Mike Cochran (’58), Haltom City, died Jan. 11. As a nearly 40-year reporter for the Associated Press, he covered everything from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to the moon landings. He was inducted into UNT's C.E. "Pop" Shuford Hall of Honor for outstanding alumni in the Mayborn School of Journalism as well as the Texas Newspaper Foundation Hall of Fame.

Cochran covered sports for The Campus Chat, then worked for the Denton Record-Chronicle and the Abilene Reporter-News before joining the AP in 1960 at its Fort Worth office.

He had just come back from Kennedy's departure at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth on the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, when he learned Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. Cochran spent the day at Parkland covering medical reports on the wounded Gov. Connally.

He then covered Oswald's funeral in Fort Worth. Since there was no one there to bury Oswald, he and other reporters ended up carrying the casket.

Cochran originally wanted to be the Texas sports editor for AP.

"But the assassination changed all that," he told the North Texan in 2013. "I fell in love with news."

Cochran also covered numerous crime trials, the space missions and sporting events. He later served as a roving Texas correspondent for the AP. Before he retired, he worked for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

He also wrote several books, including Claytie: The Roller-Coaster Life of a Texas Wildcatter, about former Texas gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams, and The Godfather of Poker, about Texas-born Las Vegas gambler Doyle Brunson.

Services will be at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 29 at Greenwood Funeral Home in Fort Worth.