MTM Vision News

Michigan Matters: Mary Tyler Moore Still Impacting the World

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By Carol Cain

December 17, 2024 / 10:05 AM EST / CBS Detroit

(CBS DETROIT) — Mary Tyler Moore turned the world on with her megawatt smile as she starred in the iconic “Dick Van Dyke” and “Mary Tyler Moore” shows a generation ago. 

She died of complications from diabetes at the age of 80 in 2017, as she spent the last half of her life helping to raise over $2 billion for research and awareness about the disease.

Her legacy continues as her husband, Dr. S. Robert Levine, talked about on CBS Detroit’s Michigan Matters as he started the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative after her death to help find a cure for blindness associated with diabetes, which she suffered from.

Levine talked about the initiative, which, along with the University of Michigan and the Joslin Diabetes Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and others, gathered at the Third Annual Fall Symposium on Curing Vision Loss from Diabetes held in Ypsilanti last month.

Levine also talked about their first public service announcement released a few months ago narrated by actor Kevin Kline with remarks from Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon to educate folks about the need for medical research toward the cure of diabetic retinal disease.