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American Morning

Memorials to George Harrison Being Placed in Central Park

Aired November 30, 2001 - 08:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And a sadly familiar setting here in New York, Beatles fans are gathering once again to pay their respects to a beloved Beatle.

Michael Okwu is standing by at Strawberry Field in Central Park on an extremely dreary morning.

Good morning, Michael, how many people have shown up?

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well there have been dozens of people at this point who have showed up. I can tell you that for about an hour now, a little over an hour, there are some people who have been sitting on these park benches, and those of us in New York who know this particular area know that it is always an area where people sit on the park benches and they reflect. It's a special part of Central Park, specifically here, to commemorate the life of John Lennon. And this morning the dozens of people who have stopped by and many who are still sitting on these park benches reflecting are really paying tribute to the life of George Harrison.

And, Paula, as you know, he was known as the quiet Beatle. This was -- this was not Ringo, this was not Paul, this was not John, but clearly whatever he did with his music and the life that he led resonates with the dozens of people who have stopped by here on this very misty, very somber, very overcast morning here in New York City.

Now just behind me there are -- you can see that people have laid down flowers by the dozens, stopping by, sometimes kneeling, on their way to work for a minute or two at a hand -- at a time. And sometimes just laying down flowers and scurrying away, I think, frankly, to escape the intruding eyes of us media here.

An artist stopped by earlier this morning, and you can see here that he dropped by a piece of work that he put down here. It says good-bye, George. And may you and John be together forever. I spoke to him and he told me he came all the way from Lima, Peru, actually, and stayed here and wanted to be close to Central Park he said because he was such a big Beatles fan and such a fan of John's and George's.

You can see that there's a little piece (UNINTELLIGIBLE) an apple that reads no matter where you are, your love was true.

And somebody has even gone on the Internet and found a biography of George Harrison and laid that right in the middle of this memorial. It's been a very, very touching morning, Paula. Clearly a lot of the Beatles fans who came here and who I have spoken to said that they knew that George Harrison's time was coming. He's been battling cancer for quite some time. But they said that that does not take the sting out -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right, Michael Okwu, thanks.

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