He was 90.
Oh man. The passing of a radio legend. He had quite a life. RIP, Paul.
The end of an era. That blend of actual news, commentary, homespun storytelling and personal endorsement commercials will never be heard again.
A shameless glurgemonger.
As much as I dislike disparaging the recently deceased, this is true.
I loved Paul Harvey. I even read the books he published of his stories. He and Andy Rooney gave me a more thought-provoking take on life.
RIP Mr. Harvey. And take your Citrical.
My favorite Paul Harvey anecdote. He went out west on vacation, bought himself some snakeskin boots and a 10-gallon hat and was kicking around in the desert when some guy grabs him by the arm and said, ‘‘Oh my goodness! I must get your picture!’’
Paul Harvey, pleasantly surprised at being recognized by physical appearance rather than signature voice, poses for the photograph with a winning smile.
As the startstruck fan walks away, he mutters, ‘‘See, honey? I told you we’d meet a real cowboy!’’
Definitely a beloved part of my childhood. The world will miss him, even if he was a shameless peddler of glurge. Humanity loves glurge. I know I sure do. And glurge delivered with such poise and dignity… why it’s enough to make a girl weep.
His “end of the story” broadcasts were great human interest stories. To think of them as nothing but glurg because they were positive in nature dismisses the connective quality of the story behind a recognized figure.
That may be true. True like the savings you’ll find at your local True Value hardware store this weekend. Like their EasyCare latex paint. Quality home owners and professionals have come to rely on. This weekend, only $25.95 a gallon.
I only knew him from “The Rest Of The Story” which I really liked. RIP Mr. Harvey. I never heard any of the commercial or glurge stuff of which you speak.
I think it was from Paul Harvey that I first heard the tale about the members of a Nebraska church choir who avoided injury when the church exploded because every single one of them, miraculously, happened to be late for practice that evening.
(I only look back with fondness because, as Snopes reports, it actually happened.)
I guess we now know the rest of the story. 
I remember listening to Paul harvey in the late 70’s when I lived out on the Navajo reservation and AM radio was all we could get.
I just talked to a friend about Paul Harvey the other day. When he told me that Paul Harvey was dead, I replied: “No, Paul’s still alive. He’s probably 90 by now, but he still doesn his radio show”.
I’ve heard that Paul was a supporter of the Vietnam war. I friend of mine was a soldier in Vietnam and he told me a story that one day Paul Harvey said on his radio show: “If you want to end the war, jut don’t go out and fight today”. This seems highly unlikely to me, but he swears it’s true. My friend claims that he did a lot of drugs while he was over there, which might have something to do with his story.
Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the 1920s, was a town on the move. It was an oil town…oil had just been discovered there 20 years before, and with the discovery of oil came money, sending the town on a construction and spending boom, and turned what had been a sleepy little town into a large, rich, city. However, while the oil growth was a blessing to Tulsa, it also came with a cost. What had been a sleepy little town turned violent, as roughneckers, some with dubious pasts and hot tempers, moved in.
It was Sunday, December 18, 1922, when two Tulsa police officers, Officer Harry Aurandt and Detective Ike Wilkinson, decided to go rabbit hunting just outside the city. It was a beautiful December day, not too cold, and the officers had a good day of shooting. As they got back to their car that night, they were stopped by a Buick with four men in it. It soon became clear that the men in the Buick were thieves, and they attempted to rob the two officers. Detective Wilkinson , in response to the robbers outrageous demands, fired at them with his shotgun. This was all the excuse the robbers needed and they unleashed a torrent of bullets at the two officers, hitting them both. Detective Wilkinson was shot in the legs, and Officer Aurandt was shot in the chest and belly. Officer Aurandt knew that the only way to save either of them was to get out of there, and so, in spite of being seriously injured, managed to drive their car to a farmhouse where they could get help.
His quick thinking and heroism saved his partner, but unfortunately, Officer Aurandt’s wounds were too serious, and he died two days later. He left behind a widow and two children, a 12 year old daughter and a three year old son. Why am I telling you this story? I’m telling it so you can remember that a person’s life can change in an instant, and that what starts out as a pleasant rabbit hunting trip can turn into a nightmare. But I also want you to remember that it is in times of such nightmare that our character is revealed, and that we can hope that if we’re ever in a situation like the one the two officers were in, we will have the strength of will and character to act like Officer Aurandt, who in spite of the injuries that took his life, managed to get his friend to safety. His son never forgot those lessons…his son Paul Harvey Aurandt, better known to the world as broadcasting legend Paul Harvey.
And now you know…the Rest of the Story. RIP, Paul.
I think Marge Simpson said it best:
“He’s like a pleasant version of Grandpa”
This might influence my conclusion if I had any confidence that anything he said was true. I never found his stories the least bit credible.
Not only were most of his “Rest of the Stories” made up, but so were many of the items he reported as news. The guy practically invented right wing glurge. You could argue that he was, in many ways, the grandfather of the right wing radio industry, specializing in selective, tendentious or flat-out dishonest reporting, heavy-handed moralism and nationalism, caricaturization and villification of liberals. A guy who once said on the air,“Someday, I am sad to say, our Supreme Court is going to have to specify limits on speech rights and on religious rights.”
He was also a guy who read this crap on the air (whether he was the author or not is undetermined, but he definitely read it).
There wasn’t much to admire about this guy. He was intolerant, dishonest glurge and propaganda merchant who helped to debase and divide the culture under the pretense of being an avuncular anecdotalist.
I shall miss him. I grew up listening to him and enjoyed his Rest of the Stories. When his wife died last year (they were married for something like 60 years) I feared he would not be around much longer. I think he missed his Angel too much.
Will his son continue on with his show, or is it the end of an era?
“And that little boy…whom nobody liked…grew up to be…Roy Cohn. And now you know…the rest…of the story.”
Yesterday when he was almost at his last breath, he motioned for his family to lean closer and he spoke his last words:
“I’m Pauuul Harvey. Good day.”