AP Correspondent Endre Marton Dies at 95

(AP) Endre Marton, The Associated Press correspondent who provided the first eyewitness account of the bloody 1956 Hungarian uprising against communist rule, died Tuesday at his daughter's home in New York. He was 95.

His daughter, Kati Marton, confirmed the death Wednesday. Marton's wife, Ilona, a longtime reporter for United Press who covered the Hungarian revolt with her husband, died last year at the age of 92.

As Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest on Oct. 25, 1956, Marton watched Russian troops fire into a crowd of demonstrators at Parliament Square, but his communications were cut off and he was unable to send what he later called ""the story of my life.""

A friend arranged access to a government telex machine but it took hours to get an outside connection. He described the scene in his book, ""The Forbidden Sky,"" published in 1971.

""The nighttime silence of the large room was suddenly broken when my machine sprang to life. I stared at it, waiting to see what would happen,"" he wrote. ""And then, miraculously, the words appeared on the paper: 'Associated Press, Vienna.' I sat there, with trembling fingers, and punched back: 'AP, Budapest.' Back came the message: 'Endre ... is that really you?'""

His exclusive, front-page story, some 2,000 words long, appeared in newspapers around the world. It began this way: ""Parliament Square in Budapest became a battlefield shortly after noon today when a Soviet tank opened fire on a few thousand peaceful demonstrators whose only weapons were Hungarian flags.""

The revolt was crushed the following month when thousands of Soviet troops overran the country.

""After 15 years under the heel first of Nazi Germany and then Communist Russia, Hungary got a whiff of intoxicating freedom in late October,"" Marton wrote.

""Then came Sunday, Nov. 4. Budapest was awakened by the roaring of guns. By authoritative estimate, Russians had moved 4,600 tanks and between 180,000 and 200,000 men into Hungary to crush the revolution. Against this might, Hungary had nine divisions of 90,000 men or less, equipped with obsolete weapons, and kids, some with guns.""

Marton and his wife worked side by side as news agency competitors. In 1948, they covered the sensational show trial of Joseph Cardinal Mindzenty, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary, and former Foreign Minister Laszlo Rajk.

Both Martons were imprisoned before the revolution. In 1955, they were accused of spying for the United States and were convicted by a secret military court. He was sentenced to six years imprisonment, she to three.

Both were released the following year, just in time to cover one of the iconic moments of the Cold War.

In January 1957, Marton received warnings he might be arrested again and he, his wife and their two daughters were given refuge in the U.S. Embassy and secretly smuggled to Austria.

The family moved to the United States, where Marton served for many years as the AP's diplomatic correspondent in Washington. The same year, he and his wife shared the George Polk Award, presented annually for outstanding reporting in the public interest.

Marton was born in Budapest on Oct. 29, 1910. He attended Budapest University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in 1932 and a graduate degree in economics four years later. He married Ilona Nyilas in 1943.

In addition to his daughter, Kati, Marton is survived by another daughter, Julia Marton-Lefevre, of San Jose, Costa Rica; a son, Andrew, of Fort Worth, Texas; and four grandchildren.

A private memorial service is planned.