Long time TV newsman Tim Russert died of a heart attack this afternoon while working on his show, Meet The Press...He is survived by his wife, Maureen and one son, Luke, who just graduated from  Boston College and hosts an XM radio show.  He had just returned from Italy where he and his family had been vacationing to celebrate Luke's graduation.

Here is our recent Spotlight on Tim...

Born May 7, 1950 in Buffalo, New York.  He grew up in a predominately Irish working class neighborhood in South Buffalo.  After high school he went to college at John Caroll University where he graduated.  He also got his law degree at Cleveland State University. He served as a lawyer in New York governor Mario Cuomo's office..and was chief of staff to Democratic Senator Patrick Moynihan for five years. He joined NBC News in 1984..In April, 1985 he supervised the live broadcasts of the Today program from Rome.  In 1986 and 1987 he led NBC news broadcasts from South America, Australia and China.  He was famous for exceptional coverage of the 2000 election and is credited with coining the phase "red state" and "blue state."  He took over as host of Meet The Press in 1991...In 2004 he wrote his biography titled Big Russ and Me.. and said he recieved 60,000 letters responding to the book.  He published some of them in a book titled Wisdom Of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons which became a best seller in 2005.  He married Maureen Orth in 1993. She has been a special correspondent for Vanity Fair since 1983.  They have one son, Luke, who just graduated from Boston College and hosts the XM radio show 60/20 Sports with James Carville.