When I learned about the death of Birch Bayh at the age of 91, my mind went back to the late 1970s, to the one time I had the chance to meet the senator.

I was working as a news anchor and reporter at radio station WCSI in Columbus, Indiana at that time.  I was working a Saturday morning shift and was scheduled to leave work at 12:30pm.  However, Senator Bayh was in Columbus that Saturday and I was to stay late and record an interview with him for the weekend newscasts.

So, I dutifully began preparing for my talk with the Birch Bayh when the phone rang in the newsroom.  It was the White House.  Now, just so you know, it is not normal for a radio newsroom in a city of 35,000 people to get a phone call from the White House.  That was the first and only time in my journalistic career that ever happened.

The call came from an official with the National Security staff….he told me his name but I was way to shaken up by the situation to remember that name.  He just said, tell Senator Bayh to call us the moment he arrives.

Then it dawned on me that Senator Bayh was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee at that time.  He was about to be briefed on something very important.

It was also about that same time that the wire service WCSI subscribed to at the time, the Associated Press, began reporting that Chinese troops had entered the northern area of Vietnam, but AP had very few details.

It was about that time that Senator Bayh and his staff arrived at the station.  I told him to contact the White House, and he immediately made that call.  It was unusual because I know he was being briefed with classified information on an open phone line (technology was clearly not as sophisticated in those days) and the senator had a lot of questions about this Chinese incursion into Vietnam, and I could hear his part of the conversation because Mr. Bayh was standing right next to me.

So I began to think……even the AP had little information on this story and I was about to interview a senator on the Senate Intelligence Committee that had just been briefed by U.S. intelligence on what was happening.  How much could Birch Bayh tell me once I got him in front of a microphone?

After his phone conversation with White House officials, I recorded the interview, and guess what, Senator Birch Bayh laid out that entire situation going on at the border between China and Vietnam.  This small radio station in Columbus, Indiana had more information on this international situation than the Associated Press, the largest international news service at that time.

So, I remember Birch Bayh because he had no trouble telling a news reporter in his home state all about an international story, at least as much as he could say without disclosing national security secrets. Birch Bayh did me a big favor that day.

Birch Bayh is remembered for a number of accomplishments…constitutional amendments and opening up women’s sport with his push to enact Title IX being the major ones.

But I will remember Birch Bayh because of the one time we met and had a chance to talk on that Saturday afternoon in Columbus, Indiana.