WASHINGTON - D.C. Council member Marion Barry has successfully undergone a kidney transplant at Howard University Hospital.

University spokesman Ron Harris says a healthy kidney has been successfully transplanted. Harris says Dr. Clive Callender, director of the transplant center at Howard, reports Barry will be on a breathing tube overnight to help him sleep. They expect to remove it in the morning.

A spokeswoman for Barry says the kidney donor, who is a longtime friend of Barry's,  is now recovering and in good spirits.

University spokesman Ron Harris says doctors began the transplant Friday afternoon. They are operating on Barry, 72, and the organ donor at the same time. The surgery was expected to take six to eight hours.

A spokeswoman for Barry has said the former mayor's kidney problems are the result of diabetes and hypertension that Barry has suffered for more than 20 years. She says the donor is a longtime friend of Barry's.

Doctors informed Barry he was in need of a new kidney last April, and he has been undergoing kidney dialysis for the last twelve weeks.

"I know he's struggled mightily with having to go to dialysis three times a week, four hours a day. It's been very difficult on him; he has continued to work a very demanding schedule," said D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray.

While Barry underwent his kidney transplant Friday night, D.C. residents spoke about the former mayor who has often been at the center of major controversy.

Torrie's At Wilson restaurant in D.C. is one of Barry's favorite places to hang out. The restaurant is drenched with D.C. history and one of the most recognizable pictures in the restaurant is one that is personally signed by the former mayor.

"It's always on the house because we just love him," said Maria Hall, an employee at Torrie's At Wilson.

Adam J. Richardson, the bishop for the African Methodist Episcopal Church, says Barry's legacy is a lesson of extremes. "...So I'm really pulling for him tonight," Richardson said.

Much like his political career, the former mayor has had to bounce back from several health problems. He survived a gunshot wound in 1977 and battled prostate cancer in the 90s. Friday, his office at D.C. City Hall once again felt an enormous void.

Doctors at Howard University hospital have called the donation of a kidney from an unidentified 47-year-old, healthy female "the greatest gift."

Just in the D.C. region, more than 1,600 patients are on the waiting list for a kidney. Without the live donor, Barry could have waited five years for a deceased donor.

"I just think it's marvelous that a friend can come and offer their organ to someone else to give them a second chance," said another family friend, Bernadette Tolson.

And D.C. resident Ayanna Hunter responded, "I would think that would be the precious thing that anyone could do for someone outside their own livelihood."

Doctors feel very confident about their chances of success; there is a 95% success rate with this procedure. And Barry shares their confidence: he has already scheduled a press conference for after the surgery.

Barry has cited his kidney problems -- specifically his dialysis treatments -- as a reason he failed to promptly file tax returns for 2007. Barry filed them this week after prosecutors asked a judge to jail him for failing to file tax returns in eight of the past nine years.

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