Fans toss hats in honor of Mary Tyler Moore

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - After the passing of Mary Tyler Moore earlier this week, dozens of fans gathered Friday for a special tribute.

The radio station, myTalk 107.1, just started announcing plans on Thursday for a big group hat toss – an homage to the show’s opening title sequence - and were pleasantly surprised how many of Mary's adoring fans showed up.

Fans gathered in the IDS center to sing the famous theme song “Love is All Around” – words that became the mantra of their young lives.

“She's the reason I became an attorney and went into a man's world and said ‘I can do this if she can do that,'” said one woman.

Brought to tears were sisters Christy Ichers and Ann Aas, who grew up idolizing the single, independent woman through the 70s. The show inspired Christy to have her own dreams of going into the news business like Mary. She even made a tribute video while she was in college.

“Back then we didn't have a lot of connections to national media, so it was really exciting to turn on the TV and you would see Minnesota,” she said.

Before paying their respects, myTalk quickly ran out of the 40 hats they offered up for the occasion. Wearing one of them, a young single lady who recently moved to Minneapolis, despite never watching a single episode, says she can relate.

“All my older coworkers and relatives always reference the show because Mary Tyler Moore moved here single explored the city by herself,” said Reyna Guzman.

For others in the crowd, this was a chance to reminisce under the glass ceiling they shared with Mary and celebrate her life and inspiration.

Some women in that group came from out of town and took off work to be part of the hat toss.

They say for Mary, it was worth it.