I stood just 12 feet from Jack Ruby when he killed President Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. (O'leary)

One highlight of his career in the reserves was a weekend he spent on duty at Andrews Air Force Base. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, whom Mr. O'Leary often covered, arrived at the base from a diplomatic mission. He was greeted by the reporter, resplendent in his medals and colonel's uniform, who with a stern visage told Kissinger that "the coup was successful, and I am in charge here."

When the Star went out of business in 1981, Mr. O'Leary was asked to join the government. He spent eight months as a special assistant to William Clark, first when Clark was deputy secretary of state and then when he was the president's national security adviser.

www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1993/12/20/washington-journalist-jeremiah-oleary-dies/0f0ee844-2577-45cb-89ca-ffc5f1399235/?utm_term=.343aa342da62