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NEW YORK (CBS) ― Loved ones, friends and former colleagues gathered Thursday to say their final farewells to legendary broadcaster Walter Cronkite, whose funeral was held at St. Bartholomew's Church in midtown Manhattan.

Broadcast journalists -- co-workers, competitors, successors including Connie Chung, Bob Schieffer, Diane Sawyer, Brian Williams, Dan Rather, Barbara Walters, Charles Gibson, Matt Lauer, Tom Brokaw, Morley Safer and Meredith Vieira -- joined together to pay their respects to the CBS great.

"Walter was such a good friend. I can't get over it," said "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney.

Rooney recalled becoming friends with Cronkite when they were both reporter covering the Second World War in London. But the normally loquacious Rooney struggled to find words.

"You get to know someone pretty well in a war," he said. "I just feel so terrible about Walter's death that I can hardly say anything. Please excuse me."

"He had this reputation for being cool and calm and collected no matter what the circumstances … but that doesn't do him justice. He was really ferocious at times," said Sanford Socolow, a longtime CBS News executive and executive producer of Cronkite Productions. "He was always a wire service reporter in his heart. And he always lived by the wire service adage … 'Get it first, but get it right.'"

But in addition to remembering Cronkite the journalist, speakers recalled Cronkite's humor and sense of wonderment at the world, his love of sailing, and his willingness to show emotion.

Mike Ashford, a sailing friend, recalled how Cronkite cried, "openly and without shame," when his yellow lab of many years died.

And Cronkite's son, Chip Cronkite, in a speech addressed to his late father, thanked him for "Saying to mom as you passed her in the kitchen or the hall, 'Shall we dance?' and then taking her for a few turns around the room."

Socolow said that even as he grew gravely ill, Cronkite reveled a love of music and relished visits from Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and singer Jimmy Buffet, who delivered an impromptu ukulele performance.

Cronkite, though notoriously demanding in the newsroom, could also be funny and even silly, friends said. Socolow joked about his inability to pronounce the word "February" and an instance in which Cronkite forgot his own name when he signed off at the end of the broadcast.

In other words, it was no coincidence that Cronkite became "the most trusted man in America" - surpassing even the president in a 1972 poll.

"He was always I think the same guy that most of America guessed he was," Ashford said - serious about the news but also almost childishly sincere. "I learned to think and appreciate and observe the world the way Walter did."

Spectators lined both sides of Park Avenue, looking on as the casket arrived.

The Episcopal Church, located at 51st Street and Park Avenue, can accommodate up to 1,300 people, and its rector, Reverend William Tully, hopes everybody that wants to attend the funeral will be able to do so.

The service was labeled a "private" one, with a separate, public memorial expected to be held within the next few weeks at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The Cronkite family has been members at St. Bartholomew's for decades. Tully worked closely with the storied newsman's children to create what he believes will be a "great, elegant service" for their father.

"This is really a pleasure because this pulls together what we're here for – administering to a family but also to a church that's really open to the city," Tully said.

Cronkite came to be called "the most trusted man in America" for his reporting. He anchored "The CBS Evening News" from 1962 until 1981. He passed away Friday at his Manhattan home at the age of 92.

"Walter was a great mentor. He loved young reporters because he loved reporting. He loved the news. Nothing got in the way of news for Walter Cronkite," said Schieffer. "He was exactly the same off camera as he was on. He actually talked that way."

Schieffer said that's what made working for and with the legendary anchorman such an honor and a privilege.

"When you were reporting for Walter Cronkite, you knew that Walter understood the problems you were having getting a story," Schieffer said. "He knew the stories didn't just walk up to you and say, 'hey there, I'm a story, you can broadcast me now." 

For journalists who worked with him, and those who grew up watching him on television, Cronkite was an example after which to model their own careers.

"He really set the standard for broadcast journalism," former anchor Bill Kurtis said.

Susan Zirinsky is now the executive producer of "48 Hours Mystery," but in her early days in journalism she worked with the legendary newsman.

"The night Nixon resigned, Walter had finished, it was a dramatic and emotional day, and Walter tosses his script into the garbage can. And I picked it out and I said 'Well Walter, don't you want to keep this script?' It was written by a writer named Charlie West. As a matter of fact, his initials are in the corner. And here's Cronkite having made corrections to it. And I always felt this was what Walter was about: capturing history and taking the country through it," she said.

The retiring procession was delivered to the tune of "When the Saints Go Marching In."

Tully believes the homily, which he will deliver, practically wrote itself due to Cronkite's greatness.

"Here's a man who, because of who he was, and the position he was thrust into and the strength of his character, gained the trust of millions of people," Tully said. "It's an inspiration to me because I think that all of our lives are lived at the gut level, and that faith is trust. He was a wonderful example of a man who inspired such trust."



 

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