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Ed Bradley to Receive Public Sendoff

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“Celebration” Planned for N.Y.’s Riverside Church

Ed Bradley, who became known to millions as a CBS News correspondent, will receive a public sendoff next week at New York’s historic Riverside Church, his longtime friend, veteran journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault, told Journal-isms on Monday.

 

 

 

The life of Bradley, who died Thursday of leukemia at age 65, is to be celebrated with a memorial service Tuesday, Nov. 21, at 10:30 a.m. at the church, which is styled after a 13th-century French gothic cathedral. It can seat up to 2,500.

“It’s a celebration of his life with those who knew him best,” Hunter-Gault said. “I suppose you could say it will be a celebration featuring some of the great music and people he loved . . . later celebrations of his life in other cities, including Aspen [Colo.], where he has a home, are planned for next year,” but are “not complete at this time.”

The “60 Minutes” correspondent hosted “Jazz at Lincoln Center” on National Public Radio and jammed with the Neville Brothers.

In the last few years Riverside, which states its location as the intersection of the Upper West Side and Harlem, has been the site of services for actor Ossie Davis, singer Luther Vandross, two members of the Rockefeller family, and last April, for its former senior minister, Yale chaplain William Sloane Coffin, according to longtime church volunteer Gwen Shepherd.

When Nelson Mandela, then deputy president of the African National Congress, was freed from a South African prison in 1990, one of his first U.S. stops was an ecumenical service attended by 2,000 at Riverside. Celebrants danced jubilantly to the beat of African drummers. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Bill and Hillary Clinton have also spoken at the interdenominational church, she said.

Bradley was the subject of more coverage over the weekend both on television and in print. “60 Minutes” devoted its entire hour to Bradley.

“Last night’s estimated 16 million-plus audience was a true testament to Ed Bradley’s popularity and the sincerity of the cries from the public when it learned of his death. Thanks to Ed, 60 MINUTES will probably make the top 10,” CBS spokesman Kevin Tedesco told Journal-isms via e-mail.

Writing in Newsday on Sunday, columnist Les Payne said that Bradley had been offered the anchor’s job at CBS News but had turned it down.

“‘I didn’t want to be an anchor,’ he said. ‘I was offered that job,'” he said. Payne later said Bradley was referring to the 1980s.

“Broadcast journalism, for Bradley, was digging up the story you tell, not reading from a dug-up story.”

Hunter-Gault added that those wishing to make a gesture may do so via the Bradley Family Charitable Foundation, dedicated to the arts and education, at 107 Brewery Road, New City, N.Y. 10956. Those wishing to send flowers may contact the Daily Blossom at 212-633-9000.

[CBS said Tuesday that cards and condolences may be sent to 555 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019.]

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