They came not so much to remember Walter Cronkite, "the most trusted man in America", but Walter Cronkite, the respected colleague and friend.
Cronkite died July 17 at his Manhattan home at age 92. His funeral service was held at St. Bartholomew's Church Thursday.
Cronkite was the face of the "CBS Evening News" from 1962 to 1981, when stories ranged from the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., to racial and anti-war riots, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis.
"He'd been in the trenches and knew all the problems, and the result of all that was, he worked twice as hard to get it right," journalist Morley Safer said.
Thousands attended Cronkite's funeral, including colleagues from CBS and journalists from competing networks, to hear stories from those who knew Cronkite away from the anchor desk.
Mike Ashford, a friend of Cronkite for decades, shared Cronkite's love of sailing.
"He was sensitive to friend's pain," Ashford said of Cronkite. "He knew the words that restored the fun and chased the worry and made things good again."
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Cronkite Funeral
NY1’s Budd Mishkin has more from St. Bartholomew’s Church.
 
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Another friend, TV producer Bill Harbach recalled the good times.
"It was more fun," Harbach said. "He was a life enhancer."
From those who worked with him, there were plenty of funny memories.
"He also had a horrible problem with the second month of the year," Cronkite Productions Executive Producer Sanford Socolow said. "He could never pronounce it right; it got to the point where we would rehearse him for about the last week in January."
But for his friend of more than 60 years, Andy Rooney, the sadness of the day was too much.
"I just feel so terrible about Walter's death that I can hardly say anything. He's been such a good friend over the years," Rooney said. "Please excuse me, thank you."
The grief is understandable, and yet the mood at St. Bartholomew's was one of celebration, for a life well led and lived to the fullest.
