DALLAS – Eddie Barker, who aired the first report of President John F. Kennedy's death from an assassin's bullet, has died. He was 84.
Daughter Leslie Barker Garcia said her father died Monday morning in a Dallas nursing home after a long period of declining health.
Barker was the longtime news director of KRLD Radio and KRLD-TV (now KDFW-TV), the CBS affiliates in Dallas when Kennedy made his fateful 1963 visit to Dallas.
Barker said he received a report from a staff member he knew at Parkland Memorial Hospital that Kennedy had died after being taken there. He reported the death on CBS television.
Dan Rather later confirmed the report of Kennedy's death with a priest and a doctor who were in the emergency room when the president died.
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