Neil Strawser, 78; CBS Newsman Was Based in Washington 34 Years

Neil Strawser, 78, a longtime CBS newsman who anchored the network’s radio coverage of the assassination of President Kennedy, died Saturday after suffering a heart attack at his Washington, D.C., home.

For 34 years, Strawser worked in Washington as a CBS News radio and television reporter.

In 1962, he was the only TV journalist admitted into the U.S.-controlled Guantanamo Bay Naval Base during the Cuban Missile crisis.

Strawser anchored the Kennedy assassination coverage for four straight days in 1963.

He left journalism in 1986 to serve as a Democratic spokesman for the House Budget Committee.

A native of Rittman, Ohio, Strawser graduated from Oberlin College in 1951 and earned a master’s degree at George Washington University.

He served with the Naval Reserve and worked as a radio disc jockey and local news anchor before joining CBS News as an editorial research assistant in 1952.