The son of radio legend Paul Harvey used his father's words for the eulogy Saturday at a public funeral service in Chicago, the city from which he launched his national news and commentary show.
"A great tree has fallen," said Paul Harvey Jr., quoting his father's send-off for President Franklin Roosevelt. "An empty place has opened up against the sky."
The broadcaster died Feb. 28 in Phoenix, where he had a winter home, less than year after the death of his wife of nearly 68 years, Lynne Harvey. He was 90.
Their son recalled the couple's long romance and his father's start on radio for the 200 mourners at the Fourth Presbyterian Church on the city's Magnificent Mile. Harvey's newsroom colleagues, ABC Radio Networks executives and Doug Limerick, one of two broadcasters chosen to fill Harvey's time slots, attended the service.