Claudia Dale Levy (December 24, 1943Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Birth Index 1903-1997; via Ancestry – December 3, 2021) was an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

union activist A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (su ...

who worked at ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' in the 1980s and 1990s.

Early life

Claudia Levy was born in

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

, the daughter of Sidney Alexander Levy and Virginia Dale Clark Levy. She was raised in the Washington, D.C. area and graduated from

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (B-CC) is a public high school in Montgomery County, Maryland. It is named for two of the towns it serves; it also serves Kensington and Silver Spring. It is located at 4301 East-West Highway, in Bethesda. In May ...

in 1961. Both of her parents worked in journalism.

Career and activism

Levy edited the real estate and regional ''Maryland Weekly'' sections at ''The Washington Post''. She approved a two-part investigative series by Eugene L. Meyer in 1980, on

white flight White flight or white exodus is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the United States. They refer ...

Prince George's County, Maryland ) , demonym = Prince Georgian , ZIP codes = 20607–20774 , area codes = 240, 301 , founded date = April 23 , founded year = 1696 , named for = Prince George of Denmark , leader_title = Executive , leader_name = Angela D. Alsobroo ...

. The piece received an honorable mention from the

National Association of Home Builders The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is one of the largest trade associations in the United States, representing the interests of home builders, developers, contractors, and associated businesses. NAHB is headquartered in Washington, D ...

. In 1972, she was head of a committee of over 100 women employees of ''The Post'' when they filed a complaint with the

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

. The complaint was settled in 1980, with the employees receiving some back pay and other concessions. "It's strictly token back pay. But the affirmative action element is promising," Levy commented after the settlement was reached. In 1986, she was a lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit representing employees of ''The Washington Post'' who sued the newspaper for overtime pay. Levy wrote

obituaries An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...

for ''The Washington Post'' for twelve years. "People can be incredibly angry when they call with a news obit," she told a reporter in 1995. "We try to be precise, and it makes some people mad." She was one of about 130 ''Washington Post'' staffers who accepted the Voluntary Retirement Incentive Program to take an

early retirement Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

in late 2003.

Personal life

Levy died from an

embolism An embolism is the lodging of an embolus, a blockage-causing piece of material, inside a blood vessel. The embolus may be a blood clot (thrombus), a fat globule ( fat embolism), a bubble of air or other gas (gas embolism), amniotic fluid (amniot ...

following cervical spine surgery on December 3, 2021, at her home in the Bannockburn community of

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

. She was 76 years old. At the time of her death, she was caring for both of her aged parents in her home.

References

External links

* Levy, Claudia
"Lobster Finds Safe Haven at Smithsonian"
''Los Angeles Times'' (October 12, 1989). * Levy, Claudia

Bethesda-Chevy Chase Class of 1961 website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Claudia 1943 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American newspaper editors 21st-century American newspaper editors American newspaper reporters and correspondents American women journalists American women editors Editors of Washington, D.C., newspapers The Washington Post journalists Obituary writers Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School alumni