Photo, above: The late Washington Mayor Marion Barry and his wife, Cora Masters. | AP Photo

Marion Barry’s wife sues her husband’s kidney donor

By Adam B. Lerner, Politico

The widow of former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry is suing the woman who donated a kidney to her late husband in 2009.

Cora Masters Barry has filed a lawsuit against the donor, Kim Dickens, for using her husband’s “celebrity identity” to raise money for a charity she founded called the Barry Dickens Kidney Foundation.

The organization’s website claims Marion Barry helped Dickens found the group, which promotes organ donation, but Barry’s widow denies it. Her lawsuit says Barry’s estate will not allow Dickens use of Barry’s name following the former mayor’s death in November 2014.

The site features pictures of the late mayor prominently, and recounts the tale of the donation in a page entitled the Barry/Dickens Story.

Dickens donated the organ to Barry while he was serving on the D.C. City Council in 2009 and struggling with kidney failure

According to an account in The Washington Post, Dickens decided to donate her kidney to Barry after he joked with friends at the Channel Inn in Southwest Washington, “Would you give me a kidney?”

“Are you serious?” Barry reportedly said. Soon afterward, Dickens was tested and the two were found to be a match — the final operation took place in February 2009.