Wes Wise (November 25, 1928 – December 9, 2022) was an American journalist and politician who served from 1971 to 1976 as a three-term

mayor of Dallas The Mayor of the City of Dallas is the head of the Dallas City Council. The current mayor is Eric Johnson (Texas politician), Eric Johnson, who has served one term since 2019 Dallas mayoral election, 2019 and is the 62nd mayor to serve the posit ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Early life and TV news career

Wise was born in

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is t ...

, on November 25, 1928. Wise dropped out of high school at the age of fifteen upon the death of his father and begin work at a local

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

station in Monroe, Louisiana. Although Wise earned a diploma by passing the high school equivalency test, he never graduated from college. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

for two years. In the 1940s and 1950s, Wise was a play-by-play sports announcer for

Gordon McLendon Gordon Barton McLendon (June 8, 1921 – September 14, 1986Texas State Historical AssociationMcClendon, Gordon Barton/ref>) was a radio broadcaster. Nicknamed "the Maverick of Radio", McLendon is widely credited for perfecting, during the 1950s ...

Liberty Broadcasting System The Liberty Broadcasting System was a U.S. radio network of the late 1940s and early 1950s founded by Gordon McLendon, which mainly broadcast live recreations of Major League Baseball games, by following the action via Western Union ticker reports. ...

radio network, which mainly broadcast live recreations of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

games by means of broadcasters like Wise following the action via

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...

ticker tape reports, and then relaying the plays to the listening audience in a more lively style that included studio sound effects meant to simulate the ballgames. Wise went on to work for many years as a sports director at KRLD-TV, a Dallas

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

television affiliate. In 1960, he teamed with

Davey O'Brien Robert David O'Brien (June 22, 1917 – November 18, 1977) was an American football quarterback. He played college football at Texas Christian University (TCU) and professionally in the National Football League (NFL) with the Philadelphia Eagle ...

to call

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

games for

Kennedy assassination

During his CBS years, Wise also occasionally covered hard news. In particular, Wise provided on-the-spot coverage of the

assassination of John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle with ...

at the

Dealey Plaza Dealey Plaza is a city park in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas, Texas. It is sometimes called the "birthplace of Dallas". It was also the location of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963; 30 minutes after the shooting ...

Downtown Dallas Downtown Dallas is the central business district (CBD) of Dallas, Dallas, Texas, United States, located in the geographic center of the city. It is the second-largest business district in the state of Texas. The area termed "Downtown" has tradit ...

on November 22, 1963. On November 23 at the

Texas School Book Depository The Texas School Book Depository, now known as the Dallas County Administration Building, is a seven-floor building facing Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. The building was Lee Harvey Oswald's vantage point during the assassination of United Sta ...

where

Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 fo ...

had worked, Wise encountered

Jack Ruby Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein; April 25, 1911January 3, 1967) was an American nightclub owner and alleged associate of the Chicago Outfit who murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was accused of th ...

who expressed concern that

Jackie Kennedy Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A pop ...

might be required to return to Dallas if Oswald were tried for Kennedy's murder. Wise was present in the

Dallas Municipal Building The Dallas Municipal Building is a Dallas Landmark located along S. Harwood Street between Main and Commerce Street in the Main Street District of downtown Dallas, Texas that served as the city's fourth City Hall. The structure is also a Recorded ...

when Oswald was shot dead. Wise testified as a witness for both the defense and the prosecution at Jack Ruby's trial for the murder of Oswald. Wise was a co-author of the 2004 memoir ''When the News Went Live: Dallas 1963''. Of Dallas during Kennedy's visit, Wise has said, "Let's face it: At the time, Dallas was considered a hotbed of right-wing hysteria. It served as the regional headquarters of the

John Birch Society The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American right-wing political advocacy group. Founded in 1958, it is anti-communist, supports social conservatism, and is associated with ultraconservative, radical right, far-right, or libertarian ideas. T ...

, and Gen. Edwin Walker - whom many considered a far-out extremist - had moved here. You might remember that Lee Harvey Oswald took a shot at him, too. H.L. Hunt's right-wing radio program originated here. So it was hardly a haven for liberals." During his two terms as mayor of Dallas, Wise guided Dallas from under the cloud of the assassination and at the same time saved the Texas School Book Depository from imminent destruction, preserving it for further research into the president's murder.

Political career

Wise was elected to the

Dallas City Council The Dallas City Council serves as the legislative body in the City of Dallas. It consists of 14 members. City council members are chosen by Plurality voting, plurality elections in each of fourteen districts. The city operates under a Council-Mana ...

in 1969 and then was elected mayor two years later; both are nominally

nonpartisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

positions. Wise did "much during his term to eradicate the bad image Dallas had nationally after the ennedyassassination." Wise resigned midway when he resigned to run for the Democratic nomination in , losing to

State Representative A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...

Jim Mattox James Albon Mattox (August 29, 1943 – November 20, 2008) was an American lawyer and politician who served three terms in the United States House of Representatives and two four-year terms as state attorney general, but lost high-profile ra ...

Personal life and death

Wise died on December 9, 2022, at the age of 94.

References

External links

Brief autobiography on Wise's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wise, Wes 1928 births 2022 deaths American sports announcers American sports journalists Dallas Cowboys announcers Dallas City Council members Mayors of Dallas National Football League announcers Politicians from Shreveport, Louisiana Military personnel from Louisiana Witnesses to the assassination of John F. Kennedy Journalists from Texas Texas Democrats