sounding board. She accompanied him to the political dinners, flashing her warm smile. But her heart was in Prince George's, where she oversaw early-childhood education, including programs for disadvantaged kids. As the years went by, she wearied of politics.

"She thought it was in some ways superficial," Hoyer says. "She was really into substance."

Yet she always supported her husband's goals: civil rights, helping the less fortunate.

In 1985, Hoyer joined the congressional Helsinki Commission, which monitored human rights in the Soviet bloc. With little publicity, he flew red-eyes to Eastern Europe and Russia for the next eight years, visiting dissidents, lobbying officials to release political prisoners.

It was a chance, Hoyer says, to help "people who otherwise were powerless."

He spoke out for such causes as gays in the armed forces, even after his district was redrawn to include Southern Maryland, the home of two military bases, as well as parts of Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties.

One day, Hoyer and his wife were at an event, when a coffee cup suddenly flew from Judy's hand. "It scared her greatly," Hoyer would later tell a crowd. It was epilepsy.

Hoyer shepherded the Americans With Disabilities Act through the House, broadening rights for epileptics and others.

After Tragedy, Change

After losing their 40-year grip on the House in 1994, Democrats turned to Hoyer to help with a comeback effort. He hopscotched across the country, recruiting candidates, focusing laserlike on Election Day: Nov. 5, 1996.

The bombshell came in October. Judy had stomach cancer. Four months later, she was dead at 57.

Hoyer plunged into grief.