Readers loved Jim Hawkins' tribute in Wednesday's edition. Not only was it a touching tribute to the broadcasting legend, Hawkins had that story filed into the copy desk within a half hour of the announcement of Harwell's passing.
Hawkins confessed to having the farewell column written well in advance, as I'm sure many area writers did.
"I began compiling information and putting (it) together last fall in anticipation of the day that, unfortunately, we all knew would inevitably come. I wanted to be prepared," Hawkins said via e-mail.
The veteran baseball writer said he has similar info compiled for others, but declined to specify.
I remember being so impressed in college during a visit to the Detroit Free Press, when our tour coordinator began speaking about the different prewritten obituaries long in the can. Everyone will agree Harwell's passing is sad, but being prepared helped everyone from being caught off-guard at 8:30 last Tuesday night.
There have been a number of Ernie Harwell tribute pages floating around. Here's some of ours and a link to some from the Free Press.