The good news John Drury never told you about

For a man whose bread always seemed to be buttered with cold, hard facts, anchorman John Drury was nourished by a much softer spread in the last 18 years of his life.

Last week's TV tributes for Chicago's late, great anchorman never mentioned it. It was not something you saw in the glowing newspaper accounts of his career.

The most important thing about John Drury that you probably never knew happened in between the newscasts and the interviews; the Emmy awards and the civic appearances; family obligations and a passion for his collections of Erector sets and magic tricks.

It was during those times that the anchorman went on a search for an anchor in his life.

And so, at the age of 62, after raising a family, losing a wife and finding a new love, John Drury discovered his faith in the Roman Catholic Church.

"There's always been something in me that cried out for some spirituality which I just didn't have and couldn't find," John told me in a 1989 interview about his faith. "It (the Catholic Church) seems to satisfy that. It has just changed my life. I just feel a spiritual fulfillment that I didn't feel before."

The way was not easy or quick for John. While growing up in Illinois -- in Ottawa and Aurora -- his parents never really stuck to any one church. As a budding newsman, John recalled that he and his first wife, Marjorie, raised their four children with "religious principles," but had them baptized "in whichever church was nearest us."

In early 1983, when John was working at WGN-TV, a professional assignment converged with his personal hunger for something deeper in life. He was deployed to Rome to report on the elevation of Chicago's Roman Catholic Archbishop Joseph Bernardin to cardinal. The anchorman found a great story. The man found his calling.

"My view of the Catholic church came largely through osmosis, from friends like Jim Gibbons and Frank Mathie (ABC 7 reporters) and from covering the cardinal during that short period of time," John told me.

But even a tall, worldwise newsman didn't know it all.

"I knew I wanted to be a Catholic. But how to you become a Catholic?" John recalled asking himself. "What do you do, walk into a church and say 'I wanna be a Catholic'?"

Actually, you can, and he did.

After John's wife of 35 years died, he began attending St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Naperville with a friend and lifelong Catholic named Ann. His search for a deeper faith, his relationship with the church and a growing love for Ann all came together the next few years.

About the time he and Ann decided to marry, John began instructions in the Roman Catholic faith. Every Friday morning for several hours at St. Thomas, the pastor personally taught John the theology, history, dogmas and practices of the church. Then he went to work to write and read the news.

On Easter weekend of 1989, the most recognized, top-ranked TV anchorman in Chicago was baptized and confirmed as a Roman Catholic. Of course at the time, he didn't know that his future -- the final two years of his life -- would be such a test of his newfound faith.

Sometime after his final newscast on March 1, 2002, John was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. During a memorial for John last Friday at Holy Name Cathedral, his close friend Frank Mathie -- one of the former ABC 7 colleagues who gave John Catholic information through osmosis -- spoke about the terrible way John found out something was wrong.

John's deep, contagious laugh, one of his most endearing traits, vanished one day. Just like that, his ability to laugh was gone. Taken like a thief by a disease that robs people of their most human pleasures.

But even as John was confined to a bed, the ailment sapping more and more of his human functions, his humanity and faith were not diminished.

Many people were stunned that John allowed himself to be videotaped for TV stories about ALS when he looked so emaciated. Those of us who knew him, especially those of us who appreciated his deep-rooted faith, were hardly surprised. It was classic John Drury, a man of faith in a higher power and calling.

He did get one thing wrong.

John thought that he was the one searching for a purpose in life back in the late 1980s, like a reporter on the trail of a great story. John thought that he was the one looking for faith.

If he was alive today and able, John would have to issue a retraction.

"People don't find faith," you can almost hear him say in that great baritone voice. "It finds them."

And in John Drury, faith found a good man and a reliable servant.

Chuck Goudie is the chief investigative reporter at ABC7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached by e-mail at chuckgoudie@gmail.com.