NEW YORK
Hundreds of mourners attended a funeral service Tuesday for former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, who died New Year’s Day at the age of 82.
The three-time Democratic governor was “anything but a typical politician,” his son, current New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, said in an emotional eulogy.
Among the dignitaries who attended the ceremony at Saint Ignatius Loyola Church in Manhattan were former president and first lady Bill and Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city’s former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
"At his core, he was a philosopher. He was a poet. He was an advocate,” the younger Cuomo said. “He was the keynote speaker for our better angels.”
The Democratic, who was hailed as a “giant,” died of heart failure, just hours after his son was inaugurated for a second term as governor.
His name was often proffered as a leading presidential contender in 1988 and 1992, but he never formally run.
A renowned political orator, Cuomo famously said, "Campaign in poetry and govern in prose.”
