Ike Pappas | CBS reporter, 75

Ike Pappas, 75, a longtime CBS reporter who covered the Pentagon and Congress as well as several wars, died Sunday in Arlington, Va., of heart disease.

Mr. Pappas had a 25-year career with CBS, often appearing with news anchors Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather. He covered the Vietnam War as well as the antiwar demonstrations at home.

He is especially remembered for being on the scene Nov. 24, 1963, two days after President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas. He was reporting for New York radio WNEW when police brought the manacled Lee Harvey Oswald into the police-station basement to be transferred to jail.

He had just asked Oswald, “You have anything to say in your defense?” when someone shoved Pappas, a gunshot sounded, and Oswald crumpled. The man who elbowed Mr. Pappas aside turned out to be Jack Ruby, Oswald’s killer. “There’s a shot,” Mr. Pappas said on the air. “Oswald has been shot.”