Roger Ebert has died due to thyroid and salivary gland cancer, reported Yahoo! News on April 4. The "Two Thumbs Up" film critic, who was with the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, was 70. One of the facts about the famous Ebert was his happy and successful marriage to Charlie "Chaz" Hammelsmith Ebert.
Ebert was married to African American Chaz Hammelsmith, vice president of the Ebert Company, for nearly 21 years prior to his death. Hammelsmith was once a trial attorney.
The two met in 1989. "I love writing to him. When we first started dating, Roger and I would write to each other every morning," said Chaz.
Roger proposed to Chaz during the Grand Prix in Monte Carlo while they were sitting outside eating ice cream. They were married on July 18, 1992 at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago.
"I sensed from the first that Chaz was the woman I would marry, and I know after 20 years that my feelings were true. She has been with me in sickness and in health, certainly far more sickness than we could have anticipated. I will be with her, strengthened by her example. She continues to make my life possible, and her presence fills me with love and a deep security. That's what a marriage is for. Now I know."
In 1992, when Roger and Chaz got married, interracial marriage was not as common as it is today. The Huffington Post reported, Feb. 2012, that interracial marriage is on the rise. "Interracial marriages in the U.S. have climbed to 4.8 million – a record 1 in 12 – as a steady flow of new Asian and Hispanic immigrants expands the pool of prospective spouses. Blacks are now substantially more likely than before to marry whites."
Roger Ebert has died, and his happy marriage to Chaz will be one of the many fond memories we will carry with us.
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©Jolie du Pre 2013
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