Services held for newsman Russert

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WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) -- Services were held Wednesday for Tim Russert, the blue-collar boy from Buffalo who grew up to become one of the United States' pre-eminent TV journalists.

After a morning funeral at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington attended by Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Barack Obama of Illinois, the NBC "Meet the Press" host was memorialized at Washington's John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts where the 2,500 invited guests were serenaded by songs selected from Russert's iPod, The Buffalo News reported.

Many of the nation's journalistic superstars were on hand -- Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame, Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams and Maria Shriver, to name a few.

"This is a celebration, and we're gonna do it Irish style," Brokaw said at the service's start. "There will be some tears, some laughs and the occasional truth."

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who delivered the homily at Russert's funeral, told the mourners: "It is not easy to preach a homily for Tim and to communicate the feelings we all share concerning this remarkable man, for he was truly one of the great communicators in American society."

Russert suffered a fatal heart attack at work last Friday. He was 58.