Mike Royko: A November Farewell.

My favorite Royko column printed in November follows...

A Bit of Background:   Mike Royko was a gruff man, no doubt. But like many of this temperament, I suspect there was more gentleness underneath than the untrained eye could see. I would bet he never cheated on his wife, or pursued other pleasures that surely were available to him later in his career.

He was married at age 22 to Carol Duckman, which lasted from Nov. 6, 1954 until her death of a cerebral aneurysm in 1979 at age 44. (He got married again, in 1986, and had two more children -- a son and a daughter -- with his wife Judy, because nature affords men that opportunity.)

Royko himself died of a brain aneurysm in 1997, aged 62. He won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, and throughout his career wrote 5 columns a week, along with original books and collected columns.

He and Carol had two sons themselves, David and Robert. David, a psychologist, published Royko in Love, Mike's Letters to Carol, which is worth a read, if you like that sort of thing. (Robbie was a failed bank robber, but his father was long gone before that happened...)

Here's the column from November 1979, in which Royko buttons up the Wisconsin cottage for the last time after recalling he and Carol's many happy seasons there: A November Farewell.