CBS News: A Fond Farewell To Ed Bradley

[DeepModem Mom]

A Fond Farewell To Ed Bradley
Stars From Worlds Of News, Music, Entertainment Gather At Memorial For CBS Newsman
NEW YORK, Nov. 21, 2006


(AP)
Wynton Marsalis, fourth from left, plays trumpet as he participates in a jazz processional following a memorial service for CBS "60 Minutes" journalist Ed Bradley at Riverside Church in New York,on Tuesday.

(CBS) Family, friends and colleagues gathered Tuesday to bid a fond farewell to veteran CBS News correspondent Ed Bradley, who died Nov. 9 at the age of 65 of complications from leukemia.

A long list of entertainers, journalists, politicians and musicians from across the country packed New York's Riverside Church for the memorial service, reflecting Bradley's achievements and diverse interests.

For all the tributes to his career — Vietnam, the White House, his 500 60 Minutes stories about the famous and the infamous — today was not about his career but his character, reports CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts. He was a 6th grade math teacher from Philadelphia who went on to educate a nation....

Former President Bill Clinton called Bradley "a brilliant and insatiably curious traveler on a relentless lifetime quest to get to the bottom of things. He was like the great jazz musicians he so admired. He always played in the key of reason. His songs were full of the notes of facts but he knew to make the most of music you have to improvise."...

Others in attendance were comedian Bill Cosby; the Rev. Jesse Jackson; New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; singers Aaron Neville, Jimmy Buffet and Paul Simon; and a who's who from the world of television news including Katie Couric, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Andy Rooney and Diane Sawyer....

***

"I always thought his greatest achievement was the artistry with which he lived his life," said Bradley's "60 Minutes" colleague Steve Kroft. "If he had any regrets I never heard them. And it was a great life. A great life."

Music was a big part of Bradley's life and Tuesday's memorial as well, with performances from Jimmy Buffet and pianist Allen Toussaint; Aaron Neville, who sang "Amazing Grace"; jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis; and a New Orleans funeral brass band, which ended the service playing "When the Saints Go Marching In," as the audience waved handkerchiefs in the air, a New Orleans tradition.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/21/national/main2202723.shtml

[BOSSHOG]

1. Jazz Funerals are very uplifting

A celebration of one's life which helps dull the pain a bit. Ed had a passle of friends. Jimmy Buffet invited him onstage severals years ago and said he couldn't get rid of him which was fine. I saw him perform with buffet in New Orleans. He was known as the "60 Minutes Man." There was a clear sexual reference to the chat. He was a genuine journalist.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Thank you for sharing this, BOSSHOG! And I agree --

I was delighted to see a brief glimpse on CNN yesterday of the New Orleans jazz procession up the aisle of Riverside Church.

[BOSSHOG]

3. It is really quite remarkable

You can be sitting in your favorite bar on Bourbon Street, having a cold beer and contemplating the meaning of the universe when all of a sudden you can hear the Jazz in the streets, a band leading (and following) a horse drawn hearse with people singing and dancing in the street and strangers joining the procession as it winds it way to the dearly departed's final resting place. And if you wait long enough you'll see young ladies on the street exposing their breasts to young men on the balconies which line the streets for a handful of cheap beads. Most of the young ladies from Omaha or Topeka or Peoria. A cosmic street with free live shows every night. No doubt Ed Bradley will visit often.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Beautifully said! nt

[Vidar]

12. Thanks for the anecdote.

[earth mom]

5. Ed was one of my favorites and he will be missed...

the tribute they did to him on 60 minutes was a tear jerker. Why do the good always die young? :cry:

[xxqqqzme]

9. Agree - I was happy to learn

one of Bradley's favorite interviews was the one w/ Lena Horne. I remember watching it. About halfway through, I said to my then husband - 'I think Ed's falling in love'. By the end of the piece he was grinning and gazing @ her w/ a school boy's crush. It was a delight.

[Leilani]

6. C-Span covered the entire funeral

I watched part of it yesterday & Wynton Marsalis was wonderful.

I'm sure C-Span has it available to watch.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Thank you, Leilani!

[Leilani]

11. You're very welcome!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

:hi:

[Beaverhausen]

8. I watched a bit too - caught Clinton's speech

as well as Bill Cosby's. Wonderful

Jimmy Buffett sang "Do you know what it means, to miss New Orleans" with Alain Toussaint on piano. Beautiful.

[KT2000]

10. Got to see some of it

In addition to the speaker, I was impressed by the minister. He sang a song for his Benediction and explained the use of the white hankies in a New Orleans style funeral. Everyone in attendance received the hankie inside their program.
He truly was a loved man iwth wonderful friends!
A good journalist too.

[brook]

13. I watched it and thought

it was probably the most beautiful memorial service I'd ever seen. Been looking at C-span's home page, hoping they'll have a video up. Haven't seen it yet though.

Having always enjoyed his journalism, I was mesmerized by learning about 'the man' himself. What a legacy!