STOWE TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Family and friends of boisterous TV pitchman Billy Mays laid him to rest in his hometown of McKees Rocks on Friday.

On Friday, a funeral Mass was held at 9:30 a.m. at St. Mary Church in McKees Rocks, followed by a private burial.

Video: Thumbs Up Part Of Final Tribute To Billy Mays

Channel 4 Action News' Bob Mayo was at the service.

Video:Watch Bob Mayo's Report

Of the more than 500 people who packed the church, a number of Mays' colleagues were dressed in Mays' signature blue shirt and showed Mays' well-known "thumbs-up" gesture to the camera, in tribute to their friend.

Father Regis Ryan, who performed the service, said Mays' home town produced people of "goodness and greatness." He also said people should thank God for providing Billy Mays to the world as someone who took his gifts and built is talents and shared his talents with others.

Mays' brother, Randy Mays, spoke at the service and said in many ways his brother was an "evangelist," Mayo reported.

Anthony Sullivan, who co-hosted the "Pitchmen" TV series on the Discovery Channel with Mays, was among the people who paid their respects.

A number of Mays' fellow pitchmen also came to Pittsburgh to remember their friend.

"I actually saw in him the future of the pitch business. He had a kind heart, he was sweet to people and he didn't need a microphone," said Mays' colleague Jerry Spanola, remembering his friend with a smile. "He was loud, bodacious, but loving."

"Billy was a guy that he could grab your hand and immediately is your best friend," said former Home Shopping Network host John Cremeans.

Fellow pitchman Hal Spino said Mays' success gave them all credibility.

"All pitchmen in this world can say, 'Look at Billy Mays. He made us legitimate,'" said pitchman Hal Spino.

But OxyClean inventor Max Appel saw Mays as more than just that.

"I don't think he was a pitchman. I think he was an actor. I think he was the warmth, the caring," said Appel.

Inside the church, there was a standing ovation as May's cousin recited the beloved pitchman's signature catchphrases.

"His connection with everybody was that he made them feel like they were the most important people in the world. No matter who he talked to, who he saw, he was just that kind of guy," said Cremeans.

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Community Pays Respects

A viewing at Musamanno's Funeral Home in Stowe Township was held until 9 p.m. Thursday.

Watch Sally Wiggin's Report

"His success was also our success," said childhood friend Richard Castelveter.

For Mays' 22-year-old son, the outpouring of support from fans has been comforting.

"In the last few days, I've been trying to talk to every fan, take every story I could get and give every story I could. I want to make sure we get through this. He was loved. He still is loved," said son Billy Mays. "It's his passion and his love for his family and everyone he knew. There's a reason no one has anything bad to say about him because that's who he is."

In Thursday's edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the makers of OxiClean took out a full-page ad honoring Mays, who hawked that product and many others in his energetic TV commercials over the years.

"'Billy Mays Here!' Yes, he was but sadly not long enough,'" the ad reads in part.

Mays grew up in McKees Rocks, Allegheny County, and graduated from Sto-Rox High School.

"He sowed into people's lives and gave and gave. In fact, in the church we have a saying (that) he had the gift of giving. He gave of his time, of his resource unceasingly even when he didn't have it," younger brother Randy Mays told Channel 4 Action News.

Kevin Farley, who has been friends with Mays since seventh grade, remembered Mays as "just wonderful. He always reached out to people."

To this day, Farley called Mays his best friend and said, "Billy had a heart of gold. He was constantly helping people. He had a good sense of humor, too."

"I would say, first and foremost, that he loved the Lord. He had a relationship with the Lord. Secondly, his family was the most important thing to him," said Dean Panizzi, Mays' second cousin in Pittsburgh.

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Heart Disease Likely Took Mays' Life

On Monday, Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Dr. Vernard Adams said an autopsy shows the 50-year-old Mays suffered from heart disease, which could have been capable of causing his death Sunday at his Tampa, Fla., home.
Video: Mays 911 Audio Released

"The autopsy did reveal hypertensive and arteriosclerotic heart disease," Adams said. "The hypertensive heart disease was manifested by muscular thickening of a well of the left ventricle of the heart. The arteriosclerotic disease was manifested by thickening by cholesterol of one of the arteries supplying that muscle.

Because of hip pain, Mays was taking tramadol and hydrocodone, but Adams said those prescription drugs would not have exacerbated his heart condition and hastened his death.

"He had no history of any drug abuse, and the medication counts for the remaining drugs in the containers were correct," Adams said.

Tampa police said Mays was found unresponsive by his wife Sunday morning and pronounced dead at 7:45 a.m.

The day before his death, Mays was a passenger on a US Airways flight that made a rough landing at Tampa International Airport.

"Just had a close call landing in Tampa. The tires blew out upon landing. Stuck in the plane on the runway. You can always count on US Air," said a tweet on Mays' Twitter page from 12:01 p.m. Saturday.

On his son Billy's Twitter page, the young Billy Mays was thanking people for their replies and messages of comfort Sunday. He tweeted, "I'm thankful I got to talk to my dad last night. I miss him immensely already. But I feel him with me."

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Mays Develops Style Demonstrating TV Products

In a December interview, Mays told WTAE Channel 4's news exchange partners at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he started out after graduation by working as an apprentice to salesmen on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, N.J., where he hawked "as seen on TV" gadgets like Ginsu knives, mops, chamois cloths and cheese graters.

For years, Mays worked on his sales technique at state fairs and home shows. He caught his big break in the early 1990s at the Pittsburgh Home Show, where he met a man who would later give him a job selling Orange Glo cleaning products on Home Shopping Network.

"I am the last pitchman trained on the boardwalk in Atlantic City and I'm proud of it. I take it with a lot of pride and with a lot of honor," Mays told the Trib.

Dozens of high-energy commercials and infomercials were anchored over the years by Mays, who tossed out kitschy phrases like "Long live your laundry!" while he showed how the products worked.

His ubiquitousness and thumbs-up, in-your-face style won Mays plenty of fans. People lined up at his personal appearances for autographed photos, and strangers stopped him in airports to chat about the products.

In the December Trib interview, Mays said that he and his wife used all of the products he sold, and that OxiClean was always his favorite because it jump-started his lucrative career.

"Life's a pitch, and then you buy," he said in the interview.

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