Paul Harvey Aurandt, 90, a longtime resident of River Forest, died on Feb. 28, 2009 in Phoenix, Ariz. Born on Sept. 4, 1918 in Tulsa, OK, he lived out a lifelong fascination with radio.
After working his way up to Chicago through numerous radio stations, starting in 1933, he went national in 1951 with ABC Radio Networks. Carried locally on WGN-AM, his show, “The Rest of the Story/Paul Harvey News and Comment,” was heard by 24 million listeners via 1,200 radio stations (plus 400 Armed Forces stations).
Bruce DuMont, president of the Museum of Broadcast Communication and an Oak Park resident, told the Chicago Tribune, “Paul Harvey was the most listened to man in the history of radio. There is no one who will ever come close to him.”
He met Lynne Cooper while working at a station in St. Louis, proposed to her on their first date, and married her in 1940. He called her “Angel” ever after. They had one son, Paul Aurandt Jr., who goes by Paul Harvey Jr. and became an integral part of the show in his father’s later years.
In 2005, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Prior to 2004, Richard Powell, a retired River Forest fire lieutenant, knew Paul Harvey only through his reputation, as a distinctive voice on the radio. Then his friend and bowling buddy, retired River Forest cop Bill Blasco, told him he was resigning as Harvey’s chauffer to fully retire. Harvey had asked Blasco to find a replacement, and Blasco asked Powell if he’d be interested. He met the Harveys and took the job.
Powell was staying at the Harvey estate in Phoenix with family members last weekend when he heard of his passing.
“I was supposed to take him out to dinner Saturday night,” he said. “We got the call Saturday afternoon after the Cubs/White Sox game.”
Powell admits he didn’t believe the public displays of affection between Paul and Angel Harvey when he first met them.
“After seeing it for a while, I realized how genuine it was,” he said. “I’ve never seen a couple that was so devoted to each other, outside of my sister and brother-in-law.”
Powell said he grew to like and care about Harvey. “He was fun to be around. He had a wonderful sense of humor,” he said. “He was easy to laugh, and very easy to like.”
He was also someone to respect. “He was the kind of guy who, when he opened his mouth, you shut up and listened,” Powell noted.
Like her husband, Lynn Harvey was an inductee into the Radio Hall of Fame, founded DuMont, who once said, “She was to Paul Harvey what Col. Parker was to Elvis Presley.”
With his wife of 67 years, Paul Harvey helped craft the art of broadcast radio and presented it to the American public for more than 60 years. Both were as passionate about the medium as they were devoted to each other. The couple moved to River Forest in 1944.
Besides being his wife and best friend, Lynn Harvey was Paul’s producer, director, editor, writer, and top advisor. Angel Harvey died at home last May 3, after a year-long battle with leukemia. Her passing left him devastated.
“You could see, once she left, there was a spark that went out of his life,” said Powell. “He’s been going downhill ever since. I think he was lost without her, I really do.”
Powell said Harvey was “frail looking” and looking forward to escaping Chicago’s frigid weather the last time he saw him, Jan. 9, when he took him to the airport for a flight to Phoenix. “He was anxious to leave but in good spirits.”
Visitation will be held at Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home, 203 S. Marion, Oak Park, from 3 to 9 p.m., March 6. Visitation will take place at 11:30 a.m., Saturday, March 7, at 4th Presbyterian Church in Chicago, followed by the funeral service at 1 p.m. Interment will be private.
Donations may be sent to the Lynne Cooper Harvey Foundation, 1035 Park Ave., River Forest, 60305.