SOURCE: "Chicago Columnist Mike Royko Dies at 64," USA Today, April 30, 1997, p. 3A.

[In the following brief obituary, Marshall looks at recollections of Royko by some of his early associates.]

Mike Royko, who skewered everyone from mayors to yuppies in his gritty newspaper columns, died Tuesday in Chicago, the city many say he helped rule with his commentary.

Royko, 64, a Pulitzer-winning Chicago columnist syndicated in more than 600 newspapers, died at a hospital where he had undergone surgery last week for a weakened blood vessel in the brain.

"Through the years my family filed many of his columns, some critical and some supportive, but whether you agreed with him or not, you had to respect his honesty and his love for the city," said Mayor Richard M. Daley, whose late father, Mayor Richard J. Daley, had long tangled with Royko.

The elder Daley ruled Chicago from 1955 until his death in...