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Former aide to RFK Frank Mankiewicz dies at 90

"I know everyone in Washington, and half of them owe me something," he once said. "The other half I owe."

By Aileen Graef
Robert F. Kennedy, in a 1963 file photo. Frank Mankiewicz was the press aide who announced his death after being shot by Sirhan Sirhan on June 6, 1968 (UPI Photo/Files)
Robert F. Kennedy, in a 1963 file photo. Frank Mankiewicz was the press aide who announced his death after being shot by Sirhan Sirhan on June 6, 1968 (UPI Photo/Files) | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Frank Mankiewicz, the press aide who announced Robert F. Kennedy's death, died on Oct. 23 at the age of 90 after three weeks in intensive care at George Washington Hospital.

Mankiewicz was a long-time Washington insider working in journalism and politics who worked in the Kennedy White House and for Robert F. Kennedy until the senator was killed in 1968 by an assassin's bullet.

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"I know everyone in Washington, and half of them owe me something," he once said. "The other half I owe."

After he left politics, he went to work for NPR where he served as president from 1977-1983 where he oversaw the creation of NPR's Morning Edition, its flagship program.

Despite overseeing some marked changes at NPR, he left the station with a $6 million deficit that required a bailout from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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