SOURCE: "'Quite Simply the Best', Legendary Columnist, the Voice of Chicago for Decades, Dies," The Chicago Tribune, April 30, 1997, p. 1.

[In the following obituary, Crimmins and Kogan offer a full appreciation of Royko's life and career.]

Mike Royko, a self-described "flat-above-a-tavern youth" who became one of the best-known names in American journalism, wrote with a piercing wit and rugged honesty that reflected Chicago in all its two-fisted charm.

His daily column was a fixture in the city's storied journalistic history, and his blunt observations about crooked politicians, mobsters, exasperating bureaucracy and the odd twists of contemporary life reverberated across the nation.

It was Royko's inimitable combination of street-smart reporting, punchy phrasing and audacious humor that set his column apart, along with his remarkable durability in facing daily deadlines for more than three decades.

Royko, who was 64, died at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday of heart failure in Northwestern Memorial Hospital. A...