As a young newspaper reporter in Fort Worth, Texas, Bob Schieffer was not covering President John F. Kennedy's trip to Dallas on November 22, 1963, but he did end up in the center of the action.
Schieffer spoke about it with 10TV's Jim Heath as he was putting the finishing touches on his documentary "As It Happened."
"I was on the city desk just answering phones after the president had been shot," said Schieffer. "I picked up the phone and a woman said 'Is there anyone there that can give me a ride to Dallas?' I said 'Lady this isn't a taxi service and besides the president has been shot.' And she said 'Yes, I heard that on the radio, and I think my son is the one they've arrested.'"
He and another reporter then drove to Marguerite Oswald's home on the west side of Fort Worth. From there, they took her to the police department in Dallas.
"I interviewed her on the way over there and almost, because of that, I think came very close to getting an interview with Oswald," said Schieffer. "She had asked if she could see her son and the Dallas detective said alright, so they were going to bring him down and we were taken to a holding room."
While waiting, a detective told Schieffer that if he were a reporter he had to leave. Up to that point, Schieffer says, everyone had thought he was a Fort Worth detective.
"I came very close to getting an interview with Oswald," said Schieffer. "It's the biggest interview I almost got and didn't. But I've never had an adventure quite like that day in all the years I've spent as a reporter."
Schieffer says the assassination changed America forever.
"As I said in the documentary, I think this is the weekend America really lost its innocence," said Schieffer. "You have to understand that up until this point we hadn't had a violent event like this. We had many after that, especially in the decade after this, but people who were alive that day had never experienced anything quite like this and we didn't know what it meant."
"As It Happened" with Bob Schieffer airs Saturday night at 9 p.m. on 10TV.
Jim Heath's interview with Schieffer airs on Capitol Square at 11:30 am Sunday morning following Face the Nation on 10TV.
Schieffer Drives Oswald's Mother To Police Station Following JFK Assassination
10TV's Jim Heath spoke to Bob Scheiffer of CBS News about the death of President John F. Kennedy.
