Veteran television newsman Sander Vanocur dies at 91

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 — Sander Vanocur, who for decades covered the biggest moments in U.S. politics for NBC and ABC news, has died.

Chris Vanocur tells The Associated Press his father died Monday night in Santa Barbara, California. He was 91.

As national political correspondent at NBC in the 1960s, Vanocur covered conventions, elections and assassinations during some of the most momentous years in American history.

He was a questioner at the first debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960 and went on to cover Kennedy’s administration from the White House.

He also reported on Vietnam and civil rights, including a lengthy one-on-one interview with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Vanocur also interviewed Robert F. Kennedy two days before he was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968.

Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press