• Home
  • Mail
  • News
  • Finance
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
  • Search
  • Mobile
  • More
Yahoo
    • Skip to Navigation
    • Skip to Main Content
    • Skip to Related Content
    • Mail
    Entertainment Home
    Follow Us
    • The It List
    • TV
    • Movies
    • Celebrity
    • Music
    • Live Celeb Chats
    • Videos

    Veteran television newsman Sander Vanocur dies at 91

    ANDREW DALTON
    Associated PressSeptember 17, 2019
    Reblog
    Share
    Tweet
    Share
    Obit-Sander Vanocur
    FILE - This Sept. 5, 2006 file photo shows journalist Sander Vanocur supporting Santa Barbara News-Press employees wishing to unionize during a news conference in Santa Barbara, Calif. Vanocur, a network news reporter who for decades covered the biggest moments in politics, died Monday, Sept. 16, 2019, in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 91. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sander Vanocur, a television newsman who for decades covered momentous events from political campaigns to assassinations, the Vietnam War to the civil rights movement, has died, his son said Tuesday.

    Vanocur died Monday night in Santa Barbara, California, said Chris Vanocur. He was 91. He had been dealing with dementia in recent years.

    As national political correspondent at NBC in the 1960s, Vanocur was a questioner at the first presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960, then covered Kennedy's administration as a White House correspondent.

    "His storied career put him on the front lines of the biggest political stories of the 1960s, the first stories being televised for many of us," NBC News political director Chuck Todd said in a segment Tuesday.

    Vanocur was among the last people to interview Sen. Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, where he was assassinated shortly after winning the California Democratic primary in his run for president in 1968.

    Vanocur was probably most familiar to TV viewers from his reporting on the floor of political conventions, including the violent 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. He and three NBC colleagues who reported on the conventions, Frank McGee, John Chancellor and Edwin Newman, became known as the Four Horsemen. Vanocur was the last survivor of the four.

    He was also the last survivor of the four questioners at the Nixon-Kennedy debate. Vanocur said while he had a front-row seat to one of the most important moments in 20th century politics, he felt like he missed it because he hadn't seen it like a viewer would have.

    "We didn't know what it looked like," Vanocur said in a 2011 interview. "You didn't see it through television when you were on the panel."

    In 1977, Vanocur was hired by ABC News, where he served as a correspondent until 1991. He was the moderator at another historic debate in the 1984 vice presidential contest between George H.W. Bush and Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run for vice presidential from a major party.

    Born in Cleveland, Vanocur moved to Peoria, Illinois when he was 12, and earned a degree in political science from Northwestern University in 1950.

    He served in the U.S. Army in Europe and attended the London School of Economics, beginning his journalism career while in England. His son said he was sold when he wrote a letter to the editor that appeared in the Manchester Guardian.

    "Once he saw his name in print, his career changed," said Chris Vanocur, who is also a television journalist.

    Vanocur returned to the U.S. and covered city news for The New York Times then landed at NBC in the late 1950s.

    Politics and war took up much of his time, but the civil rights issue was Vanocur's favorite subject to cover, his son said, because he believed in the cause.

    In 1967 he interviewed Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, 11 months before King was assassinated, leading King through a long discussion about the struggles in moving his cause forward after a decade.

    Vanocur left NBC in 1971 and worked for PBS and the Washington Post before landing at ABC News, where he would serve as a correspondent in Buenos Aires, host the weekly show "Business World," and cover several more conventions and elections.

    He married fashion designer and writer Edith Pick in 1956 and had two sons, Chris and Nicholas, who died in 2015. Pick died in 1975, and soon after Vanocur married Virginia Backus Vanocur, who was his wife for the 44 years until his death.

    Vanocur is also survived by a step-daughter, Daphne Wood Hicks.

    ___

    Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton .

    Reblog
    Share
    Tweet
    Share

    What to Read Next

    • 2020 Golden Globes snubs and surprises, from 'Game of Thrones' and Baby Yoda disses to 'Joker' scoring big

      Yahoo Movies
    • Steve Harvey announces the wrong winner during Miss Universe 2019 costume contest

      Yahoo TV
    • Fox News announces Bill Hemmer will take over Shepard Smith's time slot

      USA TODAY Entertainment
    • Khloé Kardashian Reveals What Happens to the Leftover Food from Her Family's Extravagant Parties

      People
    • Everything to Know About Rapper Juice WRLD After His Death at 21

      People
    • Julia Louis-Dreyfus says SNL environment was 'very sexist' during her tenure

      Entertainment Weekly
    • Amid flurry of Saudi reforms, mocktails on order in execution square

      Reuters
    • Woman Shocks Botched Doctors by Revealing She Has Two Implants in Each of Her Breasts

      People
    • Veteran actor Ron Leibman dies aged 82

      Yahoo Movies UK
    • Kim Kardashian Threatens to Fire Kourtney from KUWTK for Hiding Her 'Personal Life': 'She's Out'

      People
    • Billie Eilish says her connection to her body is 'the most toxic relationship you could even imagine'

      Yahoo Celebrity
    • Mom Guilty of Murder After ‘Throwing’ 2-Month-Old Son into Crib, Causing Skull and Rib Fractures

      People
    • Star Sightings: Kim and Kourtney Kardashian Party in Miami, Lizzo and Normani Jingle Ball All the Way & More!

      Entertainment Tonight
    • Catherine Zeta-Jones Celebrates Father-in-Law Kirk Douglas' 103rd Birthday with Throwback Shot

      People
    • Nick Cannon Responds to 'Grandpa' Eminem’s Latest Mariah Carey Diss, Invites Him to Wild 'N Out

      People
    • Superstar SoundCloud rapper Juice WRLD dead at age 21

      Yahoo Music

    'The evidence is overwhelming': Combative hearing moves House closer to impeachment

    Magic One: The Senate Trial is GOVERNED by the Senate Rules... and so is the Chairman during the Trial (Justice Roberts). This isn't a Criminal trial. The Senate Rules allow any group of 51 Senators to overrule the Chairman (Roberts) on many issues (like who will be subpoenaed to testify and who will not). If 51 (or more) Senators want to have Joe Biden, Adam Schiff, and Hunter Biden testify but the Chairman (Roberts) refuses, the Senators can overrule him and send the subpoenas and they WILL testify. Equally, if 51 Senators do NOT want someone to be subpoenaed to testify, they can quash the subpoena and stop them from testifying. "If the Senate did end up conducting a trial, Rule VII gives Chief Justice Roberts control over procedural aspects of the trial, including issuing orders for specific people to testify and making decisions about disputed points of the law. However, that same rule lets McConnell circumvent Roberts’ control, potentially in ways that could limit, or expand, the impeachment process. For instance, if the House members presenting the case wanted to subpoena a witness who might give evidence against Trump, senators could ask Roberts to block the subpoena. If he refused, they could overrule him, again by a simple majority in a Republican-controlled Senate. McConnell could also use Rule VII to introduce into the trial new information that would be to Trump’s political benefit – such as asking Roberts to subpoena Joe Biden and his son Hunter, which could heighten the partisan divide, and distract or confuse the public about who is on trial for what. If Roberts declined, again the senators themselves could vote to issue the subpoenas." ================================= "Critically, and contrary to common mythology and parlance, the chief justice is not the “judge” in an impeachment trial. The Senate itself is both judge and trier of fact, and the chief justice serves as its presiding officer. The rules thus require the chief justice to direct “all forms of the proceedings” (Rule 7) and, in so doing, “to make and issue all orders, mandates, writs, and precepts authorized by the rules” (Rule 5)." The Republicans hold the Senate Majority and can easily get 51 votes to overrule Roberts... with votes to spare.

    Join the Conversation
    1 / 5

    4.9k

    • Beyoncé says 'having miscarriages' gave her a 'deeper' purpose: 'Success looks different to me now'

      Yahoo Celebrity
    • NFL Correspondent Caught Ex Cheating on Her Because of Activity on His Fitbit

      People
    • Meghan Markle Goes Incognito to Volunteer at Toronto Charity in Never-Before-Seen Photo

      People
    • Miss South Africa Zozibini Tunzi Crowned Miss Universe 2019

      People
    • Jennifer Lopez Falls For Pete Davidson, Breaks Alex Rodriguez's Heart in Hilarious 'SNL' Sketch

      Entertainment Tonight
    • Walmart apologizes for drug-themed Christmas sweater

      People
    • Cardi B's 1-Year-Old Daughter Kulture Lands Her First Magazine Cover

      Entertainment Tonight
    • 'Bachelorette' Alum J.P. Rosenbaum Diagnosed With Rare Autoimmune Disorder

      Entertainment Tonight
    • Selena fans trash Ally Brooke's performance during the Miss Universe pageant

      Yahoo Entertainment
    • 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' teaser trailer haunted by callbacks to 1984 original

      Yahoo Movies
    • ‘Big Brother’ contestant’s win overshadowed by accusations of racism

      Yahoo Entertainment
    • Cardi B Says She Could Be the 'Most Ratchet-est Person Ever' — But Still a 'Great Mom'

      SheKnows
    • Sean Lennon Posts Family Instagram Photo on 39th Anniversary of Father John’s Murder

      People
    • Watch Whoopi Goldberg call out Meghan McCain for interrupting

      Yahoo Entertainment
    • Princess Beatrice Cancels Engagement Party Amid Concerns About Prince Andrew Scandal

      Entertainment Tonight
    • Former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Star Brandi Glanville Claims She Was Drugged with MDMA

      People