Heidy Garth, the late Bob O’Connor’s daughter, moved a cathedral full of people with a tearful goodbye. Corey O’Connor, the late mayor’s younger son, cheered the same church with visions of his dad munching a chipped-ham sandwich in heaven. Their brother, the Rev. Terrence O’Connor, delivered a homily that would have warmed his father’s heart. “I get my strength from God, and I get my strength from Bob,” said Judy O’Connor, his widow. “I also get my strength from my children.” Bob O’Connor’s immediate family members were shielded from the public through much of his two-month battle with brain cancer, but during his funeral Thursday at St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland, the O’Connors carried the day. Judy, Corey and Heidy walked behind the horse-drawn carriage that brought the casket. They were followed by Richard Garth, Heidy’s husband, and their daughters, Kennedy, McKenzie and Delaney. During the service, O’Connor’s aunt, Helen Dever, and his granddaughters presented the bread and wine during communion. Marikate Barnes, O’Connor’s cousin, led a responsive prayer. A niece, Kari O’Connor, read a passage from Scripture. Heidy Garth said her father “always told me that the greatest gift you can give somebody is a good, trustworthy, honorable name — a legacy someone would be proud to carry on, a name that represents family, honesty, friendship and trust.” “I thank my dad for giving me the honorable name of O’Connor,” she said. “My dad was not only the greatest gift I received, but also the greatest gift Pittsburgh received.” “He will be missed,” she said, breaking into tears. “Dad, I love you.” Corey O’Connor said his father taught him many lessons. “He taught me to never give up. If you give a hundred percent, at the end of the day you’ll be a winner in his book and your book,” he said. “I know he’s up there in heaven now. He’s sitting there having a chipped-ham sandwich with his brother Timmy. “As much as he loved the city and all the Pittsburghers he met, he kept a big hole in his heart for his family.” Terry O’Connor, a Roman Catholic priest at St. Alphonsus Church in Pine, said his father’s religious faith buoyed him through the darkest hours before cancer claimed his life a week ago. “This is certainly a day we have heavy hearts in the city of Pittsburgh,” he said. “This day is filled with a tremendous amount of hope as well, hope in God’s divine and loving and mysterious plan for my dad and all of us.” Judy O’Connor said friends and family urged her to take a break during long hours of greeting people at the funeral home. “I just couldn’t take a break. I had to shake everybody’s hand. I had to talk to everybody and hug everybody, because I know Bob would have wanted me to do that,” she said. “I got to live my dream by being married to Bob for 42 years — a wonderful, wonderful man I loved dearly.”

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