Last week I saw a blip on the news that comedian Bernie Mac was hospitalized with pneumonia. They didn’t go into any detail and a couple days ago in the scrolling headline news I read that Bernie Mac was improving and expected to recover. So I don’t know what the heck happened over the last couple of days but I was shocked and saddened to read the headline on Yahoo this morning that announced his death due to complications from pneumonia.

I loved Bernie Mac and his stand up routines. He was able to be funny about racial issues, poverty, and contemporary life without being a smart aleck and without being completely nasty like some of the other popular black comics. Sure, he cussed and talked about politically incorrect topics, but his take on those subjects was what made him funny.

The Bernie Mac show was really funny and although I never watched the show’s original airings, I caught many reruns on late night TV. From reading his biography, the Bernie Mac show ran 5 years and was Fox’s biggest hit comedy of the time. Plus, Bernie had a long string of movie titles, including Oceans Eleven, Oceans Twelve and Oceans Thirteen.

Bernie Mac was born Bernard McCullough on October 5, 1957 – just a few days before my baby sister was born. He died this morning in Chicago at age 50. Bernie – you will be missed.