Katie’s Goodbye: First Tears At 7:42am

Matt Lauer brought the box of tissues for this morning’s “going-away party,” the AP recaps.

“Lauer placed the tissue box on the desk at the show’s opening, saying ‘this is not for you, this for me.’” And “the first tear was spotted in the corner of Couric’s eye at 7:42 a.m., after Today talked to six people she had interviewed — an inspiring school principal, a woman brutally raped in Central Park, survivors of the Columbine school shooting and the World Trade Center bombing and parents of a boy who had died of brain cancer.”

> Update: 11:44am: “You heard it from the AP, folks: It was 7:42 a.m. this morning when Katie shed her first ratings-boosting tear. And thank God for our free and vigorous press,” Gawker says…

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