Loss Of Mac "Is Heaven's Gain"

Comedian Bernie Mac's family had expected him to fully recover from the bout of pneumonia that put him in a hospital three weeks ago, his daughter says.

However, Je'niece Childress said that, as time passed, she and her mother braced for the possibility that he could die.

Mac, 50, died Saturday from what his publicist said were complications from pneumonia.

"Initially, when he was hospitalized we expected him to come back home, but as the weeks went on, I kind of knew," Childress told The Associated Press.

Childress said Mac had been at Northwestern Memorial Hospital since the middle of July.

Mac also suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs, but had said the condition went into remission in 2005. His publicist, Danica Smith, has said the pneumonia was unrelated.

Mac, who was born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough in Chicago, got his start doing standup as a child. His successful career included having his own Fox television series "The Bernie Mac Show" and starring roles in "Ocean's Eleven," "Bad Santa," "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and "Transformers."

Kellita Smith, who played Mac's wife on "The Bernie Mac Show," said on The Early Show Monday, "It was fun. He made it a pleasure to come to work. He was amazing. ... It's the world's loss and heaven's gain. He was an incredible man. He was charming. He was charismatic. He was social. He was professional. He was amazing."

"If you've met him," Smith continued, "you would think that he would live forever. He just had that spirit. He had that energy. He seemed like a man who could conquer anything. He endured his career to this point, and got the success he deserved."

Off-screen, Smith told co-anchor Julie Chen, Mac was "more gentle. Absolutely more gentle. He took his time with everyone, which is something that, when you get to a certain place in this business, people don't really do."

The comedian drew critical and popular acclaim with "The Bernie Mac Show," which aired more than 100 episodes from 2001 to 2006.

The series, about a man's adventures raising his sister's three children, won a Peabody Award in 2002. At the time, judges wrote they chose the sitcom for transcending "race and class while lifting viewers with laughter, compassion - and cool."

The show garnered Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for Mac. He also was nominated for a Grammy award for best comedy album in 2001 along with his "The Original Kings of Comedy" costars, Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley and Cedric The Entertainer.

Childress said Mac, who maintained a home in the south Chicago suburb of Frankfort, was a loving father, husband and grandfather. Childress, 30, is Mac's only child. Her mother, Rhonda McCullough, and Mac were married for 32 years, she said. Childress has a 1-year-old daughter.

"He was a hard man and he made no apologies for that," Childress said. "When it came to me and my mother and my daughter he was the softest."

Recently, Mac's brand of comedy caught him some flack after he joked about menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity at a July fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Obama's campaign later said the jokes were "inappropriate."

"I kind of figured he was going to get a lot of backlash," Childress said. "Telling that joke at that time probably wasn't the best idea, but that's him."

Children said there was always laughter in their home.

"Because that's just who he was," Childress said. "I'm sad that my daughter will never know or be able to feel how much he loved her."

Childress says funeral arrangements for Mac are pending. Smith said a public memorial would be held at House of Hope in Chicago next weekend.

"I think he will always be remembered as one of the original kings of comedy," Childress said. "I think what made him so special to people was that even though he was a celebrity he just seemed so down to earth and so much like a part of your family."