Journalist Sidney Epstein dies of pneumonia at 81

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — Sidney Epstein, who began his almost five-decade journalism career as a copy boy at one Washington paper and rose to editor of the Washington Star, has died. He was 81.

Epstein died Sunday at the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington. He had pneumonia.

Epstein supervised coverage of many major stories, including the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

He broke into journalism as a copy boy at the Washington Herald in 1937 after studying at George Washington University.

In 1942, he enlisted in the Marine Corps, serving as an artillery officer in the Pacific during World War II. He left the service as a first lieutenant.