By Mark Rhoads
Three years ago I posted an short tribute to Paul Harvey here on Illinois Review as part of the Illinois Hall of Fame series I was then writing often. Mr. Harvey died on Saturday, Feb. 28 at the age of 90. In the post I tried a little to immitate the way Paul sounded on radio but without much success in matching his distinctive style. CLICK HERE to read that IR post from 2006.
One story I can share just for fun comes from my friend James R. Evans who was President of L.G. Evans Machine Tool in Lombard and was president of the Illinois Conservative Union from 1974 to 1981. Jim and his wife Dori knew Paul and Angel Harvey as social friends through the Chicago Golf and Country Club. I told Jim that I expected Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-Nevada) to come to Du Page County in the fall of 1975 and Jim suggested we invite both Laxalt and Harvey to lunch at the Country Club and they both came.
Laxalt was then chair of Ronald Reagan's campaign for the presidential nomination that came 60 votes short of its goal in a contest with President Gerald Ford in 1976. A story we all heard from Jim had nothing to do with politics but about Paul throwing a grand party for Angel in the old manner at a mansion in Oak Park before it was torn down. It was formal dresses and black tie of course. Even white tie optional. There were horse-drawn carriages to bring guests from where their cars were parked to the mansion, ice sculptures in the main receiving room, champagne bars, and lavish buffets whereever one turned. As Jim and Dori were leaving, the village president of Oak Park said to them, "Don't you get tired of this same old party routine every week?" Well at least that is part of the rest of the story--the fun part of Paul and Angel (Lynn) who preceeded Paul in death by a few years. Paul Harvey was a common-sense conservative voice who will be missed by millions of his old fans.
