BYE-BYE, KATIE `TODAY' SENDS OFF COURIC WITH TISSUES, TEARS AND A HAIRDO RETROSPECTIVE.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

Katie Couric's final day on ``Today's'' couch was an occasion for tears, laughs and a look back at a lot of hairstyles.

Montage after montage of Katie moments filled Wednesday's three hours of ``Today.'' The first began as a sequence establishing Couric's journalistic credentials, showing her asking tough questions of politicians and public figures, before dovetailing into images of her dancing (badly) and singing (even worse).

Presumably, she'll be doing less of those last two things when she takes over the anchor's chair at ``The CBS Evening News'' in September.

After watching one of the montages, Couric marveled at ``some of the weird things I've done.''

Co-host Matt Lauer responded, ``We could do a three-hour show on that.''

Couric later one-upped Lauer, telling him, ``I'll never have a partner like you again -- because I'll never be working with a partner again.''

Early on, Lauer brought out a box of tissues -- ``Those are for me,'' he said. Couric first teared up in the first hour, after watching a montage of some of the most emotional interviews she had conducted, including the Central Park jogger and survivors of 9/11 and the Columbine High School massacre.

By the third hour of what she called ``This celebration of moi -- ad nauseam,'' Couric's eyes seemed perpetually misty and she was routinely clutching a tissue as she traversed ``Today's'' outdoor area in Rockefeller Plaza. ``I'm starting to feel embarrassed,'' she said of all the hagiography at one point -- and that was before the montage focusing on her fashion sense.

Another emotional moment came when Couric interviewed survivors of colon cancer who sported T-shirts reading ``Thank You, Katie! You Saved My Life.'' After losing her husband, Jay Monahan, to colon cancer in 1998, Couric made awareness of the malady a top priority, even once receiving a colonoscopy on the air.

But it wasn't all treacle. Recalling that she was pregnant when she first debuted on ``Today,'' Couric reflected, ``I got up, threw up and went to work.''

Lauer, declaring he ``hate(d)'' the term ``co-anchor,'' announced, ``We've been partners in every way possible,'' before reconsidering:

``Not that way.''

Lauer, dubbing Couric ``the perfect combination of Edward R. Murrow and Lucille Ball,'' fondly recalled the laughs he had shared with his colleague, ``everything from giggles to belly laughs.''

Musical guests included Tony Bennett, Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood and the cast of the Broadway musical ``Jersey Boys.''

Concluding her final morning broadcast with a champagne toast with the show's entire staff, Couric enthused, ``I couldn't ask for a nicer, better send-off.

``Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it,'' she told Lauer and ``Today's'' cast and crew. ``I leave not with a heavy heart but with a very full heart, filled with gratitude.''

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

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(1 -- 3 -- color) Departing co-anchor Katie Couric, with Matt Lauer, raises a glass in a toast with members of ``Today's'' cast and crew. From left, weathermen Willard Scott and Al Roker, film critic Gene Shalit and news anchor Ann Curry look on at the end of the tribute to all things Katie.

Richard Drew/Associated Press