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R.I.P Mr. Barker. Story Link:
Edmund Asa “Eddie” Barker Jr. played a leading role with the birth of television news in Dallas in 1949 and the medium’s coming of age on Nov. 22, 1963.
Mr. Barker was born in San Antonio, where he entered radio at KMAC-AM as a high school junior in 1943. He was a football announcer for the Humble Oil Southwest Conference broadcasts before moving to Dallas to help start the CBS affiliate, KRLD (Channel 4), which became KDFW, a Fox affiliate.
He was the first to report the death of President John F. Kennedy, making the announcement on a CBS feed from Dallas five minutes before network reporters confirmed the tragic news.
Breaking the JFK news
On Nov. 22, 1963, Mr. Barker was assigned to live coverage of the luncheon at the Dallas Trade Mart where President John F. Kennedy was to speak.
“And so I was there on the balcony at the Trade Mart, waiting for the president to come there to the luncheon,” Mr. Barker recalled in 1993 for his oral history for The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.
While gathered dignitaries awaited the president’s arrival Mr. Barker started “an endless narrative … I had to stay on the air,” he said. “You lose track of just what time it was, but that was then when this doctor came up and told me” the president was dead.
Just after Mr. Barker told CBS viewers nationwide that the president had died, “they immediately took it back to New York, and Cronkite, my dear friend Walter, said, ‘You know, that ain’t us, folks. That’s a hotshot saying he’s dead. It’s not CBS saying he’s dead.’”
Mr. Barker bore his place in history with a journalistic perspective.
“I don’t think it’s a question of being proud of being first, or regretting that I had such news,” Mr. Barker told The News on the 40th anniversary of the assassination. “I always thought of it as, ‘Here’s a story, I’m a reporter, and we’re trying to get news of what happened.’ It was a helluva thing to have to tell people, and you had to have some dignity in how you said it. It’s kind of a strange thing to be remembered for.”
Marina Oswald scoop
“After the assassination, everybody was dying to get an interview with Marina Oswald,” Mr. Wise said.
Mr. Barker found out where Ms. Oswald was staying and that her favorite television program aired after the KRLD news.
He called the people Ms. Oswald was staying with and asked if she would like to meet the KRLD news staff that was on the air immediately before the show.
He took the crew to the home and got the interview.
“Barker had a way of doing those things that I could never figure out,” Mr. Wise said. “People would call him up — all the way from a clerk at court to a newly appointed defense lawyer — and give him a tip.”
Mr. Barker “was a very dear and kind man,” said his daughter Leslie Barker Garcia, a staff writer at The Dallas Morning News. “He was a lot more outgoing than any of his children.
“Dad was the only person who Marina Oswald would speak to, because she had seen him on TV and she trusted him.”
Mr. Barker was born in San Antonio, where he entered radio at KMAC-AM as a high school junior in 1943. He was a football announcer for the Humble Oil Southwest Conference broadcasts before moving to Dallas to help start the CBS affiliate, KRLD (Channel 4), which became KDFW, a Fox affiliate.
At KRLD he doubled as news director for KRLD-AM radio (1080), anchored the new television station’s evening newscast and hosted the Ring the Bell for Charity game show.
He quickly became a respected competitor for news, said longtime friend and former Dallas Morning News reporter Hugh Aynesworth.
“When I was a reporter for The News in the 60s, Eddie was the No. 1 competitor,” Mr. Aynesworth said Monday. “KRLD-TV had the best staff going.”
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Edmund Asa “Eddie” Barker Jr. played a leading role with the birth of television news in Dallas in 1949 and the medium’s coming of age on Nov. 22, 1963.
Mr. Barker was born in San Antonio, where he entered radio at KMAC-AM as a high school junior in 1943. He was a football announcer for the Humble Oil Southwest Conference broadcasts before moving to Dallas to help start the CBS affiliate, KRLD (Channel 4), which became KDFW, a Fox affiliate.
He was the first to report the death of President John F. Kennedy, making the announcement on a CBS feed from Dallas five minutes before network reporters confirmed the tragic news.
Breaking the JFK news
On Nov. 22, 1963, Mr. Barker was assigned to live coverage of the luncheon at the Dallas Trade Mart where President John F. Kennedy was to speak.
“And so I was there on the balcony at the Trade Mart, waiting for the president to come there to the luncheon,” Mr. Barker recalled in 1993 for his oral history for The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.
While gathered dignitaries awaited the president’s arrival Mr. Barker started “an endless narrative … I had to stay on the air,” he said. “You lose track of just what time it was, but that was then when this doctor came up and told me” the president was dead.
Just after Mr. Barker told CBS viewers nationwide that the president had died, “they immediately took it back to New York, and Cronkite, my dear friend Walter, said, ‘You know, that ain’t us, folks. That’s a hotshot saying he’s dead. It’s not CBS saying he’s dead.’”
Mr. Barker bore his place in history with a journalistic perspective.
“I don’t think it’s a question of being proud of being first, or regretting that I had such news,” Mr. Barker told The News on the 40th anniversary of the assassination. “I always thought of it as, ‘Here’s a story, I’m a reporter, and we’re trying to get news of what happened.’ It was a helluva thing to have to tell people, and you had to have some dignity in how you said it. It’s kind of a strange thing to be remembered for.”
Marina Oswald scoop
“After the assassination, everybody was dying to get an interview with Marina Oswald,” Mr. Wise said.
Mr. Barker found out where Ms. Oswald was staying and that her favorite television program aired after the KRLD news.
He called the people Ms. Oswald was staying with and asked if she would like to meet the KRLD news staff that was on the air immediately before the show.
He took the crew to the home and got the interview.
“Barker had a way of doing those things that I could never figure out,” Mr. Wise said. “People would call him up — all the way from a clerk at court to a newly appointed defense lawyer — and give him a tip.”
Mr. Barker “was a very dear and kind man,” said his daughter Leslie Barker Garcia, a staff writer at The Dallas Morning News. “He was a lot more outgoing than any of his children.
“Dad was the only person who Marina Oswald would speak to, because she had seen him on TV and she trusted him.”
Mr. Barker was born in San Antonio, where he entered radio at KMAC-AM as a high school junior in 1943. He was a football announcer for the Humble Oil Southwest Conference broadcasts before moving to Dallas to help start the CBS affiliate, KRLD (Channel 4), which became KDFW, a Fox affiliate.
At KRLD he doubled as news director for KRLD-AM radio (1080), anchored the new television station’s evening newscast and hosted the Ring the Bell for Charity game show.
He quickly became a respected competitor for news, said longtime friend and former Dallas Morning News reporter Hugh Aynesworth.
“When I was a reporter for The News in the 60s, Eddie was the No. 1 competitor,” Mr. Aynesworth said Monday. “KRLD-TV had the best staff going.”
