For many subscribers, the Rocky Mountain News is more than the daily dose of news - it's an old friend they've turned to for decades.

Now, the old friend isn't around anymore.

Longtime readers, especially, say they will treasure today's final edition - and mourn the passing of a tradition.

Here are some of their stories:

Helen Marc has been a Rocky subscriber for 40 years. When she heard the paper was closing, the memories began to come.

She and her family learned about an entire war - Vietnam - from the pages of the Rocky. In 1976, she read with horrified fascination about the the Big Thompson Flood and discovered that an old grade-school teacher of hers survived it.

Then there was the monster blizzard on Christmas Eve, 1982.

"The Rocky put out a whole (edition) about the blizzard," she said, "and I sent for it and have it to this day."

Marc and her late husband, Louis, who died a few years ago, have been taking the Rocky since the late 1960s.

As for today's paper? Like the Blizzard of '82 edition, "I'm going to keep it," she said.

Ed Lippert, who has worked in lighting sales for years, was laid off from his job last week.

On Thursday, he heard about another loss - the newspaper that has turned up on his doorstep virtually every morning since he moved to Denver in 1980.

Lippert, 60, subscribes to the Rocky and The Post. He is a prolific newspaper letter-writer and estimates 30 to 40 of his letters have been published in the Denver dailies.

He remembers the unforgettable moments, when the Rocky was a link to history.

"Obviously, 9/11 was a dumbfounding moment," he said. "But, for me, to be candid, what I remember is when the Broncos won the Super Bowl (in 1998), and I will never forget opening the paper and seeing John Elway standing there holding the Lombardi Trophy. That was incredible."

He expects completely different emotions when he opens the paper today.

"I'm going to feel terrible. That paper is going to be rolled up and stuck in my safe forever. Twenty years from now, it will be something my kids will stumble on and say, 'Oh, gosh, the last day of the Rocky Mountain News.' "

Doug Hawk, 60, of Denver, has been a lifelong newspaper reader.

"Since I was old enough to read, I've loved newspapers," Hawk said. "Truly, they're a daily miracle. Not having the Rocky on my front lawn every morning is going to be painful."

Hawk, who retired last year as communications manager of the Colorado Community College system, is especially a fan of the Rocky.

"I particularly loved the local coverage. I'm a big Drew Litton fan and a big Ed Stein fan," he said of the paper's cartoonists. "I'm really going to miss it. I get both papers every day. It's going to be sad to have one out there now."

Harry Puncek delivered the Rocky Mountain News in central Denver in the early 1950s, when he was in sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

In those days, newsboys had to collect from subscribers once a month and turn some of the money over to the paper. One night, Puncek was jumped by older boys and the money was stolen.

"I was scared to death I couldn't make up the money," Puncek said.

But the Rocky was understanding.

"The News took my word for it on everything," Puncek said.

Puncek, 68, began subscribing to the paper himself when he returned from the Army in 1962.

"It's like losing a relative," Puncek said of the closing. "Not a brother or sister, but an uncle - somebody who's really sort of a wise person. When you're sort of wondering about things . . . he sort of lets you think for yourself but, at the same time, he's a source of great information. I always trusted the News. I didn't always agree, but I always trusted."

Randy Brown wasn't much of a newspaper reader until he found himself in the middle of the news.

After the killings at Columbine High School, he revealed that police had ignored his warnings about Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

"Your newspaper made a heck of a difference in our lives," said Brown, 56. "Reporters Kevin Vaughan and Lynn Bartels were just incredible in the early coverage - getting the truth out.

"If people outside the Columbine tragedy knew how much the Rocky Mountain News did . . . they would never let this paper go under," he said. "They don't understand what a difference they made.

"It's the loss of an institution, certainly, but what it is to me - and what I worry about - is the loss of the talent there," he said. "I'm very saddened by this."

Staff writer Nancy Mitchell contributed this report.

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