Murphy Martin was the epitome of the deep-voiced television news anchor in the '60s and '70s.

He did numerous stints at WFAA-TV (Channel 8) in Dallas and ABC network television and radio in New York.

He covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the trial of Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the presumed assassin. He also worked with Ross Perot to improve the plight of American POWs and MIAs of the Vietnam War, and he directed the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Martin died Thursday night, hours before his 83rd birthday, of complications of heart disease at UT Southwestern University Hospital.

"There is nothing like the news business," Mr. Martin said in a 2001 interview for the Oral History Collection at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

He was born on the Fourth of July 1925 in Groveton, Texas, south of Lufkin, where he graduated from high school in 1942.

He was introduced to the idea of a career in radio one evening after graduating from high school.

The owner of the Lufkin radio station asked him to fill in for the on-duty announcer he had just fired.

The emergency duty led to his first broadcast job, paying $27.50 for a 60-hour week. A neck injury prevented Mr. Martin from joining the military during World War II.

He attended North Texas State College, now the University of North Texas, on a partial scholarship, playing saxophone in a dance band.

He majored in journalism, was sports editor for the student newspaper and did some football play by play for the campus radio station.

Mr. Martin married during his junior year and became a traveling salesman in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska for a Denton lingerie and sleepwear company.

In March 1949, he returned to Lufkin to be sports director and commercial manager at the facility his former radio station employer was building.

Mr. Martin called high school football games for Magnolia Petroleum Co., which held the broadcast rights.

In August 1955, he was the first anchor for Lufkin's new television station, KTRE, where he was also sales manager and director of news and sports.

In 1959, he auditioned to be an announcer for the Baltimore Orioles. On a trip to New York as one of five finalists, he visited ABC Sports, where an executive urged him to see Mike Shapiro, manager of WFAA-TV, about a job in the Dallas market.

In 1961, Mr. Murphy joined WFAA's AM radio unit until a position opened to anchor the evening television newscasts.

In February 1963, he was hired by ABC to anchor the network's late-night news program. His network career included being a pool reporter on the Gemini spaceflights. He also anchored coverage of the 1964 Republican and Democratic national conventions.

On Nov. 22, 1963, Mr. Martin had just arrived at work to prepare for his late-night news program when his mother-in-law called from Texas to tell him that President Kennedy had been shot.

Mr. Martin spent the rest of his day and week in New York reporting on the assassination.

He covered Oswald's graveside service in Dallas the next week and in 1964 returned to Dallas to cover Mr. Ruby's trial, flying back to New York to do weekend radio newscasts.

In 1967, Mr. Martin became anchor of WFAA's 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts. He also was head of the station's documentary production and special projects department.

Mr. Martin also hosted a Sunday program on Channel 8, Face to Face with Murphy Martin, on which he interviewed such people as Robert Oswald, who had written a book about his brother.

In 1970, Mr. Martin left Channel 8 to work for Ross Perot as president of United We Stand, his organization to assist Americans who were prisoners of war or missing in action in Southeast Asia.

In 1977, Mr. Martin became executive vice president of the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce, a post he held until 1980.

His career included more than two decades as public address announcer for Dallas Cowboys home games, retiring in 1998.

"That was fun," he said in his oral history, "and I saw a lot of things happen, and it got me a Super Bowl ring I never could get another way."

Mr. Martin wrote the 2003 book Front Row Seat: A Veteran Reporter Relives the Four Decades That Reshaped America.

He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Joyce Martin of Dallas; a son, Mike Martin of Dallas; two grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Ms. Martin said her husband's love for his work lasted throughout his career.

"He did always say, 'There never was a day that I didn't want to get up and go to work,' " she said.

His signature sign-off:

"That's my time; thank you for yours."