THOMASTON, Maine — Nov. 22, 2023 marks 60 years since President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in his motorcade in Dallas, Texas. As the world huddled around radios and televisions clinging to the first reports, one reporter was sleeping.
Bob Schieffer, who would go on to a long career as a reporter and anchor at CBS News, was a young newspaper reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Schieffer was working the overnight shift at the time and says he was sleeping when his brother came into his home and woke him up, telling him the president was shot and he should get to work.
Once at his desk in the busy bustling newsroom, Schieffer took a phone call. The woman on the other end of the line was asking for a ride to the Dallas Police Station and later identified herself as Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother. Schieffer and another reporter jumped in the car, picked her up, and brought her to the police station. Schieffer says he was in a room with her for six hours before someone finally asked who he was and kicked him out.
Bob Schieffer sat down with Rob Caldwell in 2009 and recounted his memories from that day. To hear him tell the story, just watch the video above.