Elayne Sandra Maidy

Elayne Maidy, five-time Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner, Oscar nominee, and the first woman President of the United States, died after leading the fight against the invading forces of Covidia and Pneumonia as well as enemies from the Cancer nebula. She simultaneously fixed climate change and balanced the Federal budget while discovering unlimited sources of clean energy and ending racism around the world. She is survived by her husband, Robert Redford, and a retinue of lovers who were left distraught to learn of her passing.

While I wish more than anything for that to be true, anyone who knew her already understood Elayne’s tendency to embellish her tales a bit. Here is the real story.

Elayne Sandra Becker Maidy, known to many as Mrs. Maidy, to her friends as Elayne, to her enemies as Old Lady Maidy, and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren as Mom-Moms, passed away on January 18th, 2022 surrounded by her family. It was very important to Elayne that everyone she ever met knew that she spelled her name with a “Y” and not an “I” despite our recent discovery on her birth certificate that her first name was spelled Elane. Elayne left us peacefully and with no knowledge that she had spent the last nine decades misspelling her own name.

Elayne was born July 17, 1928 to Morris and Ann Becker. Spending most of her youth in Washington, D.C., Elayne was present for countless moments in history including Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration parade which she watched from outside of her father’s store. As a girl, she met many people who would come see her father and elicit his services as a sportsbook. Elayne grew up with her brother, Edward “Eddie” Becker of California. She briefly attended American University in Washington, D.C. but did not graduate. Instead, she filled her life with friends, fun, as well as a lot of cigarettes and vodka.

In 1951, Elayne fell in love and married Morris “Mory” Maidy. She would never shy away from singing the praises of her husband, the man with the movie star good looks and the photographs to prove it. The pair met and married within months and soon started their family. Her sons, Kevin Robert and the late Bryan Keith, gave them a run for their money as all boys tend to do. Elayne lost Mory far too soon in 1971. She never got over him and talked about how much she missed him until her very last days.

Elayne spent the rest of her life as a working single mother, raising her sons while serving as property manager for the Claridge House in Silver Spring, Maryland. Reigning over the building as a queen, Elayne made many friends over her tenure there. Elayne also doted on her three grandchildren, Alexander, Sean, and Samantha, all of whom had great-grandchildren for her to boast about. She did everything she could to win over those she liked and tried even more to win over those that she disliked. She was a strong, career woman before such a thing was the norm.

Elayne loved movies, music, and stage productions. She saw Phantom of the Opera in London but walked out of Les Misérables. She loved Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin and all the greats from that era. She was an avid reader and would consume multiple novels a week, counting Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth as her favorite alongside an equal amount of trashy romances, Danielle Steel novels and other stories.

A social butterfly, Elayne never missed the chance to drink and smoke and make even the smallest gathering into an event.  She dated sporadically over the years and well into her nineties continued to flirt with every person who gave her a compliment. She would talk at length about the men who courted her, but she never remarried and always talked about Mory as the one and only love of her life.

A lifelong Democrat, Elayne campaigned for everything from local county seats to Presidential candidates. She was proud of having met everyone from Senator Chris Van Hollen to Vice President Al Gore and President Joe Biden. She was never shy about her thoughts about those whose political beliefs differed from hers. A staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton, she eventually came around to loving Barack Obama but never warmed up to Bernie Sanders. When she was physically unable to campaign, attend events, or even work at polling places, she would wake up first thing in the morning and turn on MSNBC and watch it until she went to sleep.

Much of her life was like Forrest Gump’s as Elayne found herself often a part of historical events in one way or another. From FDR’s inauguration to being in Washington D.C. during the riots when Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated, to attending JFK’s funeral and more, she witnessed history from the stock market crash of 1929 to September 11th and eventually the COVID-19 pandemic. She always supported rights for minorities and women and would tell the story of being in the hospital at the same time as Alabama governor George Wallace whom she gave a piece of her mind. She even babysat for a young Sylvester Stallone whose father was her hairdresser in the 1950s. The stories go on and on.

She was Jewish when it mattered most, meaning during the High Holidays or when it could win her an argument. She was a supporter of Israel despite never having the chance to visit, but every opportunity she had she would donate what she could.

She made brisket and Caesar salad unlike anyone in the world, but she also would consider sprinkling granulated sugar on corn flakes a satisfactory alternative recipe for Frosted Flakes. She ate bacon and eggs daily, sunny side up or soft-boiled. She always ate her steak so rare it was bloody. She went through a lot of vodka a week, cussed like a sailor, and smoked like a chimney. She survived breast cancer, twice, a double mastectomy, and over 30 surgical procedures. Some of those were cosmetic, but she would never admit it.

Elayne is now reunited with the love of her life and her son, Bryan. She is survived by her son, Kevin Robert and his wife Ann of Cary, Illinois. Her grandson Alexander Mory Maidy and his wife Taylor and their sons Jackson Andrew and Benjamin Clark Addison. Her grandson Sean Matthew Maidy and his wife Savannah and their daughters Piper Jean and Rory Elayne. Her granddaughter Samantha Moreen Maidy Ocampo and her sons Maxx Alejandro and Mateo Alejandro. She is also survived by dozens if not hundreds of friends and extended family around the country.

We will miss you, Mom-Moms, and we know you are already telling everyone in Heaven what you would do better if you were running the place. Make sure you complain about the food and never stop watching over us.

In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory can be made to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation or the International Bipolar Foundation. She would also not have a problem if you sent money to the Democratic Party or if you merely spent the money on a nice bottle of booze and toasted her.