Thousands say goodbye to ‘everyday guy’ Joe Paterno

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - For every foot Joe Paterno traveled Wednesday en route to his final resting place, dozens were there to guide him.

Students, fans, and alumni jammed the streets on and around Pennsylvania State University's campus. They stood on rooftops and they came bearing signs, to catch a glimpse of the blue Cadillac hearse carrying Paterno's casket as it wound its way past the signposts of his life.

Past the library that he and his wife paid millions to support. Past the stadium where he led the university's football team for more than four decades. Past the bronze statue erected in his honor that has become a makeshift memorial site since his death Sunday at 85 from lung cancer.

But once those larger-than-life monuments receded from view, Paterno was buried as he lived: simply.

With the sun setting behind them, the coach's family gathered at an unassuming cemetery along one of State College's busiest thoroughfares for a quiet burial service. Yards away lay the plots where Centre County buries its unidentified dead.

"It was simple in a Joe way," said former Nittany Lion and NFL running back Ki-Jana Carter. "For me, it was very emotional."

The ceremony marked the end of a second day of public mourning for the university's legendary coach, known as much for his 409 career wins as for the dozens of simple, anodyne encounters that mourners shared when asked why they felt compelled to send him off.

A brush past him as he walked to campus each morning along Park Avenue from his simple ranch-style home. A dinner at Chili's one booth over from Paterno and his wife, Sue. A quick smile and "hello" during his regular Saturday bank visits.

Stephen Molitierno - a 1977 Penn State alum and the last person through the line at a public viewing ceremony - recalled that his college roommate, on his way to a wedding, once spotted Paterno at a toll booth along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. When the man later spotted the coach at the same wedding and told him they had passed each other on the road earlier, Paterno responded:

"I had to get to a Wal-Mart. I forgot my belt," Molitierno recounted.

Even the actor Billy Baldwin - one of a litany of celebrities to make an appearance at Tuesday's 10-hour viewing - had only fleeting, folksy memories of Paterno. One of the last to attend the public viewing, Baldwin said he hadn't known the coach well and hadn't attended Penn State but once went to dinner at the Paternos' house while in town.