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thedrifter
08-12-04, 05:15 PM
Marine, baseball legend dies at 79; New York City remembers Bob Murphy
Submitted by: New York City Public Affairs
Story Identification #: 2004812142611
Story by Cpl. Beth Zimmerman



NEW YORK (August 12, 2004) -- The organ strains of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" spilled onto Fifth Avenue yesterday -not from a baseball stadium, but from St. Patrick's Cathedral. Native New Yorkers and tourists streamed into the cathedral for an afternoon memorial service honoring longtime New York Mets Announcer Bob Murphy.

A veteran of World War II, Murphy served in the Marine Corps during from January 1943 until April 1946. He earned the National Defense Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal while he was a Weather Observer and a Navigator for the Corps. During an interview in 1994, Murphy said his time in the Corps whet his appetite for baseball. The Montgomery G. I. Bill also helped him finish college at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.

After finishing college, Murphy began his career broadcasting. He was eventually hired as one of the first three pay-by-play broadcasters for the New York Mets in 1962. He spent the last half of the century behind the same microphone.

"For 42 years, Bob Murphy was the voice of the New York Mets," said Cardinal Edward Egan, Archbishop of New York, at St. Patrick's yesterday. "In so many ways, he was as much a part of the Mets as any of the players."


Known to many as "The Voice of Summer," Murphy was inducted into the broadcasters section of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994. The radio booth at Shea Stadium was renamed in his honor in 2002. Murphy enthusiastically announced more than 6,000 Mets games before he retired last September. The 79-year-old died of lung cancer August 3 in Florida.

"He is a legend," said Marine Corps Sgt. Kerry Pilkey, from 6th Communication Battalion in Brooklyn, N.Y. Marines from 6th Comm folded and presented a United States Flag to Murphy's wife of 32 years, Joye Murphy, at the end of the memorial service.

"He served his country and was a great person," said Pilkey. "So, I really feel like I did him a service by being here."

Hundreds of people watching the service stood silent as the bugled sound of taps echoed through the cathedral. The same organ that started the service with "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" ended with the song that book-ended the other element of Murphy's life... "God Bless America."

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004812143150/$file/folding-flag_low.jpg

Folding flag.jpg: Marines from 6th Communication Battalion in Brooklyn, N.Y. fold a United States Flag for presentation to Joye Murphy, the widow of Bob Murphy. New Yorkers honored the legendary New York Mets Announcer during a memorial service at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan yesterday. Murphy was a World War II veteran of the Marine Corps. He died August 3 of lung cancer. . Photo by: Andrew Savulich, Courtesy of New York Daily News

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/746EB3BA0D10386C85256EEE00654644?opendocument


Ellie


Rest In Peace