RIP friends: TV host Bruce DuMont & former Congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar
Beyond the Beltway host Bruce DuMont passed away this week. So did Congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar. They were both very good friends for me and leaders in a tough world
By Ray Hanania
FREE/Obituary, Bruce DuMont, Mary Rose Oakar/Sept. 14, 2025
I lost two friends this past week: First, “Beyond the Beltway” Radio and TV Host Bruce Dumont, who died on Sept. 10, 2025; and my friend Congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar, who passed away on Sept. 13, 2025.
Here’s a look at both.
DuMont began his program in the 1980s as “Inside Politics” and often had me on as a guest as I covered Chicago City Hall and politics from 1977 through 1992 for the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times.
DuMont was a conservative Republican who discussed but did not demean the views of the Left or the mainstream Democrats, something we see from both the Republican and Democratic Party leaders.
These days, every division on issues becomes a vicious, name-calling war that rises above both constructive politics and the interests of the public, the taxpayers who pay their outrageous salaries.
We have seen how this polarization of American politics has resulted in violence against Democrats and against Republicans, like the killing of Charlie Kirk this past week.
DuMont married one of my closest aldermanic friends, Kathy Osterman, alderwoman of the 48th Ward. Osterman was one of the most understanding and public interest-driven members of the Chicago City Council that I met during that period I covered from 1977 through 1992.
She did a lot in public service, including serving as the director of Special Events for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1988 until her death.
Osterman and DuMont married on May 1, 1992. But the alderwoman with the pleasant and humorous personality who fought for the rights of her residents and the city she loved died later that year in 1992.
I also lost another friend, a few days later, Rose Mary Oakar, the first Lebanese American woman to serve in Congress. She served from 1977 to 1993.
I often spoke with Ohio Congresswoman Oakar, who also served as President of the American Arab Anti-DIscrimination Committee (ADC) (2003-2010), about political issues, the Middle East, and the Arab American Community for news and feature stories I wrote.
She was a reasoned voice at a time of Arab community divisions driven by politics, what to do about Palestine, national rivalries, and the inability of the Arab American community to come together as one voice.
Oakar had that dream, and while it has gotten closer, the rivalries continue to exist, burdening the community, undermining the fight for Palestinian rights and statehood, and weakening our voice in this country. It’s prevalent in the region where I live, in Orland Park, where racism against Arab Americans abounds and the community fights for the spotlight and what they think is “power.”
Oakar was the ADC president when she did my introduction at the event in Dearborn, where I performed stand-up Arab American comedy in honor of the anniversary of the Arab American News newspaper in Dearborn, Michigan, in 2004, and its publisher, Osama Siblani.
Siblani’s newspaper was and is the only weekly Arab American newspaper in America. Other monthly publications come and go, but Siblani’s iconic newspaper has been a print archival source for Arab American news.
You can watch her introduction in 2004 and my early standup comedy by clicking this YouTube link, or watching it here:
(This sampler of my comedy, which touched a little on politics, on post-Sept Sept. 11 security concerns, Palestinian-Israeli and Jewish-Palestinian marriage, and growing up Arab in America.)
After performing this comedy routine, with Oakar’s support, I went on to co-launch the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour with Israeli Charley Warady and Yisrael Campbell, and Chicago Jewish comedian Aaron Freeman in 2007. We performed for hundreds of venues around the world, including in Dublin, London, Dubai, Jerusalem, Ramallah, dozens of colleges throughout the United States, New York, Austin, and to a sold-out crowd at the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto.
Oakar loved the comedy and said I was her favorite comedian, back then.
Arab American comedy has changed significantly since then, with the help of professional comedians like Ahmed Ahmed, and Mo Amer, both of whom I have profiled in past articles in the Southwest News newspaper group over the years. Amer launched two seasons of his Netflix comedy show, “Mo,” which I featured in the newspaper and will post here soon.
Losing friends like them, and others like newspaper publisher Mansour Tadros, Arabian food industry leader Nemer Ziyad, and my high school friend Bill Hennessy, were traumatic.
Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote, "the lives of the dead live in the memory of the living."
That’s very true. In the evening, when I offer prayers, I recite the names of my parents, relatives, family, and friends as a way to keep them alive. It forces me to remember my experiences and life with them all.
I keep the list on my cell. As you get older, the list gets long.