January 3, 2006

FORMER CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT
NEIL STRAWSER DIES AT 78

Neil Strawser, a former CBS News Correspondent best known for anchoring the CBS radio coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and for television reporting during the Cuban Missile Crisis, died on December 31. Strawser suffered a heart attack at his Washington, D.C., home and was pronounced dead at George Washington University Hospital. He was 78.

Based in Washington, Strawser appeared frequently on the "CBS News With Douglas Edwards" in the late '50s and early '60s, functioning as the 15-minute broadcast's Washington correspondent. He was among the first newsmen admitted into Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. As the television network pool reporter at the time, he was the only television reporter there and he witnessed the departure of the freighters carrying the nuclear missiles back to Russia.

Strawser's early career was a combination of television and radio but he soon appeared mostly on radio, memorably as the anchor of CBS Radio's four straight days of coverage of the Kennedy assassination in 1963. He anchored weekend "News on the Hour" broadcasts and the Saturday edition of "CBS World New Roundup" for many years.

He spent his entire CBS News career from 1952-1986 in the Washington bureau covering every facet of government. He frequently contributed to radio broadcasts such as "Washington Week" and "Capitol Cloakroom" and to FACE THE NATION on radio and television. Strawser knew the ins and outs of the Beltway -- especially the Capitol -- like few other reporters. Said former colleague Bill Plante, CBS News White House Correspondent, "Neil was a true Washington expert, particularly on the legislative process. He was a generous colleague with an enormous storehouse of knowledge he was always willing to share."

His expertise on the congressional budget process was legendary at CBS News, where reporters often relied on him to explain the weighty documents issued each year. Strawser's understanding of the budget led him to a job as press officer in 1987 for the House Budget Committee, from which he retired in 1994. He had worked briefly as the press officer for the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress before that.

Strawser began his career at CBS News in 1952 as an editorial research assistant, a job that took him to the political conventions that year, where he could be seen on camera sitting next to Walter Cronkite. He then worked as writer and editor until he was promoted to correspondent in November 1956.

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Within three years, Strawser was anchoring weekend editions of "World New Roundup" on the radio. During the week, he was covering news beats that over the years, including the Supreme Court, the Pentagon, Department of Justice and Capitol Hill.

Strawser was active in political coverage, anchoring radio broadcasts of the inaugurations of Richard Nixon in 1968 and '72 and Jimmy Carter in '76; Senate Watergate hearings in 1973, and the Judiciary's impeachment hearings in 1974. He covered primary elections and election nights, as well as the political conventions.

He also anchored CBS Radio Network coverage of space launches, beginning with the Gemini program and leading up to the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, which he covered from the Houston Space Center. Other big stories that he covered include school desegregation and the U.S. visit of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

In 1981, he was named White House Correspondent for radio, where he reported on the Reagan administration until going back to his old forte, Capitol Hill, to report on the congressional budget. He left CBS News in 1986.

Strawser was born August 16, 1927, in Rittman, Ohio, and attended public schools in Ashland, Ohio. He began his broadcast career in high school, reporting basketball games on the radio. As a student at Oberlin College, he was also heard on the radio, announcing and doing local news. His college education was interrupted for three years as he served in the Navy as an electronics technician. He returned to Oberlin, from which he was graduated in 1951.

While working at CBS News, he earned his master's degree in history from George Washington University in 1958; he had planned to use it to teach, but abandoned the idea in favor of broadcast news.

Strawser is survived by his wife of 14 years, Cornelia; two former spouses, Dee Atwill and Antoinette Bozievich, the latter with whom he had five children, all of whom survive him.

A funeral will be held Saturday (7) at noon at Christ's Church on Capitol Hill, 620 G Street S.E., Washington, D.C.

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Press Contact: Kevin Tedesco 212-975-2329 kev@cbsnews.com