Scribes’ tribute to Breslin’s
THE EULOGISTS at Jimmy Breslin’s funeral told great stories — about his great stories.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning former Daily News columnist wrote plenty across a career spanning more than five decades: Takedowns of Donald Trump long before the White House, his tale of President John F. Kennedy’s $3.01-an-hour gravedigger, an exposé of the corrupt city Parking Violations Bureau.
“Phone calls meant stories,” recalled his son James during the 90-minute sendoff to his irascible dad. “The phone rang and we went. It was as simple as that.
“I saw everything, because I had the privilege of being with Jimmy. My father.”
James often served as transportation for his namesake dad, who never bothered to pick up a driver’s license during a lifetime spent in the five boroughs.
A crowd of fellow journalists, along with better-known mourners including singer Tony Bennett, ex-NYPD head Raymond Kelly and Gov. Cuomo, packed the Church of the Blessed Sacrament on the Upper West Side to bid Breslin farewell.
“His voice was authentic because he was authentic,” said Cuomo, the last speaker at the service. “He was New York.”
The service was upbeat and celebratory, with plenty of laughs. Son Kevin invoked his dad’s famously prickly personality to much delight from the crowd of about 400.
“Thank you all for coming, because I’m not sure he would’ve come here for any of us,” he joked.
Breslin married his second wife, former City Councilwoman Ronnie Eldridge, in the same church in 1982.
“Jimmy would likely growl at this scene,” Eldridge said as she surveyed the crowded church. “Maybe Jimmy would say, ‘Thanks for the use of the hall.’ ”
Breslin used the same line to close his final column for Newsday in 2004.
“I loved the passion he had, the anger he felt on behalf of so many people,” Eldridge said. “He never wanted to let a day go without writing.”
The columnist and author died early Sunday at his Manhattan home after a bout of pneumonia landed him in the hospital four days earlier. He was 88.
In addition to his Pulitzer, Breslin captured a Polk Award for metropolitan reporting while working at The News. He also worked for the defunct New York Herald Tribune and New York Newsday, and wrote more than 20 books.
Columnist and friend Michael Daly, once of the Daily News and now with The Daily Beast, held up an NYPD press pass during his remembrance of Breslin. A GREAT