Hundreds attend candlelight vigil at Tim Russert Park
Newsman's love for Buffalo emphasized at commemmoration
Tim Russert’s people came by the hundreds Sunday night — pushing baby strollers, riding bicycles, toting lawn chairs, leaning on canes — to honor the memory of the South Buffalo boy who never lost sight of his roots when he made it to the big time.
Sunday’s gathering was among the first of various opportunities for people to pay their respects to the newsman who died Friday at 58.
The public will be able to say goodbye to Russert during a wake from 2 to 9 p. m. Tuesday at the St. Albans School in Washington, D. C. A private funeral and memorial are scheduled for Wednesday, according to NBC officials.
There are no specific plans yet for a local service, according to a spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.
Plenty of ordinary people, such as John Gavner, came to the candlelight vigil to offer their silent prayers, while holding dear their personal memories of a man whose character and values they cherished.
“I met Timmy many, many years ago,” Gavner said. “He lived on Woodside. I worked on garbage trucks at the time. He’d get out and stop to talk with us. He’d stop and talk to anybody.”
After sharing Father’s Day with his family, Gavner brought his children and his grandson to Tim Russert Park in West Seneca — just a few blocks over the city line from South Buffalo — to pay his respects.
“Timmy was a good guy,” he said.
Others such as Ann Oxley never knew the “Meet the Press” host personally, but in the small-town world of South Buffalo, felt a connection to him. The retired teacher from the Town of Tonawanda has a number of friends who worked with Russert’s mother and one of his sisters. Through those people, she came to know of his devotion to his family and his pride in his roots, she said.
“He was so gung-ho about Buffalo, and he was so proud of being a Buffalonian,” she said. “And so are we.”
Countless others who flocked to the vigil said they didn’t have any sort of personal connection to Russert, not even within the 6 degrees of South Buffalo separation, but felt so moved by his commitment to truth, to family and to his hometown that they felt compelled to come.
“He was one of the premier advocates for Buffalo on a national scale. We don’t have many people like that,” said Jerry Inglet, a Lancaster resident who came with his wife, Amy.
A number of local politicians, from Rep. Brian Higgins to Erie County Clerk Kathleen C. Hochul, County Legislator Timothy M. Kennedy and Common Council Member Michael P. Kearns, offered praise and fond memories of Russert.
Mayor Byron W. Brown, lauding Russert’s “continuing love affair with the City of Buffalo,” proclaimed Sunday “Tim Russert Day.”
Earlier in the day, Higgins, Sen. Charles E. Schumer and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said they are introducing a resolution today to rename a portion of Route 20 in Orchard Park, near Ralph Wilson Stadium, after Russert. The resolution would have to pass both houses of Congress to become law.
“Anybody who knew Tim Russert found out pretty quickly that he was a Bills fan born and bred,” Clinton said. “While this is a small gesture to honor an icon who gave us all so much, we hope that when people drive down Route 20 past Ralph Wilson Stadium, they’ll remember the man who never forgot his hometown or his beloved Buffalo Bills.”
