The day John F. Kennedy was shot, I rushed down to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where I was the night police reporter, to help answer the phones on the city desk. A woman caller asked, “Is there anyone there who can take me to Dallas?” and I said, “Well, this is not a taxi service, and besides, the president has been shot.” And she said, “Well, I think my son is the one who has been arrested.” It was Oswald’s mother, Marguerite. So I gave her a ride. I always wore a snap-brim hat in those days because I wanted to look like the police; if people assumed we were detectives, we’d let them. When we got to the Dallas police station, I took her in and approached the first policeman I saw and said, “I’ve brought Mrs. Oswald over from Fort Worth—is there any place we can put her?” They cleaned out a little office in the burglary squad room. As the evening wore on, they took us into a holding room where we were going to be allowed to talk to Oswald. Finally, Captain Will Fritz, who was the chief of homicide, turned to me and said, “Who are you with?” And I said, “Well, now, who are you with?” And he said, “Are you a newspaper reporter?” And I said, “Yes, aren’t you?” That’s when I was summarily excused. I always look on it as the biggest story I almost got.

Bob Schieffer, who was born in Austin and grew up in Fort Worth, hosts the CBS Sunday news program Face the Nation.