Tom Bradley

Former Mayor Tom Bradley was eulogized Monday as a heroic and historic leader who helped build modern Los Angeles, opened the city's political doors to all people and never forgot his roots as a poor boy from rural Texas. Dignitaries including Vice President Al Gore, Gov. Pete Wilson and Mayor Richard Riordan filled a three-hour funeral service with tributes to Bradley's achievements--for his city, for African Americans and for the dispossessed.

Some wore jeans, some wore satin. Some wept, others bowed their heads. On a sun-splashed October Sunday, a crowd of mourners representing Los Angeles' breadth and diversity came to the Convention Center, the hall named in Tom Bradley's honor, to pay their last respects to the man they knew simply as "The Mayor." Most came with some personal remembrance that drew them from as far away as Palm Springs to view the casket of the man who served as Los Angeles mayor for an unprecedented 20 years.

Most local television stations plan live coverage of today's funeral service for former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, which is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Television stations KCBS Channel 2, KNBC Channel 4, KTLA Channel 5, KABC Channel 7, KTTV Channel 11 and KCOP Channel 13 plan live coverage of the service at First AME Church at 2270 S. Harvard Blvd. KCAL-TV Channel 9 will cover the funeral and graveside service that will follow.

Lightning flashed over the Sierra Nevada the day Tom Bradley died. Thunder rolled down over the foothills of Reno. It was as though nature was acknowledging with roaring drumbeats that one of its treasured sons had fallen. What better place to proclaim that loss than over these tall and solemn mountains? Bradley was not only a metaphor for an emerging Los Angeles but an icon for those who seek to achieve against overwhelming odds.

Tom Bradley, who died Tuesday, was a creditable athlete in football and track and field. The former mayor of Los Angeles made the All-City team as a tackle in 1936 while playing for Polytechnic High. As a junior at the school, he won the 440-yard dash in the All-City track meet. After enrolling at UCLA, he intended to participate in both sports but changed his mind. "I started school in the spring and ran track my first semester," he said.