We knew Mary Tyler Moore well if by another name, as did the whole country.
It's hard to believe she's gone now at 80, and in a sense she never will be gone. For her face and grace will be forever preserved on the little screen that ruled our lives back then. With her usual tin-eared substitute for eloquence, an entertainer named Ellen Degeneres tried to put a political spin on a star who outshone politics. She declared that Mary "changed the world for all women." Though it would have been more accurate to say she mirrored it, and the awesome power that women with a sense of formality wielded then and, if they would only realize it, can wield again and again.
The numerous trophies Mary Tyler Moore collected throughout her career were just doodads compared to the rewards of grace she came to personify. Some of us had a standing date with Miss Richards every Saturday night. Though it was more like a standing revelation.
Oh, yes, there was that interloper who assumed her identity and proved an extraordinary actress in Ordinary People, a movie that now is on its way to becoming an extraordinary, even classic film. See it and see it again, for it never loses its appeal. Any more than Mary Richards and her real-life counterpart will.
Editorial on 01/28/2017