Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette The mayor's wife, Judy O'Connor, center, and daughter, Heidy Garth, right, attend yesterday's prayer service. More photos Click photo for larger image.

Mary Simek has never met Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O'Connor. She doesn't live in the city. Yet she felt compelled to board a bus yesterday for a trip Downtown to pray for Mr. O'Connor's recovery.

"He's a poor man's mayor. He's the people's mayor. He walks around. He talks to everybody. He doesn't sit behind his desk and just throw orders around. He goes and does it himself," said Ms. Simek of Scott.

"I just came because I love him so much," she added. "I just think he's wonderful."

She wasn't alone in her concern for Mr. O'Connor, who is battling cancer at UPMC Shadyside.

Others came from Irwin and Jeannette, Lincoln Borough and the East End, city and suburbs, to attend a prayer service for the mayor yesterday morning on the portico of the City-County Building.

They joined mayoral aides, city and county politicians, Downtown office workers and others in an outpouring of support for Mr. O'Connor, who has been hospitalized since early July. They had little in common except faith in prayer and a love for the populist mayor with the white hair and a common man's approach.

Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Marqualon Coleman, 9, of the South Side, holds his hands in prayer during yesterday's service for Mayor Bob O'Connor yesterday. Coleman is a choirboy with the Hope Chapel choir. Click photo for larger image.

"We know prayers work from our lives so we're here to pray for him because this was his dream," said Marilyn Ashoff of Lincoln, who attended the service with her husband, John, and who had seen Mr. O'Connor only on TV.

Yesterday's service was organized by Hope Chapel in Elliott. Dr. Alfred Brown, senior pastor of the church, said the idea came from his wife, Audrey, who also battled a brain tumor and now is healed.

"She wanted to do it. She wanted to pray for the mayor. We knew we couldn't get in to see him and so she said, well, maybe other people would like to do the same thing. And so she said let's do something like this and we approached the city," he said.

The service included a mix of song and prayer, from an opening "How Great Thou Art" to a closing Lord's Prayer, with the words resounding off the high walls of the portico.

Dr. Brown set the tone, saying that all songs would be sung a cappella "because this is the type of mayor we have, not a pomp and circumstance type of a mayor, but a mayor that is down to earth, grass roots."

Clergymen and others representing the east, west, north and south sections of the city also offered prayers for the mayor, his family, his aides, the city administration and city workers during the hourlong service.

Among those who spoke was Mr. O'Connor's pastor, the Rev. Joseph Reschick of St. Rosalia Church in Greenfield. He recalled seeing the mayor on TV several times during one newscast several months ago and remarking to Mr. O'Connor how he seemed to be everywhere.

"He said, 'You know, father, I was not elected to sit behind a desk but to be out there in the community amongst the people.' He wants the best for Pittsburgh and he wants the best for us," he said. "We are here today in prayer because we now want the best for him."

Afterwards, Father Reschick said he last saw the mayor on Thursday and gave him a black and gold rosary reflecting the colors of the city and Mr. O'Connor's beloved Steelers. He said he found the mayor's mood to be "very positive."

He said Mr. O'Connor was encouraged by the prayers he has been receiving and wanted people to keep them upbeat, focused on God's healing power and the treatment he is receiving. Father Reschick will celebrate a special Mass tonight at 7 at St. Rosalia to pray for Mr. O'Connor's health and recovery.

As yesterday's service ended, Judy O'Connor, the mayor's wife, led the crowd in a loud "Hi, Bob" so he could see it on TV. In her brief appearance, she thanked the crowd for their prayers and concern.

"Bob wants to thank everybody for all these prayers. Everybody here is just so wonderful. I just can't thank everybody enough," she said.

Hundreds of people attended the service, filling the portico and spilling over onto the steps and the sidewalk. Dr. Brown said the church printed 350 programs and all were taken. City officials estimated the crowd at nearly 3,000.

Two who came were Roseann Mastrippolito of Jeannette and Fran Vacha of Hempfield. They made the long trip Downtown from Westmoreland County even though they had never met the mayor.

But they were touched by the man they had seen on TV and his battle against cancer.

"It seems like he's going to be a great person for Pittsburgh. I feel really bad for what he's going through but I hope and pray he will be OK," Ms. Mastrippolito said.

Betty Burton of the East End of Pittsburgh didn't have to travel as far, but she, too, came to support a man she had never met, one she nonetheless found to be a "beautiful person."

"I came down specifically for this because he needs all the prayer he can get at this particular time," she said. "Prayer lifts you up."

And when Mr. O'Connor does get well, she has a request for him -- the vacant lot in the 7200 block of Lemington Avenue, it could use some redding up.