"Our epitaph" - that was the seemingly-apt headline on Saturday's 48-page commemorative 'final edition' of Arizona's 138-year-old daily newspaper, the Tucson Citizen!

The decision of closing down the Citizen has been under consideration since January, when the newspaper's publisher - Gannett Co. Inc. - announced ceasing publication March 21 if it could not find a buyer. However, the closure of the newspaper was delayed due to negotiations with potential buyers, which have now fizzled out.

With the closure of the Citizen, Tucson - a two-newspaper town has lost one of its dailies. While the Citizen was published in the afternoon, the other newspaper, Arizona Daily Star, appeared in the mornings.

The final edition of the Citizen was an appropriate tribute to the newspaper with a long innings. It was full of individual columns from editors and staffers, along with highlights of its 138 years of publication. The edition also had a photo medley of Tucson's evolution over time, and a glimpse of how the newspaper had affected countless readers.

Larry Ross, 54, an avid The Citizen reader for the past 16 years, said it all when he remarked: "The Citizen presented a good, clear picture of what was going on locally and in the state of Arizona. It was an easy, convenient paper to read with political and nonpolitical coverage that was fair."