NATCHEZ — Bill Slatter, a Natchez High 1944 graduate who went on to have a celebrated career in radio and television, has died.

Slatter, 87, died April 12 at the home of his daughter, Katherine Slatter Kirlin, in Washington, D.C.

Among his career accomplishments, Slatter is credited with having recorded the only television interview with Lee Harvey Oswald, who was later accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy Jr.

According to a story in the Times-Picayune, Slatter, while working for WDSU-TV in New Orleans, interviewed Oswald in August 1963 after Oswald was arrested for disturbing the peace after a fight broke out while Oswald was handing out leaflets on Canal Street in New Orleans.

Later, after Oswald was arrested for killing Kennedy, Slatter’s interview earned national play.

A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Slatter moved to Natchez with his family when he was 11. His broadcasting career began at Natchez radio station WMIS. After a stint in the U.S. Navy, Slatter returned to college, earning a degree from LSU.

He married Denver Jenkins of Natchez in 1948. Slatter returned to Natchez in the 1990s after retiring. After his first wife’s death, Slatter married his former classmate and friend, Devereux Marshall of Natchez, in 1995. Marshall preceded him in death in January 2015.

Marsha Colson, Slatter’s stepdaughter, said Slatter was “the kind of person who had to have a project. He taught himself to cane chairs and charged people for only the time he put into it.”

She said Slatter and her mother enjoyed traveling.

“He loved to travel and particularly loved France. He and my mother took at least one nice trip a year and they went to France three or four times. They also went to Costa Rica and Turkey,” Colson said.

Slatter also loved to exercise and kept a bicycle at his downtown office and rode it around town well into his 70s, she said.

Slatter was also an avid tennis player and was a frequent doubles partner of Bruce Kuehnle of Natchez, Kirlin said.

When he returned to Natchez, Slatter continued his work as a consultant and coached those who hoped to enter the world of television journalism, Colson said. “He would get lots of promo videos, and he also videoed weddings and depositions and things like that,” she said.

He also recorded almost 40 interviews with Natchez World War II veterans, which will eventually go to the Library of Congress, Kirlin said.

William McGehee of Natchez was Slatter’s attorney, friend and neighbor.

“He was a gentleman’s gentleman,” McGehee said. “He had a good heart and he loved people. He was very much a people person. He was very courteous and attentive, and he loved Natchez.”

McGehee said Slatter loved to learn and loved fine wines.

“Bill was a wine connoisseur. We enjoyed talking about different wines together. And he loved history. We took a couple of history classes together at Co-Lin. He just loved to know things. We will miss him a lot,” McGehee said.

Anne White, who was assistant director of the George Armstrong Library in Natchez for seven years, said Slatter “was a one of a kind in a town of one of a kinds.” She said he was a lifelong learner.

“Bill was my favorite patron at the library when I was in Natchez. He would come in and challenge us all the time to find some book on some new topic he wanted to learn about. He was just a lifelong learner. He held us to a high standard, made us earn our money. Bill was a real character. His mind was really sharp,” she said.

White was in charge of the programs at the library and said, thanks to Slatter, her program on Paris was the best.

“I wanted to do a program entirely selfishly on Paris because I was planning to go there and called it, ‘The Last Time I Saw Paris.’ Bill was my star. He brought his DVDs of his travel movies and it turned out to be one of the best programs I ever did. We had to run everyone out at closing time. He wanted to go back, but was having trouble getting around, so he told me, ‘You have to go for me,’ ” White said. “When I did go to Paris last fall, I lit candles for Bill at Notre Dame and every cathedral I entered.”

White left Natchez in June 2014 and retired to St. Petersburg, Fla.

“Bill will definitely be missed. I knew Bill from the library, but I would see him around town and he would be out for dinner with this whole table of people, young and old. He really enjoyed his life,” she said.

Slatter is survived by four children: William Slatter of Newburgh, Ind.; Ira Slatter of LaFarge, Wis.; Hyde Slatter of Bangkok, Thailand; and Katherine Slatter Kirlin of Washington, D.C., with whom he lived at the time of his death; two step-daughters, Lisa Baker and Marshal Colson of Natchez; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service for Slatter will be held this summer in Natchez.