Mattie Cummings, mother of Marion Barry, dies in Memphis at 92

Mattie Cummings, 92, the mother of D.C. Council member Marion Barry, died Nov. 8 at a nursing home in Memphis. Barry (D-Ward 8), who served four terms as mayor of the District, announced the death in a statement but did not disclose the cause of death.

Cummings was a sharecropper in her native Mississippi before settling in Memphis in the early 1940s with her children. She remarried and held a variety of jobs, from slaughterhouse worker to domestic.

She was a steadfast supporter of her son Marion as he rose from political activist to politician, and she stood by his side in his bleakest hours when he was forced to leave the mayor's office in 1991 after his conviction for drug possession; he served six months in prison. She was also by his side when he was reelected mayor in 1994.