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FDR Remembered 75 Years After His Sudden Death

Ken Schwartz

   Seventy-five years ago, theUnitedStates and much of theworldwas thrown
   into shockand griefat the news thatU.S.
   PresidentFranklinD.Rooseveltunexpectedly died.

   Roosevelt was at his retreat in Warm Springs, Georgiaon April 12,
   having hisportraitpaintedwhen he blurted "I have aterrificheadache."

   That was the last thing he ever said. Aides carried the unconscious
   president into the bedroom. A doctorpronouncedhim deadof a
   cerebralhemorrhage. He was just 63 years old.

   Children were the first to learn about the president's death when the
   news bulletins broke into the radio adventure serials "Captain
   Midnight," and "The Tom Mix RalstonStraightshooters."

   The news quickly spread. Men and women in stores, in offices, on buses,
   and inthestreetscried openly.

   Hitler and the crumbling Nazi regime saw FDR's death as a sign from
   heaven that the war was about to turn intoGermany'sfavor.

   U.S. forces fighting in Europe said it was like losing their own
   father. But they had little time to grieve andRoosevelt's death made
   them even more determined to pound the final nails into the Nazi
   coffin.

   Thousandslined the railroad tracks that brought his body from Warm
   Springs to Washington for the funeral onApril 14 andfrom Washington to
   Hyde Park, New York for burialon the 15th. Radio brought the sounds of
   the funeral march into millions of homes.

   Roosevelt had been president for a little more than 12 years and an
   entire generation could not recall a timewhen there was anyone else
   sitting in the Oval Office.

   Marist College history professor DavidWoolneris the authorof"The Last
   100 Days: FDR at War and at Peace."

   "FranklinRoosevelttransformed the relationship between
   theAmericanpeopleandtheir government and between the United States and
   the rest of the world,"Woolnersaid.

   What made Roosevelt's deathespeciallytragic was if he had lived just
   four more weeks, he would have seentheunconditionalsurrender of Nazi
   Germany.

   "It wasn't uncommon to see people in foreign countries, in London and
   Paris and even in Moscow to be weeping in the street when they learned
   the news that Roosevelt had died...in countries around the world,
   certainly in Europe and in Russia and in parts of Asia they remember
   Roosevelt with great respect and affection,"Woolnersaid.

   AndWoolnerbelieves if Roosevelt had not been elected presidentduringthe
   very depth of the Great Depression,the United States as we know it
   today, maynot exist.

   "Rooseveltessentiallysaved
   capitalism...beforeFranklinRoosevelttookoffice in 1933, we didn't have
   unemployment insurance, we didn'thaveSocial Security, we didn't have
   federal deposit insurance, we didn't have the regulation of the stock
   market, we didn't have the right of working men and women to join
   unions, we didn't have a minimum wage."

   Althoughhis legacy has beenquestioned, with some believing he did
   little to advance civil rights in the U.S. andothers saying he ignored
   pleas to save more European Jews from the Nazis,Woolnersaystothose
   wholivedthrough the depression and World WarTwo, Roosevelt will always
   beuniversallyrevered.

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