SCRANTON -- The line outside Immaculate Conception Church in Scranton wrapped around the corner as people from all over came to pay their respects to former Scranton Mayor James Barret McNulty.
"When Jim was in as mayor, I will say one thing, the city was alive!" his friend Jack Seitzinger said.
Inside the church on Taylor Avenue was a sea of red roses. It was a fitting tribute for the mayor who used to hand them out during his 1981 mayoral campaign. McNulty died Wednesday after a battle with cancer. He was 71 years old.
For the people who came out to pay their respects, McNulty leaves behind quite the legacy in the place he called home.
Among the mourners, U.S. Senator Bob Casey, public officials, and more.
"He did everything he possibly could to show Scranton in its best light to the rest of the world, not just locally, but all around the world when he brought in boxing and things people around the world were interested in," Magisterial District Judge Paul Ware said.
Current Scranton Mayor Bill Courtright remembers McNulty as a politician who was larger than life in Scranton.
"I was just at his house maybe a month ago and he was sitting there with his oxygen and we were talking and he was giving me advice on what we should and shouldn't do. He just really loved the city," Courtright said.
The funeral mass for the mayor will take place Monday at 11 a.m. at Immaculate Conception Church in Scranton.