NBC newsman Sander Vanocur was last survivor of 1960 debate

Sander Vanocur, the television newsman who became familiar to American viewers as a prominent White House correspondent during the Kennedy administration and as a tough questioner in presidential debates, died Monday night in a hospice facility in Santa Barbara. He was 91.

His son Christopher said the cause was complications of dementia. Vanocur lived nearby in Montecito.

Vanocur (pronounced van-OH-kur) was the last surviving journalist of the four who, as a panel, questioned Sen. John F. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Vice President Richard M. Nixon in America’s first televised presidential debate, on Sept. 26, 1960. (The others were Robert Fleming of ABC, Stuart Novins of CBS and Charles Warren of Mutual Broadcasting. Howard K. Smith, then of CBS, was the moderator.)

In a memorable moment, Vanocur asked Nixon about a damaging remark that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had made about his vice president — that he could not remember a single idea of Nixon’s that was adopted.

Nixon replied that it was “probably a facetious remark.” But in his 1962 book, “Six Crises,” Nixon admitted that Vanocur’s question had hurt.

“I am sure,” he wrote, “that to millions of tele-viewers, this question had been effective in raising a doubt in their minds with regard to one of my strongest campaign themes and assets — my experience as vice president.”

Vanocur also asked Kennedy a tough question: How could he fulfill his promise to push legislation through Congress when he had failed to do so as a member of the House and then the Senate? (Kennedy deftly shifted the blame to Republicans, saying the main reason for his thin legislative résumé was the threat of a Republican presidential veto hanging over legislation proposed by Democrats — a situation that would be remedied, he said, by the election of a Democratic...