PEORIA - Peoria-area residents are paying their last respects to former Mayor Jim Maloof.

A funeral mass and additional visitation hours were planned Saturday. The three-term mayor who saw Peoria through rough economic times died a week ago at age 93.

Long lines of people attended an initial visitation Friday at the Riverside Community Church. A Peoria Heights man who got to know Maloof in the 1980s was among those who attended. Dave Wright told the Peoria Journal Star the former mayor was a man with ``a big heart.''

Maloof served as mayor from 1985 to 1997. He first ran for office when Caterpillar Inc. was laying off workers and other businesses had closed. His optimism and belief in Peoria are often credited with helping to spark economic development.