tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43978899201155430912024-03-21T00:26:52.340-07:00Fdr's Deadly SecretA supplement to our book dedicated to the understanding of the health of our thirty-second president.Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.comBlogger102125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-56963254161640184002016-12-31T11:14:00.000-08:002016-12-31T11:14:57.939-08:00Another interesting "coincidence". W. Leslie Heiter MD<h3 class="r" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">
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Further research on the "Nourmahal Gang" reveals that one member of this exclusive club was quite different than the others. Dr. W. Leslie Heiter was not a wealthy man and was considerably younger than the rest of the group, a rather odd person to be hanging out with a group of privileged blue bloods. A native of Alabama, he trained at Tulane and soon joined the staff of Memorial Hospital in New York in the late 1920's. </div>
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The owner of the Normahal and FDR's close friend was Vincent Astor, who also was a major benefactor of Memorial Hospital (as was his grandmother Charlotte Gibbes Astor).</div>
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It appears that the good Doctor Heiter was a surgeon who specialized in head and neck surgery. Here is a paper he wrote in 1930 (see below). </div>
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So now we not only have an expert in the field of radiation of melanoma of the sinuses (McEuen) writing FDR about the "cancer patient" on the Nourmahal, but also a physician who wrote a recent paper of cancer of the sinuses on board! </div>
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Two coincidences? Unlikely.</div>
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<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Ns5XAAAAMAAJ&q=w+leslie+heiter&dq=w+leslie+heiter&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjeiN6tiZ_RAhUGSSYKHSuWDEUQ6AEINDAF" style="color: #660099; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Laboratory Studies and Clinical Studies</a></h3>
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<a data-ved="0ahUKEwjeiN6tiZ_RAhUGSSYKHSuWDEUQ6wEINTAF" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Ns5XAAAAMAAJ&q=w+leslie+heiter&dq=w+leslie+heiter&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjeiN6tiZ_RAhUGSSYKHSuWDEUQ6wEINTAF" style="color: #660099; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><g-img class="_ygd" style="display: block; position: absolute;"><img alt="" class="_WCg" height="80" id="bksthumb6" src="data:image/jpg;base64,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" style="border: 0px; display: block; position: relative;" width="52" /></g-img></a></div>
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<cite class="_Rm" style="color: #006621; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal;">https://books.google.com/books?id=Ns5XAAAAMAAJ</cite></div>
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<a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?biw=1264&bih=751&tbm=bks&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22New+York.+Memorial+hospital+for+the+treatment+of+cancer+and+allied+diseases%22&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjeiN6tiZ_RAhUGSSYKHSuWDEUQ9AgINjAF" style="color: #1a0dab; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">New York. Memorial hospital for the treatment of cancer and allied diseases</a> - 1930 - Snippet view - <a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?biw=1264&bih=751&tbm=bks&q=editions:gsUiD-se2oMC&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjeiN6tiZ_RAhUGSSYKHSuWDEUQmBYINzAF" style="color: #1a0dab; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">More editions</a></div>
<span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;">A CASE OF CARCINOMA OF THE NASAL MUCOSA WITH EXTENSION TO THE FRONTAL SINUS BY <span style="font-weight: bold;">W</span>. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Leslie Heiter</span>, M.D. E. L., female, age 61, admitted March , 1929. History of slight bleeding from the right nostril accompanied by a ...</span></div>
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Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-50258278198008776862016-12-18T17:33:00.000-08:002016-12-25T05:09:01.535-08:00FDR's Melanoma. An intruiging newly discovered documentThe Earliest Treatment of FDR's Melanoma?<br />
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While working on a special project at the FDR library concerning the fascinating, little known and vastly under-appreciated relationship between FDR and his distant cousin Vincent Astor, my protege, William Villano called me about an interesting letter he found.<br />
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Will was well aware of my long-standing work on FDR's melanoma and noted that the trip file of correspondence for his cruise on Astor's yacht <i>Nourmahal</i> in March/April 1934 was unusually thick. The yacht was no ordinary ship, carrying a crew of 50 and a fully equipped operating room. On further inspection, the file revealed that the "fishing trip" was mysteriously extended for a week, bringing about a postponement of the highly publicized traditional gridiron dinner with the press in Washington as well as a number of important diplomatic meetings. Also found was evidence of a hastily organized press conference aboard the Nourmahal, so the considerable scuttlebutt around Washington that FDR had become sick on board could be squelched. Correspondence between members of FDR's inner circle reveals that something went very wrong on the cruise on March 29. By April 2, the crisis had calmed and the energy was directed to covering up the reason for the unexpected extension of the trip.<br />
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The letter is from Appointment Secretary Marvin McIntire, who was stationed in Miami while FDR was sailing in the Caribbean, having embarked on March 27th from Jacksonville. It is addressed to "Kim" who after considerable research appears to be Kermit Roosevelt Jr, the grandson of Theodore, whose father, a close friend of FDR and Astor, was aboard the Nourmahal. Others mentioned are "Joe" who is most probably Joseph P. Kennedy (JFK's father) and "Jim" FDR's eldest son, James. Before being hastily summoned to the Nourmahal, research confirmed that James spent the previous two days at Joe Kennedy's estate in Palm Beach.<br />
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What most sparked Will's attention was the phrase "Robbie was really very, very ill". Our suspicion is that "Robbie" was FDR, especially in light of his well documented penchant for aliases. There was also correspondence in the trip file concerning rumors in Washington that Roosevelt had taken ill, which appeared to be the reason for the prolonging the trip. It also revealed that FDR's eldest sons James and Elliott were somewhat unexpectedly transported south to be with their father. For someone well versed in highly secretive world of Franklin Roosevelt, this raised enough suspicion for me to make a trip to Hyde Park for further research.<br />
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After the crisis ended, correspondence and a phone call between Press Secretary Steve Early (who ALWAYS knew everything) and McIntyre adds additional evidence of FDR's illness and reinforces the strict code of secrecy in FDR's inner circle.<br />
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Jimmy is FDR's eldest son</div>
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Vincent is Vincent Astor, owner of the Nourmahal</div>
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Shortly after opening the file, I found this telegram!<br />
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It was sent to FDR from the noted radiotherapist, Dr. H. B. McEuen. Through the miracle of modern cyber-technology, AKA a google search on McEuen, I immediately found his medical paper!<br />
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I was able to locate McEuen's grandson and, through him, his mother-in-law. Neither one of them was aware of their relative's connection with Roosevelt, though Mrs. McEuen is in possession of a file of papers and the prototype of the radiotherapy device that McEuen patented.<br />
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So let's sum it up:<br />
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FACTS<br />
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1) FDR unexpectedly takes ill aboard Vincent Astor's yacht in early April 1934 and prolongs his trip by a week. A letter from Marvin McIntyre confirms "Robbie was very sick". His children are mysteriously transported to be by their father's side.<br />
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2) A noted cancer treatment specialist, Dr. H. B. McEuen, who had recently written a paper about the benefits of radiotherapy for melanoma over surgery, sends a telegram to FDR about the best way to help the "cancer patient".<br />
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Where was Ross McIntire during all of this? He was in Washington and sent a telegram to the ship that he was unable to get to Florida. As seen many times (with the very few exceptions), he covered himself, with an admonishment to "do some swimming for me."<br />
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FDR was surely not fishing at the time, though as documented in the video of his press conference coming off the train upon his return to Washington, he went to great lengths to talk about the "barracuda and sharks".<br />
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EDUCATED SPECULATION<br />
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Dr. H. B. McEuen knew someone aboard the Nourmahal could benefit from his services as a cancer specialist. How he acquired this, or how he knew the secret agenda of the president (leaving from Jacksonville on the correct date is unclear.<br />
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March/April 1934 is the earliest date located so far that possible treatment of FDR's melanoma occurred.<br />
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In the course of his treatment with radiation FDR apparently started to hemorrhage (probably in the course of gaining surgical access), requiring his sons to be sent for to provide compatible blood (yes, the technology of blood transfusion was known). Fortunately for America, FDR recovered, but for a short time in late March/early April 1934, those aboard the Nourmahal were not entirely sure he would. This may have FDR's first "medical cruise". It was surely not the last (second Tuscaloosa cruise in February 1940 and probably many others as well). The navy medical corps was prepared for all contingencies, had the best technology and, of course, provided the secrecy that FDR needed.<br />
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Another interesting issue of great interest to me for the last decade and is key to my "alternative" history of FDR is- Who knew what about FDR's health and when did they know? The revelations above add considerably.<br />
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For the record, this is what I believe to be to be the truth. You won't find this anywhere else.<br />
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All of the medical decisions about FDR's health were orchestrated by FDR himself, despite the assertions of Howard Bruenn in 1970. Prior to 1937, the chief medical mind for all decisions, other than Polio, were made by Cary Grayson, FDR's close friend from the Wilson days, along with the consent of his chosen successor Ross McIntire. As FDR and Grayson were both extremely secretive and careful, the paper trail between them is quite sparse, though there are some clues in the Grayson papers in Staunton, Virginia. Not coincidentally, McIntire was not promoted to Admiral until <i>after</i> Grayson's death in 1937.<br />
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As seen above, Press Secretary Steve Early was the mastermind and enforcer of FDR's campaign of secrecy. Interestingly, this most important function is not addressed at all in the most comprehensive biography of Early by Linda Lotridge Levin. There is further ample documentation of Early's role in other posts on this blog (see, for instance, "The Early show with Ross McIntire").<br />
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Another revelation gleaned from the information on this post is that FDR's son, James, probably knew about his father's illness. This is the first evidence I have found. Also the revelations about Vincent Astor's role has been vastly under appreciated. More to come about who knew what, and when.<br />
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Best of the holiday season!<br />
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<br />Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-12376706935919477512015-08-21T18:45:00.002-07:002015-08-21T18:45:52.977-07:00Jimmy Carter's melanoma. Cancer and the presidencyJimmy Carter has just put yet another exclamation point on the most remarkable post-presidential career in American history (my vote for second place is William Howard Taft, who became a justice of the Supreme Court).<br />
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President Carter's candid and courageous stance in revealing the existence of four metastatic melanoma lesions in his brain will do much to at last put the stigma of "canceraphobia" to rest. He is not the first President with cancer and, indeed, not the first with melanoma.<br />
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Only one of his predecessors is presently acknowledged to have died of the disease, Ulysses S. Grant. Grant's throat cancer, quite atypically of the time, was revealed to the public early on in the course of the disease. A storm of media attention ensued and Grant was hounded by the press even after seeking refuge in upstate New York. He spent his last days writing his memoirs (with the capable assistance of Mark Twain) and died as he had lived, with great courage and dignity.<br />
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Grant's cancer occurred years after his presidency. The first sitting president to be diagnosed with the disease was Grover Cleveland, who in the course of his first (non-consecutive) term developed a modestly invasive carcinoma of his hard palate. He was spirited onto a boat on the East River and a team of surgeons, headed by William Williams Keen (yes, the same guy who misdiagnosed FDR's polio in 1921) proceed to remove a significant amount of the presidents upper jaw and fitted him with a prosthesis (there were actually two operations). A detailed account of the procedure was leaked by one of the surgeons to a reporter who shortly afterwards published a truthful and detailed account of the procedure. Apparantly candor of a sitting president was not that of Grant and there was soon a very active campaign of denial. The poor reporter was disgraced and his reputation not restored until Keen published an account of the operations in 1918, long after Cleveland had died. See my previous blog post for details. A few weeks after the operations, Cleveland was back at the White House and, after a four year hiatus, was re-elected to a second term.<br />
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Now we get to FDR, whose penchant for secrecy about his health was legendary. His melanoma was probably diagnosed as early as 1936 and a bleed into a brain metastasis was the final event that ended his life on April 12, 1945. The secrecy is so deep that one can only speculate why he chose to keep it a secret. Clearly, any hint of cancer would have brought his political career to a screeching halt and history would have been robbed of his magnificent leadership during the events preceding and during WW2.<br />
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The treatment for melanoma then is what it was until only a little more than a decade ago (remember John McCain?), wide excision and radiation. Likewise, the prognosis for stage four metatstatic disease had not improved - zero survival. We are now at the dawn of entirely new age in cancer treatment and President Carter has a far better chance of survival, even at age 90, due to the remarkable new advances in immunotherapy. It is not at all surprising that melanoma went to President Carter's brain. No other tumor metastasizes there more frequently. In patients who die of melanoma over ninety percent have brain metastases at autopsy and over a quarter of all patients who die of the disease are carried away by a brain hemorrhage (see FDR!!).<br />
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The only sitting president to reveal that he had surgery for a cancer was Ronald Reagan, at which time a relatively innocuous sessile colon polyp was resected and brought about a cure. Indeed, the publicity around Reagan's cancer did much to raise awareness of the need for colonoscopy for diagnosing colon cancer and was responsible for identifying thousands of curable lesions.<br />
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Get well soon, President Carter! and thanks for for making cancer a little less scary for the citizens of the world.Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-44384741495979744372014-08-17T13:00:00.002-07:002014-08-17T13:09:36.705-07:00FDR and the "Broozle Effect"<br />
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There is a well recognized psychological phenomenon coined by Beverly Houghton in 1979 known as the Woozle Effect that arose from a story in chapter three of A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh, first published in 1926. (For more information see the wikipedia entry for "Woozle Effect".) As the story goes, Winnie and Piglet nearly catch an imaginary character known as a woozle after finding its tracks in the snow. In their pursuit they unknowingly go around in circles and mistakenly confuse their own tracks for those of the woozle, using this as evidence for its existence. </div>
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The "woozle effect" has come to mean a conclusion based upon unreliable information that is accepted as truth. Perhaps the most unfortunate example in recent times is the now discredited work of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a British researcher who allegedly found a link between autism in children and the presence in certain vaccines of a mercury containing chemical known as thimerisol. Before Wakefield was debunked, countless desperate parents' refusal to have their children vaccinated for common childhood diseases such as measles brought about a recurrence of the disease, a number of the cases resulting in fatality. To this day, this woozle is still regularly popping up in pediatricians offices. </div>
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Now, you may ask, how does this all relate to Franklin Roosevelt? In 1970, Roosevelt's cardiologist, Howard Bruenn, wrote a paper in Annals of Internal Medicine that allegedly presented the truth about FDR's health in the last year of his life, inferring:</div>
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1) FDR died of purely cardiovascular causes and that</div>
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2) FDR never asked about his diagnosis and had little concern for matters of his health</div>
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3) and unequivocally stating that he first examined FDR in late March 1944, prior to which time there was no suspicion of serious heart disease.</div>
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All of this was a diversion to deflect the fact that FDR was being treated for a number of malignancies (prostate, melanoma) that made a tangible contribution to his being labeled "The Sick Man at Yalta" in February 1945, and indeed was the primary cause of his death. </div>
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The first historian to buy into Bruenn's deception was James MacGregor Burns in his 1970 Pulitzer Prize winning biography "The Soldier of Freedom". In his defense, Burns had no reason to believe he was being deceived. Virtually every subsequent FDR biography has echoed Burns' supposedly authoritarian conclusions. </div>
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Since Bruenn's was clearly an intentional deception, it does not fit perfectly with the present definition of a woozle effect, Therefore, I am now coining a new term, one that arises from an <i>intentional </i>deception that goes on to become gospel, the "broozle effect."</div>
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Harry Goldsmith was the first to be confronted with the "broozle" in 1979 shortly after he published the first peer-reviewed medical paper about the possibility of FDR having melanoma. Bruenn himself disputed Goldsmith's ideas. Since 2010, after my book and four papers in peer-reviewed medical journals were published, the original "broozle" has been the obstacle major that I have confronted in a challenge to gain acceptance of the truth about FDR's health. </div>
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My thanks to James J. Kimble, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communication, at Seton Hall University for making me aware of the Woozle Effect. </div>
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Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-33527871841462255412014-03-14T19:46:00.003-07:002014-03-14T19:46:58.042-07:00Yet Another Small Piece of the Puzzle. The Report of Fulton Oursler.My thanks to my newfound friend, Historian Kathryn Smith for making me aware of this.<br />
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Fulton Oursler was a journalist (editor of <i>Liberty Magazine</i>) and author (The Greatest Story Ever Told) who worked closely with Franklin Roosevelt at the time of his first election as President. He subsequently developed an unusually intimate social relationship and often visited the White House. Oursler's autobiography "Behold This Dreamer!" was published in 1964 and includes a distinct section entitled "Through the White House Side Door" (pp. 364-440). It is recommended reading for anyone interested in an unusually candid account of FDR's life.<br />
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On Page 439, Oursler describes an incident in mid-July 1940 when FDR became incensed at negotiations with Senator Burton Wheeler, the noted isolationist, who was demanding changes in the language of the Democratic Party Platform at the National Convention.<br />
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"At this point Sam Rosenman got up and went out of the room. The President was panting heavily.<b> I noticed a flap of flesh that had grown over his left eye</b>, and other visible physical deteriorations, but also told myself that I had never seen him so aroused, so jumpy, so nervously unsettled."<br />
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The "flap of flesh" that Oursler saw was most probably a skin graft, first hand evidence of the cosmetic removal of FDR's melanoma that was ongoing from early 1940 through late 1941. This is a credible first-hand account and a short excerpt of "the way it really happened".<br />
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See for yourself!<br />
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<br />Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-2989523645107208032014-03-13T17:46:00.001-07:002016-12-18T04:52:07.281-08:00As It Really Happened April 12, 1945<b id="docs-internal-guid-87aefeb3-be04-f14e-71f2-2d1dd221ae60" style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
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<span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-87aefeb3-be04-f14e-71f2-2d1dd221ae60"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-87aefeb3-be04-f14e-71f2-2d1dd221ae60"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: arial; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="gmail-Apple-style-span" style="color: orange; font-size: medium;">April 12, 1945 </span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-87aefeb3-be04-f14e-71f2-2d1dd221ae60" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;" /><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-87aefeb3-be04-f14e-71f2-2d1dd221ae60"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is a little after one PM central war time in Warm Springs at a most beautiful time of the year. The vernal landscape is punctuated by peach blossoms, blazing azalea, pale yellow wisteria and the pungent aromas of magnolia, honeysuckle, dogwood and pine permeate the Georgia air. A mile and a half from the main gate up a primitive winding forest road sit two unpretentious guest houses and the modest clapboard Little White House, with its portico and columns adorned with red roses. The security “jumper gate” and guard houses manned by armed marines and Secret Service agents are testimony to the importance of its resident. The house is situated high enough on the mountain to afford a magnificent view of the countryside from the rear deck that has been designed to resemble the fantail of a ship, yet not at the peak, for its owner's dread of fire would not permit it to be built above where ample water would be readily accessible. </span></span></div>
<span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-87aefeb3-be04-f14e-71f2-2d1dd221ae60" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;" /><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-87aefeb3-be04-f14e-71f2-2d1dd221ae60"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The rustic, comfortable three bedroom structure is decorated with the simple but finely made furniture of Val Kill industries of Hyde Park, New York and the fine ship models, paintings and prints of an astute and dedicated collector of naval memorabilia. A small square card table where President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has been working and posing for a portrait has been set for lunch and cook Daisy Bonner’s cheese souffle is almost ready to be served. Frail and ashen, the most powerful man on earth is surrounded by the people with whom he is most relaxed: his devoted staff, spinster cousins Margaret Lynch “Daisy” Suckley and the eccentric Laura “Polly” Franklin Delano and, most specially of all, the romantic love of his life, Lucy Page Mercer Rutherfurd. </span></span></div>
<span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-87aefeb3-be04-f14e-71f2-2d1dd221ae60" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ten years of fighting cancers, heart failure, strokes, seizures, severe anemia, sinus problems, chronic infections and kidney failure have exacted their toll on the valiant warrior. A journey to Iran a mere sixteen months ago marked the beginning of an inexorable physical and mental decline, even more disturbingly accelerated since an arduous seven thousand mile trek to Yalta, in the remote and war ravaged Crimean Peninsula, in January and February. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the White House Correspondent’s Banquet at the Statler Hotel on March 22nd, his last public appearance in Washington, Roosevelt made only brief and embarrassingly disjointed comments and members of the audience did not recognize the significance of subtle lapses of consciousness as he sat at the dais. The trained eyes of a Baltimore physician planted in the audience by Chicago Tribune reporter Walter Trohan confirmed that the President was not likely to survive much longer. On March 27th, the day prior to his final departure from Hyde Park, the President collapsed into a convulsive fit, by far the most dramatic and violent of the many he had experienced over the previous year. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While there had been no public acknowledgement of any serious medical problems from FDR’S devoted medical voice, Ross McIntire, since his return from the Crimea, everyone around him recognized that his days were numbered but only a very few of the most intimate dared bring it up, and then only in most private moments. Roosevelt’s confidante, law partner and the custodian of his will, Basil “Doc” O’Connor, remained in constant contact with corresponding secretary William Hassett about the state of the president’s health, and had deferring a trip abroad so as not to be overseas when the inevitable transpired. FDR rambled on about future trips to Europe and the Middle East but no one, including himself, ever believed they would come to pass. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a race against death, the last of the great obsessions that defined Roosevelt’s life was to accomplish what his Democratic predecessor and mentor Woodrow Wilson could never do - establish an effective and enduring world peace organization following a devastating world conflagration. For a year and a half, Roosevelt’s goal of a United Nations had been bolstered by declarations emanating from Moscow in 1943 and Dumbarton Oaks in August 1944. The last of his forty-one restorative pilgrimages to Georgia arose out of a desperate hope to gain the strength for one final triumphant journey to open the inaugural meeting on April 25th in San Francisco. Despite repeated admonitions of his doctors and staff, he was hell-bent to make the two thousand mile rail trip if only to spend less than an hour speaking from his wheelchair. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since 1933, no one had spent more time with Franklin Roosevelt than his medical aide and masseur, George Adam Fox. Early in Fox’s career, he had spent five years under Presidential physician Cary Grayson attending to the frail and feeble Woodrow Wilson after a devastating stroke in September 1919. He was now playing an eerily similar role in the life of yet a different chief executive under Grayson’s protege. Ross T. McIntire. A hard drinking career pharmacist’s mate, he had been promoted to Lieutenant Commander by a powerful stroke of the presidential pen shortly after coming into Roosevelt’s most intimate inner circle with “Pa” Watson and McIntire, all at Grayson’s recommendation. During the countless hours of massage, application of makeup or medical treatment that Fox provided, the gossipy President enjoyed hearing Fox’s first hand recollections of Wilson’s private moments. The intensity of the disability must have made quite an impression. While watching the biopic “Wilson” while conferring with Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek in Quebec in September 1944, Roosevelt was overheard by Bruenn at the portrayal of Wilson’s disability to emotionally mutter “I will never be like that!” as his blood pressure soared to a perilously high level. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the President came down the elevator of his private railway car the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ferdinand Magellan</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on his last visit to Warm Springs on March 29th, a collective sigh of stunned disbelief came from the denizens who had befriend him over the past two decades. This time he would not be driving his specially equipped Ford convertible, nor would their be any jaunty repartee. Secret Service agent Mike Reilly found him uncharacteristically “heavy”, unable or unwilling to assist as he transferred the withered six foot three inch one hundred and forty five pound frame into the open car for the ritual parade past Georgia Hall to the Little White House. Railroad agent Charlie Pless commented that Roosevelt appeared to be “the sickest man I have ever seen that was still alive”. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The president had looked almost as bad, some said even worse, upon arriving on his previous visit in November, after a grueling election campaign followed by a top secret middle-of-the night visit to see his physician, the renowned surgeon Dr. Frank Lahey, in Boston. But then his body still had the energy to “bounce back” to stand for the last time, however briefly and with excruciating pain, at his unprecedented fourth inauguration in late January and to make his last trip overseas in an attempt to put the world in order before he left it forever. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During his last public appearance in Warm Springs at church for Easter services, Roosevelt had been uncharacteristically silent. The ravages to his nervous system from kidney failure and low blood oxygen were such that he could not even not hold a prayer book or his glasses for more than a few minutes without dropping them. As with his last speech before congress on the first of March, the expanding tumor in his brain made the words on the pages unreadable. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the morning of the 9th, Roosevelt’s spirits improved in anticipation of the arrival of Lucy Rutherford. Just as he had come to meet her for their secret rendezvous excursions through Rock Creek Park in Washington, he would take Daisy and Fala and drive to Macon to meet her car. Ostensibly, the purpose of her trip was to bring Madame Elizabeth Shoumatoff to paint his portrait. Indeed, The President of the United States spent the better part of his day combing the roads of southern Georgia searching for his love. Lucy was also expecting to be met and in mock disappointment told her fellow travelers “nobody loves us, nobody cares for us”. By pure luck they finally crossed paths a mere five miles north of Warm Springs as FDR, Daisy Suckley and the world's most famous pet, his Scotch Terrier, Fala, were surrounded by a crowd outside a general store drinking Coca Cola. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the evening of the April 11th, his old friend and confidante Henry “the morgue” Morganthau observed how the President confused names and repeated stories as well as the difficulty he had in lighting a cigarette or performing his favorite social ritual of mixing cocktails. On his last day Roosevelt awoke with a mild headache and neck stiffness, a harbinger of the catastrophe that would soon take his life, but his mornings were still blessed with the physical strength and mental clarity that permitted him to sign stacks of official documents in a barely readable hand and to dictate a few letters to his secretary Grace Tully in response to the reports that “Uncle Joe” Stalin was reneging on many of the agreements made less than two months previously in the Crimea. One of his last official acts was a labor of particular interest for the avid philatelist, giving final approval for the design of a stamp that was to be issued in San Francisco in two weeks to commemorate the opening of the United Nations. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At 1:10 PM, FDR suddenly grabbed the back of his head and slumped backwards in his chair. Elizabeth Shoumatoff yelled out for Lucy, loud enough to bring valet Arthur Prettyman from the bedroom and houseboy Irineo “Filipino Joe” Esperancilla from the kitchen. Daisy Suckley heard him softly complain of a “terrific headache” and prevented him from falling. Then she took control of the situation, telling Madame Shoumatoff to go outside and find a secret service agent. Picking up the phone, uncharacteristically identifying herself as “Daisy” she calmly asked that the operator find Doctor Bruenn, the cardiologist who had been with Roosevelt every day since April 1944. While being carried the fifteen feet into the bedroom, his military cape dragging across the polished floor, Roosevelt uttered his last words to Polly Delano in a barely perceptible voice, “be careful”. After being laid in bed, Polly fanned him while Daisy loosened his shirt and tie and held his right hand as a stunned and overwhelmed Lucy Rutherford put camphor to his nose, then tearfully stood in horror with a clenched fist at her mouth. Within two minutes, as the pressure within his skull from the rapidly expanding hemorrhage prevented vital oxygen from reaching his brain, consciousness left him, never to be regained. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The artist found Secret Service agent-in-charge, Jim Beary, at his post just outside the doorway.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The President is sick. Please call a doctor.” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After the short moment it took Beary to comprehend the urgency of the moment, he ran into the kitchen and got on the phone to Secret Service headquarters at nearby Carver Cottage. Agent Guy Spaman answered and with the news sprinted to his car for the short drive to the pool where he knew chief agent Mike Reilly and Howard Bruenn were swimming. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Inside the Little White House, a remarkably composed Daisy Suckley picked up the telephone, calmly asking Warm Springs operator to find Doctor Bruenn. Just a few minutes later, Louise “Hacky” Hachmeister, the brown-eyed, ebullient White House operator who had traveled to Georgia with the Presidential party, checked her switchboard after coming back from the pool for lunch and the operator told her in a non-urgent tone that a minute ago that “Daisy” called to say Doctor Bruenn was wanted at the Little White House. Presuming that the Daisy who called was the cook, she called back.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Does the Boss want Doctor Bruenn to come for lunch?” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With terror in her voice, Daisy Bonner retorted, “No, Miss Hacky”, he’s sick, the President is very sick!” Hacky quickly called the poolside phone and alerted Bruenn back at the pool, who, thinking quickly, told her to find George Fox and tell him to bring his medical bag. Bruenn was dressed and waiting as Spaman pulled up for a frantic two mile race up the hill to The Little White House. By pure luck, Fox was soon passing by Hacky’s switchboard on the way back from the dining room at Georgia Hall and she passed along Bruenn’s instructions.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back at the Little White House, Daisy Suckley took charge, focused on what her beloved Franklin would want her to do. No one on earth knew better. During their intimate conversations over the years, especially since the near death experience in 1941, they had often discussed FDR’s thoughts about how he wished to be remembered. Her unqualified devotion to her beloved would not diminish in the forty-five years she survived him.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Lucy dear, there’s going to be quite a lot of commotion and the family will probably be coming down, it would be best for Franklin if you weren’t here when people want to know what happened. There’s nothing else we can do for him any more. Please hurry!”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lucy hurriedly planted a final tearful kiss on the forehead of the only man she ever loved (and vice versa) and with the artist Shoumatoff was spirited across the road to the guest house by the Secret Service to pack, assisted by the sobbing housekeeper Lizzie McDuffie. The third member of her party, photographer Nicholas Robbins, a stout, sixtyish balding Russian immigrant, was staying in town at the Warm Springs Hotel. As one of his important duties for years was Presidential travel agent, Mike Reilly had the presence of mind to assure that there would be enough fuel for the two-hundred mile trip to Aiken in Madame Shoumatoff’s gas-guzzling white Cadillac convertible in the face of strict gas rationing. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Cuz (Shoumatoff’s nickname for Robbins) we have to head back home right away. The Secret Service is sending a car to pick you up.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Within half an hour, just as Daisy Suckley had come to the guest house to offer Shoumatoff and Lucy a tearful farewell embrace, Spaman pulled up with Robbins. The photographic paraphernalia and the hastily packed suitcases were loaded and by 2:30 the threesome, with the artist at the wheel, were on the road for the five hour trip to Aiken. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At 1: 25, Bruenn had run through the front door of the Little White House, yelling, to no one in particular “get me Admiral McIntire and hold him on the line”. George Fox arrived, with medical bag in hand, just as Daisy Suckley was asking the operator to reach the White House to get McIntire. Bruenn found his patient laying in bed, still clothed, completely unresponsive in a deep coma. As Prettyman undressed him and put on his pajamas, the President momentarily stopped breathing as his tongue was blocking his airway. The problem was soon relieved by anchoring it to the bottom of the mouth with strip of gauze. As he examined FDR and took his blood pressure, greater than 300 over 190, the brilliant cardiologist immediately realized that this was no transient event but rather the irrevocable final chapter in his two year odyssey, something he and Ross McIntire both knew was coming but hadn’t expected would happen quite so acutely or dramatically. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a few minutes Roosevelt’s right pupil suddenly enlarged, an ominous sign of a rapidly expanding mass in the brain. After about ten minutes of administering various medications to dilate blood vessels and lower blood pressure, Bruenn finally had a moment to report to McIntire, who had been patiently standing by. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“He was quite well when I left this morning. He complained of a slight pain in the neck but now something very acute and severe has happened. It looks to me like a massive brain hemorrhage. At this moment he’s stable but there’s very little else we can do. I’m afraid we might be in for a long siege.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">McIntire quickly retorted, as he had often thought about what he would do in such a circumstance and now had had ten minutes to think it out. Despite the presence of a fully equipped hospital nearby on the grounds of the foundation or the secure medical facilities of nearby Fort Benning, he elected to let FDR spend his last moments in the medically spartan solitude of the Little White House. As his star patient lay dying, a strange sense of relief came upon him since he had dreaded the prospect of being put onto the same situation his mentor Cary Grayson had been confronted with Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Through George Fox, McIntire was also well aware of the difficulties during the last year and a half of Wilson’s second term, and the last few months of FDR’s accelerated decline had raised the very real and disturbing prospect of having history repeat itself. At least, he had surmised, Grayson had a co-conspirator in the first lady, Edith. No such ally would be found in Eleanor. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Keep him right there. I’ll call Paullin and get him down there. I’ll see if he can find a neurosurgeon.” McIntire urgently called Atlanta cardiologist James Paullin, who had first examined the President a year previously with a team of physicians.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Jim, the President has had what appears to be a severe brain hemorrhage. Could you possibly find a Neurosurgeon we can trust and get down there to give Bruenn a hand?”.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’ll get right on it Mac.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As McIntire was leaving the White House medical office, he found an anxious Anna Boettinger coming off the elevator, hurriedly on the way to Bethesda Naval Hospital to be with her son Johnny, who was about to get an infusion of penicillIn for a severe upper respiratory infection. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What is it?” the tall, handsome woman asked impatiently.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Your father has had some sort of seizure, he’s unconscious.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anna had mixed feelings about the Presidential physician. She had been kept in the dark from all the heroic measures that had been taken for years to keep her father alive and had mistakenly felt that McIntire had often been derelict in his duty.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What kind of a seizure?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Being purposely vague, he replied “Howard Bruenn has been calling from Warm Springs. Whatever it is we don’t think it will affect his brain.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just then, Bruenn called from Warm Springs and Anna asked to speak with him.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“This thing, will it mean any further paralysis for my father?” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bruenn had learned the lessons of deception well over the previous two years from his mentor. Being put on the spot, he performed admirably:</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“If that were so, it would not be paralysis which would affect his brain!”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anna had developed a kinship with Bruenn during their time together in Yalta after he had confided the seriousness of her father’s “ticker” problems to her. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Satisfied for the moment, she handed the phone back to McIntire and rushed off to Bethesda.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I have to go. Please keep in touch with me”.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">McIntire anxiously got back on the line.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What did you tell her?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Nothing!”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Good Job, Howard! I spoke to Paullin, he’s on his way down. I asked him to find a Neurosurgeon.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Thanks Admiral. I’ll keep in touch and let you know if anything changes, though I don’t expect anything good.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Upstairs in her study, Eleanor was meeting with Charles Taussig, who had been designated as an adviser to the United Nations conference in San Francisco, when the phone rang. It was Polly Delano.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“We are worried about Franklin. He has had a fainting spell. The doctor will call you back.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eleanor was used to bad medical news about her husband. There had been a steady stream of problems, most recently his convulsion at Hyde Park, so while there was concern, there was no reason to believe that this event was any more serious than the others.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After Polly tersely hung up, a few minutes later the phone soon rang again. It was Ross McIntire. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Doctor McIntire, Polly Delano called me from Georgia to tell me that Franklin has fainted. What do you know about it?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since Bruenn had made him aware of the dire nature of the President’s condition, McIntire knew a lot more than he was willing to share since he hadn’t yet been able to strategize with Steve Early. For years, the Physician to the President and Press Secretary had spearheaded the ongoing and increasingly difficult cover-up of FDR’s panoply of infirmities. The climactic chapter was about to begin. Having reflexly lied to Elenor about the state of her husband’s health for years, without hesitation he related, “He had some sort of spell and passed out. Howard Bruenn is with him.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’m supposed to attend a benefit at the Sulgrave Club. Should we leave for Georgia right away?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No. That might cause too much alarm. Why don’t you go ahead and I’ll call you when I know more. We can fly down there later this evening if necessary.” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wearing an attractive red suit, the First Lady set out to the Sulgrave Club for the 17th Annual Tea and Entertainment of the Thrift Shops, one of Washington’s most fashionable charities, arriving promptly at four o’clock. Seated at the head table between the Chairlady of the event, Mrs. John Dougherty and, ironically, the widow of the late Woodrow Wilson, Eleanor gave a brief speech then settled in for a program featuring the renowned pianist, Evelyn Tyner. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back in Warm Springs, Bruenn could do little more than supervise the demise of his unconscious patient. After an hour or so he was able to break away from the bedside long enough to give Mcintire another update and smoke a cigarette on the back patio, where he found he found a distraught Hassett, worriedly reiterating his his concern over “a long siege.” Thoughts of his treatment of Chief of Staff "Pa" Watson who had met a similar fate on the return trip from Yalta were fresh in his mind. Watson lingered for three days before succumbing to his stroke. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By 3:30, only the most primitive areas of Roosevelt’s brain, those that controlled his breathing, were still functioning. For over two hours the sound of his loud and labored death rattle had at once been torture and reassurance to Mike Reilly, Hassett, Daisy, Polly and Grace Tully in the living room and in the kitchen by Prettyman, Daisy Bonner, Esperancilla and Lizzie McDuffie. Bruenn again left the bedside and was on the phone with McIntire when Fox yelled out “Doc Bruenn, Doc Bruenn get in here right away!” The agonized respirations had ceased. Bruenn administered an injection and began artificial respiration. Just then, the front door of the cottage slammed open and a breathless Jim Paullin came storming in, having made a frantic seventy mile trip from Atlanta in an hour and thirty-five minutes speeding down back roads. After briefly assessing the dire situation, he reached into his bag, drew up a vial of adrenaline into a glass syringe with a long needle at its end, located the space between the fourth and fifth rib on the left and injected it directly into FDR’s heart. After a few agonal beats, there was no pulse, no blood pressure, no respirations and Bruenn called a halt to any further efforts at resuscitation. In a soft but emphatic tone he pronounced “this man is dead!” He looked at his watch. It was 3:35 PM, Central War Time.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Almost on cue, the normally sedate Fala crashed through the screen door at the front of the Little White House, ran to the top of the mountain and howled, eventually finding his way back home.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Admiral, it’s over. Paullin got here just a few minutes ago and gave him intracardiac adrenalin. I pronounced him at 3:35.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bill Hassett took the phone from Bruenn and went to work. “Doc, is Early there?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No, I Haven’t seen him today. Could you please put Bruenn back on for a second?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Howard, I want to thank you for all you’ve done for the Boss. You know how much he cared for you. He would never have made it this long if you weren’t around. Let me talk to Early and we’ll figure out how to handle the press.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Thanks Sir, I’ll be standing by.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After a few minutes, the White House operator located the Press Secretary at the apartment of Pa Watson’s widow.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Steve, the Boss is dead! He collapsed about two and a half hours ago and Bruenn said it was a huge brain hemorrhage. For a while he thought it would be a long ordeal but he went fast. Where do we go from here?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Early was well aware of Roosevelt’s dire medical condition but had not expected the death to be so acute and took a few seconds to gather himself. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Let me talk with Doc McIntire and I’ll get back to you. We should break the news to the press simultaneously. Is Mrs Rutherfurd there?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No, she and her crew pulled out of here about an hour and a half ago.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Good, the last thing we need now is to have to explain who </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">she</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was and why she was there when the shit hits the fan.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I couldn’t agree with you more! Call me back after you speak to Mac and we can get on the same page. Please find out what, if anything, he wants Bruenn to say to the press.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It now struck Early that it had fallen to him to find Harry Truman. Technically, his first call should have been be to the Secretary of State but very few Roosevelt insiders paid much heed to the lightly regarded Edward Stettinius. After thinking about it for a few seconds, he decided that it would be appropriate for Eleanor to break the news. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After letting Frances Watson know the news, his first call was to McIntire to get more details. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Bill Hassett just called me. What the hell happened?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Massive brain hemorrhage”. Bruenn did the best he could but it was hopeless. He pronounced him at 3:35, their time. Paullin got there at the very end. Thank God he didn’t linger!”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Hassett wants to know if Bruenn should talk to the press?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What do you think, Steve?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You know Ross, they know about him already. Let’s not complicate the issue any further. I think we should let him tell them that he was there to help take care of the Boss and that this was all completely unexpected. I’m sure he’ll do a great job.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I agree”.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ok, where’s the First Lady?</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“She’s over by Dupont Circle at a benefit. Before she left, Polly Delano called her to tell her the Boss fainted. I downplayed it until I had a chance to speak with you and told her I’d keep her updated. Same with Anna, she’s over at the hospital (Bethesda) with her son.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’ll get a message to her to get back home. First I have to find Truman, I should be back at the White House before they get there.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">McIntire’s top priority was to put all the evidence of his ten-year cover-up safely six-feet under as soon as possible. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The sooner we get the Boss buried, the better! We have to make absolutely sure there’s no autopsy, that would really fuck up the situation royally!”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“That’s for sure! Do me a favor and put me through to the operator. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Operator, this is Steve Early. Please stay on the line, I need to make a series of calls. First, could you please put me through to the Vice-President’s office?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Of Course, sir, right away.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Vice President’s office. How can I help you?</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“This is Steve Early, I need to speak with Mr. Truman as soon as possible. Does anyone know where he is?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“He’s over on the hill, probably headed over to (Speaker Sam) Rayburn’s office by now for the board meeting”. Rayburn and his cronies held a daily "meeting" of sipping bourbon and branch water every afternoon while congress was in session that came to be known as the "Board of Education".</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Thanks. If he calls, please tell him I need to speak with him as soon as possible.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Operator, now I need Speaker Rayburn’s office please.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Speaker Rayburn’s office.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“This is Steve Early. Is the Vice President there?</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“He’s on the way over.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Could you please ask him to call me as soon as he gets there? It’s important.” The White House Operator will know where to find me.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Of course, I’ll tell the Speaker right away.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“One more call, Operator. Please put me through to the Sulgrave Club.” It was ten minutes to five, eastern time. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“This is Press Secretary Early. I need to speak with Mrs. Roosevelt right away, she’s expecting my call.” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Early did not want to the bearer of bad news over the phone. The tone of his audibly agitated voice told her everything she need to know. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Mrs. Roosevelt, would you please come home at once?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eleanor returned to the dais, politely waited for the pianist to finish her piece, then excused herself to a standing ovation, her last as First Lady.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just then Truman called Early back. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Mr. Truman, we need you at the White House right away, could you quietly come over? Use the Pennsylvania Avenue gate”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thinking perhaps he has been tapped for a special assignment, Truman excused himself from the gathering, informing them that he would be back shortly, evaded his security guard and briskly walked to the curb to hail his government car and driver. The two then made their way, without escort, the mile and a half to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When Early reached the White House, McIntire was anxiously waiting for him. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Steve, we should both go down to Georgia with Mrs R. Let’s see if we can get the train to leave Warm Springs by ten o’clock tomorrow morning. That way there won’t be enough time to even </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">think</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> about an autopsy.” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Great idea, Mac!” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In few minutes Eleanor arrived at the White House. Holding back tears, Early told her what she already knew “I’m so sorry to have to inform you that the President slipped away at 4:35 from a massive brain hemorrhage. Dr. Bruenn was with him but there was nothing he could do.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eleanor was the calmest person in the room. The last tear she had shed over Franklin was in 1918. There would be no more. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The press secretary gathered himself and got down to business:</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Truman is on the way over but he doesn’t know yet. I’ll have him brought to you when he arrives. Doctor McIntire would like to fly down to Georgia with us. I’ll let Tommy (Malvina Thompson, Eleanor’s live-in secretary) know when we’re ready. We can talk on the way down about the funeral. Do you think anyone will want to see his remains here in Washington?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“My daughter?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“In that case we’ll get a mortician to prepare his remains. (Early was unaware that FDR had expressly left instructions in a note to his oldest son that he did not want to be embalmed nor have an autopsy) I’ll take care of all the arrangements. If it’s OK with you I’ll ask the people in Warm Springs to pick out an appropriate casket.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“That would be fine. Thank you for your kindness. We can be ready to leave in a few minutes. First I have to contact our children.“</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whether or not Eleanor heard Early’s words correctly, her telegrams to James, Elliott, Franklin and John read “Father has </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">slept </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">away.” Apparently, some reporters also misinterpreted Early, since a few newspapers, including the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Los Angeles Examiner</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, incorrectly reported that FDR had died in his sleep. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As Truman arrived at the White House, he was immediately ushered up to Eleanor’s study on the second floor. The sullen mood of the staff gave him the first hint of what he was about to hear, something he had dreaded since the inauguration. Eleanor softly put her hand on his shoulder.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Harry, the President is dead!”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As Truman later recalled: </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"For a moment, I could not bring myself to speak. The last news we had had from Warm Springs was (that the President was) apparantly doing so well that no member of his family, and not even his personal physician, was with him. All this flashed through my mind before I found my voice.” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Is there anything I can do for you?” he responded. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No, sir, Is there anything I can do for </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">you</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">? You’re the one who’s in trouble now!”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just then, a bawling Edward Stettinius appeared, giving the first reminder to Truman that he was now the chief executive. After asking his Secretary of State to immediately convene a cabinet meeting, indeed there was something he could do for Mrs. Roosevelt, honoring her request to approve the use of a military plane to transport her, Early and McIntire to to Georgia.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This would be his first official act as the thirty-third President of the United States. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">McIntire quickly headed back downstairs to his office to call his protege.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’m coming down with Mrs. R. and Early, have Paullin call an undertaker to clean him up. If anyone starts talking about an autopsy, tell them he didn’t want one and there’s no time. We want the body on the train by ten in the morning.” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As Bruenn told Daisy Suckley only a few days earlier, he would have “jumped out of a window” if the Boss asked. He would take whatever measures necessary to protect the memory of the man he had come to admire so deeply over the past two years. The mission would continue for half a century.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even in a most hectic and trying moment, Eleanor’s deep compassion for her friends did not falter. Between meeting with the new President, hastily changing into a black dress and heading off to National Airport, she asked Tommy to put in a call to the nurse of her friend Elinor Morganthau, who was recovering from a heart attack in Daytona Beach, Florida, in order to ask her to turn off the radio in her patient’s room in the fear that the news of FDR’s death might cause a setback. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now that Eleanor and Truman had been duly informed of the President’s death, Early called back Hassett in Warm Springs:</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You announce it (the death) in Georgia and I’ll call a conference up here for, lets say... 5:45 my time. It will be OK for Bruenn to brief the reporters. Doc McIntire will speak with him about what to say. We should be there before midnight. In the interim, we need you to talk to the funeral director that Paullin chooses and pick out a casket.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Sounds good Steve. Who’ll be taking care of the funeral arrangements?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anna and General Marshall, you can coordinate things with them. We hope to be able to get the train out of Warm Springs sometime in the mid morning. Please tell Mike (Reilly) to start working on the arrangements. It’s going to be a long night!” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The silence in Madame Shoumatoff’s car was deafening. The threesome had become hopelessly lost and the two women had yet to share with Robbins the real reason why they had to leave so abruptly. Though Lucy knew the situation was “grave” prior to her leaving, after four hours she was desperate for news and asked to stop at a hotel in Macon in order to call both her daughter in Aiken and the Little White House. After numerous attempts at the latter at a payphone were unsuccessful, Madame Shoumatoff overheard a number of the employees tearfully speaking about the President’s death. As they continued their journey, with Lucy softly sobbing in the back seat, flags were already being flown at half staff. Robbins only learned that the President had died from the staccato intonations of commentator H.V. Kaltenborn on the radio. After he took the wheel and went yet another thirty miles in the wrong direction towards Savannah, they did not arrive at the Rutherford estate until after midnight, where Lucy's distraught daughter (and FDR's god-daughter) Barbara had been nervously waiting. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At 5:45, the press briefing held at Carver Cottage was attended by the pool reporters who had come to be known around Warm Springs as the “Three Musketeers”. They had been summoned from a barbeque after waiting there in anticipation of FDR’s arrival. After Hassett’s terse announcement of the death, Howard Bruenn took the floor and gave a virtuoso performance. “A massive cerebral hemorrhage. It was like a bolt of lightening. One minute he was there and laughing, the next minute - wham!”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Did you see this coming? </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It isn’t the sort of thing you can forecast. He was very tired when he got here. You saw him the other day. Wasn’t he in fine spirits?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While Bruenn’s name appeared in many newspaper accounts, no mention was made as to why a cardiologist had been attending the President. On the front page of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chicago Tribune,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Walter Trohan was now unleashed to present a detailed account of FDR’s deterioration that had been previously taboo. The impact was virtually nil. The next day Trohan called his old friend, Harold Moore, editor of an obscure but well regarded monthly magazine, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">News Story</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The men agreed that they would publish a comprehensive article to appear over three issues. Trohan would remain anonymous as the source. The article laid out many details never previously reported about FDR’s cancer and events taken first hand from Mike Reilly, including the strict press censorship and the collapse in Hyde Park. Once again - no impact whatsoever. The world had moved on. The monumental news of Nazi capitulation and the Atomic Bomb had overshadowed any unsubstantiated chatter about the health of the man that led the country for the last twelve years. Mcintire and Early’s cover-up had taken hold. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Funeral director Fred Patterson had spent his April 12th playing golf and was about to sit down for an evening of listening to reports about the death of the President on the radio when at half past five the phone rang. It was his old friend, Doctor Jim Paullin calling from Warm Springs. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Fred, you’ve probably heard by now that President Roosevelt died here in Warm Springs this afternoon. We’d like you come down and prepare the remains.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Of course, Jim. Thank you for thinking of us.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Expect a call shortly from a Mister Hassett or a Doctor Bruenn about the casket.” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’ll start making the arrangements.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Purely by chance, Brannon Lesesne (pronounced le-sayn), the technical director of the funeral home had walked in. He had heard of the news of Roosevelt’s death at a bowling match. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It’s good you’re here Brannon, we’ve got some work to do. I just got a call from Warm Springs and they want us to take care of President Roosevelt. Give (embalmers) George (Marshman) and Hayden (Snoderly) a call and tell them we’re going down to Warm Springs. I’m still waiting to hear about the casket.” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Concerned that the more time that passed the harder his task would be, Patterson decided to call the Little White House. Bruenn took the call.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Jim Paullin called me a few minutes ago about preparing the remains. What have you decided about the casket?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After Bruenn’s conversation with McIntire, he and Hassett had had a chance to bring up the topic of the casket with the people at the Little White House while waiting for Eleanor’s arrival. Grace Tully recalled that Roosevelt had chosen a casket of solid mahogany with a copper lining for his mother in 1941. Hassett brought up that it had to accommodate a six foot three inch body.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“We need something appropriate for a President of the United States. Perhaps in mahogany with a copper lining. It has to be at least sixty four inches long.” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Patterson had only one solid mahogany model in the funeral home, it had already been promised to a family in New Jersey. The copper lining was another problem. Since the war started copper was in short supply. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“That’s a tough order on such short notice but I might be able to get a hold of one in a few hours. I do have a very nice one made of copper and brass.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Bring them both. We’ll let Mrs. Roosevelt decide which one she prefers.” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“OK, I’ll call you when we are ready to leave.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Patterson immediately put in a call to his casket supplier. After hearing who it was for, they would customize a copper lining and install it in a few hours. It was delivered to the funeral home at 8:45. At nine, Patterson’s three car caravan including two Cadillac hearses, the second driven by apprentice mortician John Shrade carrying the six hundred pound solid metal model, left for Warm Springs. They arrived at the Little White House at 10:45 and were told that they must wait for Mrs. Roosevelt to arrive before they could get to work. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">FDR’s death had brought about an ironic balance. Three people had unexpectedly and abruptly left at 2:30. At 11:45 three different people arrived from Washington to replace them, each with a different agenda.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ross McIntire immediately went into conference with Bruenn and Paullin to continue his mission to assure that no autopsy would be performed. All of the doctors “agreed”. Steve Early met with Bill Hassett about dealing with the flood of reporters that were expected to surface in the morning. Again Eleanor was the calmest person in the room. After hugging a tearful Grace Tully, Polly and Daisy she asked each in turn what had happened. Tully was almost too emotional to speak, relating the events of her day while holding back tears. Daisy calmly related the details of how he collapsed. Neither wanted to add any additional pain at such an inopportune moment. And then Polly dropped the bomb. Franklin had been sitting for a portrait by a friend of Lucy Rutherfurd and, indeed, Lucy had been there as well, staying in the guest cottage. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Laura Franklin Delano never wanted for anything other than love. Her father, Warren, brother of Franklin’s mother Sara, was President of the Delano Coal Company, one of the largest in Pennsylvania. Her mother, Jennie Walters, was the great granddaughter of John Jacob Astor, the worlds richest man. As a child she disdained all drink other than A</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pollin</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">aris Mineral Water and thus acquired the nickname "Polly". Her life was devoted to the avocations of the idle rich, breeding Irish Setters and Dachshunds and for many years judging dog shows in the United States and abroad. An accomplished carriage driver, she won numerous awards at the annual Dutchess County Fair, driving the horses raised at her father’s vast estate, Steen Valetje, in nearby Barrytown-on-Hudson and those of her cousin and Hudson Valley neighbor, Helen Astor. She was also an active member of the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore that had been founded by her maternal grandfather, Henry Walters, a railroad magnate and consummate collector. Naturally flamboyant, she adopted a peculiar style of clothing, an overabundant display of jewelry and purple-dyed hair. The sharply accented widow's peak that she carefully applied to her forehead each morning became her trademark. While Polly could be kind and compassionate, she shared her aunt Sallie’s disdain for Eleanor.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The widow Roosevelt now asked “for a minute” to be left alone with her husband. She stayed five, not in grief but, after Polly’s blunt revelation, seething with disappointment over all the broken promises and for what might have been. Yet as she had been taught from the days of her youth, she would hide the bitter hurt and anger that had been harbored for twenty-seven years, take a deep breath and play out the final chapter of the charade of her marriage- for the sake of her family and her country. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After Eleanor emerged from the bedroom, Polly continued her vindictive barrage. Not only had Lucy been at Warm Springs, she had been seeing Franklin for years, on numerous occasions as a guest at the White House. Compounding the insult, Anna had often been present! Again, Eleanor internalized her emotions. She would deal with her daughter privately back in Washington.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the midst of all the hubbub, Hacky put a call through to Eleanor from her long-time paramour, Lorena Hickok, from her home at Moriches on Long Island to inquire whether or not she should come to Washington to console her lover in her time of need. Eleanor diplomatically demured, </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You of all people must realize what a load I am carrying now. If you came at this time you’d just be another worry”. Hick perceived the rebuff as an act of concern and love, later writing “I have never been so flattered.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At 5:47, Eastern time, the International News Service tapped out the shortest news flash in the history of news transmission: FDR DEAD. Within two minutes all nationwide broadcasting systems interrupted their regularly scheduled programming with a similarly terse announcement. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At 12:33 on Friday the thirteenth, Patterson’s team was finally permitted to begin their difficult task. It had been nearly nine hours since death and the body was not a pretty sight. It was emaciated, covered with blisters, a side effect of a cocktail of antibiotics, and the abdomen was swollen from the frequent small feedings that had dammed up behind the intestines blocked by cancer. The major arteries that were normally used as portals for embalming fluid were hardened and clogged by years of smoking, hypertension and fat-laden diet. Marshman, Lesesne and Shrader struggled to restore the stiff and reddened features in the cramped, hot and humid bedroom.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Without Patterson’s experienced supervision of the entire burial process, the tight schedule could never have been met. The first order of business was for Eleanor to select the casket from the two that have been brought. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Mahogany or Brass?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The widow appeared either distracted or uncomfortable. Finally, McIntire chimed in:</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Brass!”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eleanor nodded in agreement and the six-hundred pound solid metal model was brought into the living room to await the prepared remains of the President. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Patterson now turned his attention to find out what arrangements were being made to transfer the loaded casket onto the train, asking Mike Reilly, “Is someone constructing a bier?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“A what?”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You know, the thing the casket will be sitting on? We’ll also need a ramp to get this six-hundred pound box up into the car.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ramps had been a particular specialty of the Secret Service. For the last twelve years they had been supervising their construction virtually every time the President spoke at an outdoor location outside of Washington in order to prevent the public from seeing that their leader was wheelchair bound. Reilly immediately set out to find a carpenter, accompanied by Patterson, who went to check out the arrangements at the train station. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ad hoc “funeral secretary” chose the car named </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Conneaught</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which was normally used by the press corps, since it had large windows where the flag-draped casket could be seen by the thousands who would line the route, first to Washington and then to Hyde Park for burial. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since the train had come to Warm Springs with the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ferdinand Magellan</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> at the rear, the first order of business was to transpose it with the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Conneaught</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The next job was to remove a window to create a space large enough so that the inside of the car could be accessed. Then, the ramp and bier needed to be constructed and installed, the casket put in place and the window reinstalled. Amazingly, with a combination of determination, ingenuity and pure luck, a task that would ordinarily have taken days was accomplished in under eight hours! </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Upon his return to the Little White House, Patterson was informed by his embalmers that some additional work might need to be done on the remains after the train departed. The request went up the line until it reached Ross McIntire. “No Room” he emphatically pronounced. Indeed, there would have been room on the eleven car train, but McIntire wasn’t about to allow any additional roadblocks prior to burial. A compromise was reached when a container of embalming fluid was permitted to go, just in case the funeral directors in Washington might need it. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the body reached the East Room of the White House, a few people were permitted a last look at the mortal remains of their boss and father. Finally, Eleanor asked for one last moment alone, removed her wedding ring, placed it on her husband’s hand and asked that the casket be sealed. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since Bill Hassett had identified Nicholas Robbins as the artist who was painting Roosevelt when he was stricken in Warm Springs, a gaggle of reporters was waiting outside his Manhattan apartment when he and Madame Shoumatoff pulled up after a grueling two day trip up U.S. 1 from Aiken. The artist wanted no part of reporters and after a mad chase through Harlem, they shook their pursuers on the Triborough Bridge, finally arriving at home of Mrs Shoumatoff’s daughter, Zoric, in Locust Valley on Long Island. After a call to Aiken, despite orders from Early to the contrary, a press conference was arranged the next morning at 10 A.M. with the help of a friend who ran a local newspaper. The artist confirmed her presence at the Little White House but was entirely successful in not revealing the presence of Lucy. Other than for family members and close friends those at Warm Springs, the secret would be protected until after Lucy’s death in 1948.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At 10:43 on Sunday morning, April 15th. the body of Franklin Delano Roosevelt </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">was laid to rest, as he had specified, where the sundial stood in his mother’s rose garden.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At precisely 10 a.m. the first of a twenty-one gun salute was fired from a battery on the grounds of the library to the east. Fala barked in response. An Honor Guard lining the hemlock hedge surrounding the garden stood at attention as flights of bombers and training planes droned overhead in a cloudless spring sky. The stocky seventy-eight year old Reverend George W. Anthony, rector of the Hyde Park Episcopal Church, stood at the head of the grave. Facing him was Eleanor, flanked by her children, Brigadier General Elliott Roosevelt on her left and daughter Anna, with her husband, Colonel John Boettiger, on her right. Behind them were her four daughters-in-law, and behind them President and Mrs. Truman. A delegation from the Senate and House stood with members of the Supreme Court and Cabinet on the west with the White House staff on the east. Standing at the gravesite during the ten minute service, Ross McIntire looked back with pride and satisfaction upon his twelve years in the innermost circle of the most powerful man on the face of the earth - and breathed a sigh of relief. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On April 18th, Roosevelt’s death certificate that had been personally accomplished and signed by Howard G. Bruenn of Bethesda, Maryland on April 13th, was filed at the Meriwether County, Georgia courthouse. The primary cause of death was given as “cerebral hemorrhage.” The only contributory cause listed was “arteriosclerosis”. </span></div>
</span><br /></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-87aefeb3-be04-f14e-71f2-2d1dd221ae60" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-78232296847534049762014-03-02T07:58:00.000-08:002014-03-03T06:31:33.041-08:00<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">As It Really Happened. </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">August 16th 1940</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
August 16<sup>th</sup> 1940 is photography day at the White
House. The upcoming campaign for an unprecedented third term is approaching and
recent pictures of the candidate are in order.
As with all Roosevelt performances, the set is impeccably staged and the
subject prepared in the most flattering light. Just prior to the daily
bedroom breakfast, Ross
McIntire, as he had done daily from almost a year, washes FDR’s
chronically inflamed left maxillary and frontal sinuses with a solution
containing cocaine, the most widely employed anesthetic and blood vessel constricting agent of the time. As the usual inner-circle of Harry Hopkins,
Steve Early, Missy LeHand and Chief of
staff “Pa” Watson pop in and out, a barber trims his hair and George Fox
applies the usual makeup, today with extra special attention to the area over
his left eye. Arthur Prettyman, US Navy
chief petty officer, retired, the presidential
valet, brings out a light blue seersucker suit and plaid tie. He
has been on the job for a year, ever since his predecessor, Irwin MacDuffie was
dismissed, in typical Roosevelt fashion, by someone other than himself, in this
case Eleanor, after being intoxicated on the job and leaving the President temporarily
unattended. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Morning Pa, what’s on the schedule today?"</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Busy day, Boss, press conference at eleven, lunch with
(Naval Secretary) Charlie Edison and a cabinet meeting at two." </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After FDR has read his daily newspapers and all the
cosmetics of taken care of, a little after 9 Attorney General Jackson and Treasury
Secretary Morganthau are ushered in to to give a briefing. At a quarter to eleven , Prettyman wheels him
down to the Oval Office, where he is met by Steve Early who chimes the customary
“all in” and the show begins. The main
topic of the day is an announcement that the United States had engaged with the
United Kingdom to acquire land for military bases in the Western Hemisphere. No
mention is made regarding the transfer to destroyers from the US to the UK. It
will be a few months until FDR and Churchill meet for the first time on the
Tuscaloosa to iron out the details of Lend Lease. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Immediately after the press conference, a series of photographers
from Washington’s finest photo studios, including Hessler, Underwood and Harris and Ewing, are afforded
an opportunity to create a portrait. Control of the images is airtight since
1936, after an objectionable caption appeared in the newspapers on an
unflattering snapshot. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Make me look good boys, there’s an election coming up you
know!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of today’s color close-up, by Otto Hagel, will appear on
a full page in the October issue of <i>Fortune</i>,
alongside that of his Republican opponent, Wendell Willkie. Another, a shot taken by Hessler Studios, will
featured on the cover of the photogravure sections of various newspapers,
including the October 13<sup>th</sup> issue of the <i>Des Moines Sunday Register</i>.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2mhrbZFld0vtcg4fIwM8hkb6MJFH1V8VgXQMcum2tRElgljKlOQUDpJoUCa61m3reBwb35o8_Q0zMUKGb-EyKIYb-aX4yO-Y9lGiRPAgzGvAN_YffIHQZvWdqXi21hLp5Orl1xZT64_mL/s1600/hessler+color1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2mhrbZFld0vtcg4fIwM8hkb6MJFH1V8VgXQMcum2tRElgljKlOQUDpJoUCa61m3reBwb35o8_Q0zMUKGb-EyKIYb-aX4yO-Y9lGiRPAgzGvAN_YffIHQZvWdqXi21hLp5Orl1xZT64_mL/s1600/hessler+color1.jpg" height="320" width="267" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Little does the president realize this
day that the images being created to afford him four more years in the position
he so covets, will also provide a lasting record of the secret he was so
desperately trying to hide. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In their June 10<sup>th</sup> issue, Henry Luce’s <i>Time Magazine </i>had featured a cover photo
of the bow-tied leader in front of a bank of microphones, and in a highly
supportive and laudatory article wrote eloquently of the mystery of his persona: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Although he was in his eighth year as President, although
he had moved, worked, eaten, laughed, exorted, prayed in the intensest glare of
public scrutiny; although his every facial grimace, the tone of his voice, each
mannerism, the dark mole over his left eyebrow, the mole on his right cheek-
although all of these were public property, intimate to every U.S. citizen,
still there was no man in the U.S. who could answer the question: Who is
Franklin Roosevelt?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In November, Roosevelt received his mandate to lead America
for another four years. Another picture from the August 16<sup>th</sup> photo session, simply
captioned “The Winner” adorned the cover of the November 18<sup>th</sup> issue
of <i>Life, </i>and all was ostensibly well.
But in reality something had changed. The “dark mole” over the newly re-elected
president’s left eye had lost much of its deep brown pigment. By the time of the “Arsenal of Democracy”
speech on December 27<sup>th</sup>, it was mere a shadow of its former self; by
the fateful day of December 7<sup>th</sup> 1941, it was, for all intents and
purposes, gone, never to be seen or spoke of again. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No one outside the president’s inner circle paid much
attention to its disappearance, but, in fact, great effort had been made to
conceal and deflect attention from it, for the large deep brown spot seen in a
video made by the Navy aboard the Tuscaloosa in February, had undergone changes
that could only be attributable to surgical removal. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The trick, of course, was to remove it in stages to avoid
any notice. For a few days after each procedure, while the area was healing,
there could be no close-up photographs of the President. The surgical technique
used was a combination of electrical cauterization and curettage (scraping). Radiation was a consideration but not feasible
since it inevitably would have brought about the loss of the entire eyebrow,
and most probably the scalp hair, as well as damaging the eye itself. One
particular photo from the August 16<sup>th</sup> session, a large proof image never
intended to be released to the public, clearly reveals that the process had
begun. Sparse hairs are combed over a new scar in the base of the eyebrow.
Pigmentation in the upper eyelid known as satellite lesions, which had subtly
but noticeably increased in size between January 1939 and July 1940 had now
been replaced by a small but discreet diagonal surgical scar. All this was well
within the capabilities and expertise of a highly skilled eye, ear, nose and throat
surgeon, someone who could follow him on a daily basis to soothe the pain and
swelling associated with the procedure, Ross McIntire. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is unclear just when the lesion that first appeared in
1921 and slowly and ominously darkened and expanded from 1933, was diagnosed as
what today is called melanoma, then referred to incorrectly as melanotic
sarcoma. In the twenties, as an
important part of his rehabilitation from Polio, FDR had make a point of
getting as much sun as possible, in tropical climates. In the thirties, he was often
was out of public view for days at a time for various ailments, including
“grippe”, “influenza” and, most interestingly , a “sty” in his left eye in
early 1936. A photograph at this time in LIFE stated that he had “avoiding
photographers”. Indeed he was! <br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Trn35OfX1jBsaSfLErD8bLXWr5BK3F8s-S85akbe0iOcmH4sAKlQDZeJ59dYJiViWc3mpGm7tWs_F-t6_MykUjxFN3o5ccR1XExL7r0OMIl7G0AQRrxeUGbjXrf66p6wPb-3cXfMvIeR/s1600/sty+caption.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Trn35OfX1jBsaSfLErD8bLXWr5BK3F8s-S85akbe0iOcmH4sAKlQDZeJ59dYJiViWc3mpGm7tWs_F-t6_MykUjxFN3o5ccR1XExL7r0OMIl7G0AQRrxeUGbjXrf66p6wPb-3cXfMvIeR/s1600/sty+caption.jpg" height="225" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The White House usher’s diary reveals that beginning in
early 1939 and continuing until his death, the President’s late afternoon
visits to the doctor’s office accelerated to nearly a daily frequency. It is
unlikely that this was brought about by a sudden worsening of his “sinus”
condition. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is clear about melanotic sarcoma is that the
contemporary mainstream medical literature was concordant about the dire
prognosis associated with it. A 1935 article in the highly respected <i>Lancet </i>opined:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“it is customary to speak of melanotic sarcoma as <i>the most malignant of all tumours</i>
(emphasis added). It is certainly not the most rapidly fatal. The average
duration of a case… is about three years, and up to within a few months of the
end the patient remains free from pain and able to get about.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An eerily accurate 1932 article by H.J. Farrell of the Mayo
Clinic, an esteemed institution well respected by FDR, where stomach surgery
was performed on both Roosevelt’s son James and his close associate Harry
Hopkins, states: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“In spite of the high degree of malignancy, and the rapid
onset of death following dissemination of metastatic growths , some persons
seem to possess unusual resistance to invasion of the internal organs by these
growths. <i>It is probable that metastasis
already has taken place at the time of excision of the primary growth </i>(emphasis
added), but many years elapse before death occurs from metastasis… The interval
between time of excision of the primary growth and demonstrable evidence of
metastasis varied from five to twelve
years…. giving a very guarded prognosis in all cases when one is dealing with
melanoma.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The liver was the internal organ most commonly invaded by
metastatic growth; invasion of the lungs
was second… and the brain third. In most cases, there was metastasis to all
organs, but before death the patient most frequently presented symptoms
referable to the aforementioned organs.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With present day technique of sentinel node biopsy and the
advanced technologies of positron emission (PET) and Magnetic Resonance (MRI)
scanning, early detection has been markedly improved, but the prognosis in
advanced cases and the time to onset of symptomatic metastases is no better
than seventy years ago. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-19480104233538856262014-02-21T06:44:00.000-08:002014-02-21T08:43:11.944-08:00<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<h2 style="line-height: 1.15;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: orange; font-family: Arial; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As It really Happened: </span></span></h2>
<h2 style="line-height: 1.15;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: orange; font-family: Arial; font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">February 20, 1945</span></h2>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; line-height: normal;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"></b></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="display: inline !important; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since 2010, I have been anticipating writing a historical novel. As the intimate truth of FDR's daily ordeal has never been told, and there is still a predominant belief in the version created by Howard Bruenn and sanctified by James MacGregor Burns, the only way to avoid a firestorm of critique and write what I sincerely believe to be the most accurate account is to write "fiction". The first installment follows below.</span></b></b></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">February 20, 1945</span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It has not been a good day. The President of the United States is sitting alone in his wheelchair swaddled in blankets on the deck of the heavy cruiser USS Quincy, a ship expensively retro-fitted with an elevator and other conveniences, as many he had traveled on previously in order to accommodate the extraordinary physical needs of the Commander-in-Chief. FDR has been avoiding Sam Rosenman, his speechwriter who joined the return cruise from Yalta in Algiers, specifically to assist with his anticipated address to Congress upon his return. </span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The speech is perhaps the most important FDR will ever give, a report on negotiations with Churchill and Stalin and to lay out his plan for a world peace organization that will shape the future of the world. Yes, the brilliant phrase from his first inaugural “we have nothing to fear but fear itself” instilled hope for the downtrodden millions in the throes of the worst economic crisis America had ever endured. Surely “a date that will live infamy” was the masterful catchphrase that led his countrymen into four years of vicious and costly armed conflict. But this speech is very different. For nearly a quarter of a century Roosevelt has fought health problems that would have relegated a lesser man to a life of solitude and retreat, overcoming crippling polio and keeping the ravages of cancer and the long-standing knowledge of its inevitable and fatal return in check for a decade. But now time is rapidly running out, and he knows it! It is the last chance to establish a legacy, to succeed where Woodrow Wilson failed and plant the seeds of The United Nations.</span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The cold Atlantic wind is strangely refreshing to the veteran seaman, a slap in the face to a mind that has increasingly frequent and severe lapses of function. He </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">must</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> focus as his body betrays him. It did not help that his daughter Anna informed him at breakfast that the nearest person he had to a real friend, his Chief of Staff “Pa” Watson, had succumbed to a stroke suffered on board three days earlier. Always ready with a light-hearted quip, the devoted Watson was a year younger than Roosevelt and, like him, had been dealing with heart disease and prostate problems for years. It was not just the loss of a confidante that affected Roosevelt so deeply, but also the bitter reminder that his own tenuous grip on life was nearly at an end. He had known of Watson’s death watch for three days but never made the trip a few decks down to sick bay to see him. It was just too painful to bear witness, just as it had been after the stroke suffered in 1941 by his paramour and devoted companion of two decades, Marguerite “Missy” Lehand.</span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This speech must be given to a live audience; it was simply too crucial for radio and edited video as he had done for his State of the Union address in January before leaving for the Crimea. Nor was there time to call in the professional make-up artists from Hollywood as he had before to disguise the ravages of his disease. Now the charade of vitality could no longer be kept up. Standing behind a lectern was no longer a viable option. The first lesson was in August at the shipyard in Bremerton, Washington when pain was an unwelcome accompaniment to an hour long address on the fantail of a docked destroyer. The searing pain in his back from erosive invasion of his spine from a mere five minutes of standing on January 20</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">th</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> at his fourth inauguration pushed him to the limit of what even </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> could endure.</span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Over and over, Roosevelt pondered how he would reveal to the American public what had been painstakingly guarded from the public since he became President. A pronouncement of this monumental importance could not extemporaneous, the master orator and showman who orchestrated meticulous control every word and gesture of his public appearances would have to commit it to memory, nor would he share these most intimate thoughts with Rosenman.</span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the first time he would be publically wheeled into the chamber of the House of Representatives and transfer himself into a comfortable chair to present the address. Even then, no permanent visible record of this event would be permitted, enforceable only by virtue of the airtight control of the media he, with the help of his Press Secretary Stephen Early, had cultivated over twelve years.</span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Day after day, over and over, Franklin Roosevelt searched for the answer. Finally it came. In the end it was just too much out of character for him to directly say, in effect, “ Look, I am crippled”. The appeal would be indirect, for empathy rather than pity.</span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Pardon me for the unusual posture of sitting down. I hope you will understand that it is easier for me not to have to carry around ten pounds of steel on my legs, and also because I’ve just made a fourteen thousand mile trip”. </span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now that the really hard part was over, he could summon Rosenman to embark on the tedious business of speech writing.</span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The cachectic and spent Harry Hopkins, soon to be hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic, had abruptly left the Presidential entourage at Algiers without briefing Rosenman. In FDR’s compromised state, his patience with his old friend was short and their unknowing final parting was curt and less than cordial. </span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-59c5f943-54d6-e45f-dc15-82082ac753fa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rosenman had been in London during the Yalta Conference. He was well aware that the address to Congress was to focus on FDR’s desire to be seen as the great mediator between Stalin and Churchill. The first draft that he had already crafted was dismissed out of hand. Even after five additional attempts, the President informed him that he would ask his son-in-law, John Boettinger go over it after they reached Washington to make yet further revisions. In all, there were six drafts before the carefully worded thirty-one double-spaced typed pages of the reading copy were placed into a loose-leaf binder to be carried into the historic chamber of the House of Representatives. </span></b></div>
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Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-9965023600280198832013-12-22T05:18:00.000-08:002013-12-24T04:49:15.936-08:00Marguerite Alice LeHand<div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDC_gJGXo2zi3NKEBpz6jBI-OnBgc3_ggM-eGDjKjRbAPLdhV-hT4w_LMxSJyoSQ6svuyTuVxbUn74B0978X0DAC3-Gl5gmOqi6Op1ka6AjCSQRpd21p1l1YnEYcAEAsafNKwfWhsYzvJv/s1600/25100v-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDC_gJGXo2zi3NKEBpz6jBI-OnBgc3_ggM-eGDjKjRbAPLdhV-hT4w_LMxSJyoSQ6svuyTuVxbUn74B0978X0DAC3-Gl5gmOqi6Op1ka6AjCSQRpd21p1l1YnEYcAEAsafNKwfWhsYzvJv/s320/25100v-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marguerite Alice "Missy" LeHand (1897-1944) was one of the most important and powerful women of the twentieth century, yet is perhaps the most under-appreciated. </span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the two decades between 1921 and 1941, until a disabling illness, she was Franklin Roosevelt's most important female relationship, and for the first nine years of his monumental presidency was his functional chief of staff, indispensable right hand, policy advisor, social co-host and companion. Missy was the conduit and filter to whom anyone who wanted access to FDR had to pass through.</span></b></div>
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<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because she only had a high school education, as did many of FDR's closest associates as well as his final vice president Harry Truman!, and because she predeceased Roosevelt, who was extremely protective of the privacy of his intimate relationships, her rightful place in history has been vastly attenuated. After Eleanor, of whom countless volumes have been deservedly written, Missy ranks as the most important female relationship of his life. FDR himself recognized this as he was prepared to leave half the income from his estate for her medical expenses. These were enormous, as she was disabled by a devastating stroke at age 44.</span></b></div>
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<br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b><br />
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #500050; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have recently acquired two items with reference to Missy that I am proud to share. </span></b><br />
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #500050; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first is a print issued in conjunction with FDR's second inaugural of which a very limited amount were personally signed by Roosevelt. This one is inscribed "To Marguerite A. LeHand, with love, Franklin D. Roosevelt." I have not seen any other document or letter with such an inscription. The document itself is quite interesting as it depicts the White House at the time of the second inaugural in 1937, in front of which had been constructed a replica of The Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson. </span></b></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMIEydcwzMMu0pYcxZ9CZsUU2v0mt60eIO_Fpl_G89dZt6U8gGA8ijdhdCCU4jkgIAcU3Yy5kqCUx1YLeVJQCGKRFCb11irMHeAAN_1rayoXL-aSKtvFH6xY9kekKiFQhsQPPtWDFoE0-f/s1600/1937+inaugural+Missy+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMIEydcwzMMu0pYcxZ9CZsUU2v0mt60eIO_Fpl_G89dZt6U8gGA8ijdhdCCU4jkgIAcU3Yy5kqCUx1YLeVJQCGKRFCb11irMHeAAN_1rayoXL-aSKtvFH6xY9kekKiFQhsQPPtWDFoE0-f/s320/1937+inaugural+Missy+.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #500050; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="font-weight: normal;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second piece of memorabilia is perhaps the only surviving remnant of the S.S. Marguerite LeHand, the Liberty ship that was launched on March 28, 1945, just two weeks prior to FDR's death. This wonderfully carved plaque, to which is attached the bottle used to christen the ship it, most probably resided in the captain's quarters until the LeHand was unceremoniously renamed and eventually scrapped. The sponsor, Mrs. Thomas E. Collins, was Missy's niece. Unfortunately, the S.S. Marguerite LeHand will perhaps be most remembered "in infamy" for accidentally ramming and sinking another vessel, the Coast Guard Cutter Magnolia, on August 26, 1945, resulting in the death of a crewman.</span></b></b><br />
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggGP42_9m9V5BPzTFTeClVw6Scs0EANMblzU0MSZRy5AVMiBufsIV-9ifsMukrPxFpdaLx9o_xJXkN3FueFyFdc5uvAwT9IOGNrMWy_CpNLFGPI0v4PZaR2SukZ3zyzqEbVi4Dzej1C_Dd/s1600/171181299597_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggGP42_9m9V5BPzTFTeClVw6Scs0EANMblzU0MSZRy5AVMiBufsIV-9ifsMukrPxFpdaLx9o_xJXkN3FueFyFdc5uvAwT9IOGNrMWy_CpNLFGPI0v4PZaR2SukZ3zyzqEbVi4Dzej1C_Dd/s1600/171181299597_1.jpg" /></a></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-733caa37-186a-401e-01be-f86d0f492715" style="font-weight: normal;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Despite Missy's importance, not a single volume has yet been written about her. I am happy to know this soon will be corrected. Historian Kathryn Smith, using original research and a wealth of original and formerly unknown material supplied by Missy's relatives, is in the process of writing a book tentatively titled "Missy: FDR's Intimate Partner in Polio and Politics"; it will finally begin the long-needed process of giving Missy LeHand her rightful position as one of America's most important female political figures. </span></div>
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Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-77747412514516753872013-08-20T15:46:00.002-07:002013-08-21T03:33:48.003-07:00Another Small Piece of the Puzzle<br />
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I am often asked where I got all my information from. Most people assume that there is a file at the FDR Library or some learned treatise that lays out the truth of Franklin Roosevelt's medical history and that an autopsy was performed that confirms the existence of the multiple cancers that were ultimately responsible for the deterioration and demise of our late, great thirty-second POTUS.<br />
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Of course this is not the case. The pieces reside scattered in countless volumes and documents, often just a word, a phrase or sentence or paragraph.<br />
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We have been able to reconstruct the puzzle, not completely, but enough to see the big picture.<br />
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I recently found another small but significant piece in a work I was made aware of by a wonderful South Carolina historian who is researching an important book on Marguerite "Missy" LeHand, the first second, third or fourth most important woman in FDR's life if one were to try to assign priority with Margaret Suckley, Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd and Eleanor (my take is a very close number two to ER).<br />
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The information is contained in a wonderful book entitled "Behold the Dreamer", the story of Fulton Oursler, the reporter who did quite a bit to get FDR elected in 1932. The last portion of the book is actually a separate work entitled "Through the White House Side Door". Incidentally the side door was the one where people could come and go without being "signed in" a la Howard Bruenn.<br />
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Aside from many wonderful anecdotes worth reading by the FDR afficionado, the last sentence on page 439 describes an incident where FDR "got his dutch up" and reads "<i><b>I noticed a flap of flesh that had grown over his left eye</b></i> and other visible physical deteriorations."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_MY3avpuX9zjh7vjWv1kBThRojiDemH-c4GXXPgpFBYxiCom46xagEdzgPNErXEd4yJuoMHcJliCCnOGfsyNwpyNoxlm2e9dxrAvzrPPtbWNutty07-LhgROfLOaeY-CXlMboZeRSArsw/s1600/09-1838a.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_MY3avpuX9zjh7vjWv1kBThRojiDemH-c4GXXPgpFBYxiCom46xagEdzgPNErXEd4yJuoMHcJliCCnOGfsyNwpyNoxlm2e9dxrAvzrPPtbWNutty07-LhgROfLOaeY-CXlMboZeRSArsw/s320/09-1838a.gif" width="241" /></a>For the record, he "flap of skin" did not grow there, it was <i>put there</i> as a graft to cover up the ongoing removal of FDR's melanoma. What Oursler saw saw is likely what can be observed in the accompanying photograph, this one from 1942. To directly dispute what Howard Bruenn told Jan Herman in 1989, this is not a "photographic error".<br />
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Excelsior!<br />
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SL<br />
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Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-16186017795474776792012-10-07T09:51:00.000-07:002012-10-07T09:51:45.322-07:00An FDR Fairy Tale<b id="internal-source-marker_0.6795309681911021" style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.6795309681911021" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since the presently held view of FDR's life is still the one perpetuated by Howard Bruenn, James MacGregor Burns and the Roosevelt family in 1970, I decided to write a fairy tale of my own. Eventually, video will be added and it will be posted on You Tube. </span></b></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.6795309681911021" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Tale of the Great King Franklin</span></b></div>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.6795309681911021" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once upon a time there was a handsome young prince named Franklin who was born in a castle aside the river that flows to the great city. He lived in great privilege and comfort, the only child of a Duke and Dutchess born of the families that long ago had come across the sea and settled in Gotham in the Land of Freedom. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was the Prince’s destiny to become a great King of the Land of Freedom, but only should he marry a duckling with whom he must remain for the entirety of his mortal life. For the duckling was also a scion, and though homely of countenance was most attractive to the Prince as she was the favorite of her uncle, the King of Sagamore by the bay, whom the Prince wished to follow into greatness. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Prince had been lonely as he was schooled in the ways of the world cloistered in his castle until a young man. After fourteen years, the Prince was dispatched to a School of Princes and then to the great College of Princes near the City of the Bay as had the KIng of Sagamore before him. When the Duke died the Minister of the School of Princes did offer him solace and wise counsel as though a father. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Duckling was forlorn as well, as her mother had died when she was but eight and her father, the brother of the King of Sagamore, had passed on soon after under an evil spell that very early took him from the land of Gotham, never to return. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Much to the consternation of the Dutchess, the Prince did court the Duckling, and she soon fell under his powerful spell. At the royal wedding the Minister did preside and the Prince felt duly regal as the King of Sagamore delivered the Duckling to him. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a time, they lived happily in the land beside the river and summered on an island of beauty in the north, and she bore him five chicks. Soon after, the Prince came upon a Gnome who was a soothsayer and prophet of his greatness and together they set out upon the golden road to win his kingdom. The Prince won praise as a fighter of the Tigers who had come to rule his domain and when the Prince was struck ill of fever the Gnome did most admirably advocate for him.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With the Gnome at his side, the Prince departed the land of Gotham for the City of KIngs to assist the leader of the soldiers of the sea. He was pleased, for the vessels of the sea had always brought him great joy and again he did continue in the footsteps of the King of Sagamore. The leader afforded the Prince great power in the City of KIngs and it made him feel strong. Here he met a Spider who was a herald and spoke well of his deeds. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But now the prince came upon a beautiful Swan, for whom he felt great love and wished to sacrifice the prospect of his future kingdom. The Duckling, who had been forewarned, came upon letters that spoke of the Prince’s affection for the Swan. With great vigor the Dutchess and the Duckling beseeched the Prince that the Swan, however beautiful, must be cast aside, for they both desired him to be King in their own way and he could never be so in her presence. And the Prince most reluctantly consented, for the prospect his Kingdom was most alluring, but for his transgression of passion the Duckling did now forever bar him from her most intimate affections. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And so the Prince and the Gnome continued their journey on the golden road. All appeared well as the Prince was acclaimed across the land. But alas, one day whilst summering on the beautiful island he was most unexpectedly struck down by a crippling plague that for a time stripped him of his royal demeanor. Possessed of great determination, he would again take up his quest, with the help of the Gnome, the Duckling, and now a Goose who had come to assist him. On withered legs for all to see the Prince most bravely sung the praises of a Warrior of the Tigers who wished to be king, but the power of the Elephants who ruled the land was too great. Yet the people had come to know of the Prince’s courage and he was pleased.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Though forever smitten by the Swan, who had found a measure of contentment with an elder Cygnet far from the land of Gotham, the Prince came to admire the Goose, who attended to his needs and fell most deeply under his spell, and with whom he did consort as the Duckling and the Chicks accepted with quiet resignation, for the Prince was indeed of greatness and the providence and expectation of his future kingdom was paramount to all. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the Prince built the Duckling a cottage on the creek of Val Kill near the castle of the Dutchess, where she lived with a nest of ducklings with whom she flourished and built a royal domain of her own. Soon the Duckling came upon a Hen, a herald and scribe as had been the Gnome, with whom she would share great affection. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And when the Wizard of the withering plague died, the Prince, with the Goose at his side on the raft Larooco and then beside the waters of the great Warm Spring of the south did himself become a great Wizard. As he was most enamored of the healing waters, he took nearly all the gold he possessed and purchased the land so that others of the plague might be restored as well. And he sought the counsel of a Wizard of the Sea whom he had befriended during their service to the King of the Great War. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And now a Knight of Eire came to him to hasten his journey to the throne. For the Knight was a maker of Kings and had done good deeds in the service of the King of the Tigers. A time of great decision arose as the Prince was implored to govern the land of Gotham as had the King the Sagamore before him. And though his legs were yet withered, the time was ripe and he cast aside his wizardly endeavors to pursue his destiny with the greatest of vigor. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Duckling was torn, for her cottage and her court were now most comfortable and she knew that great changes would come to pass and that her life could never be the same. Indeed, she went with the Prince, for now she loved him as a brother and wished not to cast a shadow upon his dream.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And it came to pass that the elephants had governed poorly and a great famine came upon the people of the Land of Freedom, for the bankers and brokers in the city of Gotham did act most unwisely. (alas, a most similar misfortune would come to pass three score and ten years hence, for, in this case, the elephants </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">had</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> forgotten!). </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the people rose up and did mandate the Prince to ascend to the throne and restore them to prosperity. At his coronation, the new King spoke to the people most eloquently and forcefully to assuage their fears. The Wizard of the Sea presided and saw that the Swan, who had indeed remained spellbound, could bear witness. And the Wizard brought a second Wizard to attend to the King and with him a Fox to soothe him as he had done for the King of the Great War in his years of infirmity. And he brought a loyal Lion as well, to ease the King’s burden and to walk with him. The King was pleased and took the new Wizard, the Lion and the Fox into his most intimate court.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now the new King Franklin and his Goose and the new Queen and her Hen all took residence, along with the Gnome, in the royal White Castle in the City of Kings. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As never before, a whirlwind of great changes came to pass. To bring the people out from the abyss that the elephants had created, the new King enlisted a parliament of owls most learned in the ways of the world, a shepherdess of the laborers he had long known, given power that no woman had known before and a Greyhound to rightly administer the good offices of a New Deal that he had conceived. And the offices bore names of but letters of the alphabet that in turn became symbols of a spirit of hope and restored prosperity. The Greyhound returned the people to work to rebuild the land and as he had promised most emphatically, the new King did champion the repeal of the prohibition of drink that had been most unwisely imposed. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As no King had done before he did banter most regularly with a gaggle of heralds that the Spider had gathered. And they spoke well of him, for had they not, they most surely would have fallen from favor and been banished. And as if magic he spoke to the people in their homes as they sat beside the hearth to tell of his good deeds and assure them that their future would be bright, and he curried great favor in their hearts and minds. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the many fruits of his good deeds remain, celebrated by his subjects whom he and the shepherdess endowed with comfort in their later years as none had been known before and by the sons and daughters of his warriors to whom he gave a gift of learning after their days of battle, and for the hope he exuded and the passion he showed for ruling his kingdom during a reign of unprecedented and never to be repeated duration. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the KIng was now most powerful, he no longer wished the people to think of his withered legs as he wanted to appear most strong in their eyes, so he commanded the Spider to spin a web whereupon the image makers would not show it, nor the heralds speak of it. And as he was often unwell, the King commanded the Spider and the Second Wizard to spin webs to assure the heralds and the people that he was strong. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the Gnome was now weak of body, the Greyhound rose to a position of great favor, but then he too fell most gravely ill. Though relieved by a miracle of the knife, he was left forever wanting of sustenance and the King enlisted the Wizards of the Sea to sustain him. By great fortune this was so. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet, alas, as the King performed good deeds and the people did most convincingly mandate his reign for a second time, a more malignant and dread affliction befell him that all the greatest wizards had little power to stop. And its story could never be told, for its curse was so strong that should it had been revealed, the people would no longer permit him to be their King, and this could never come to pass. And its secret was so deep that even the Queen and the Chicks could not know of it, nor of all the great Wizards who would come to fight it. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And when the King was troubled that the nine elder trolls of supreme justice did challenge the authority of his reign, he took great measure to diminish their power. But here he did fail, as the people spoke out in rebuke, for even the greatest of kings could not be permitted to undo the scroll of laws that the fathers of their land had written and that he had sworn twice to protect.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And as the Gnome had died, the Greyhound took his place in the great White Castle so that his King might be best served.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There came a time where the King did need the people to affirm his reign for a third time, as no King had done before. But this was a time when his mortal body felt most unwell as the Wizards did valiantly fight the great curse. In a moment of despair the King told the Knight of his weariness, and the Knight took it as a sign that he might not seek to remain on the throne. For a time, the Knight aspired to assume it. After a voyage of healing and a period of great consternation, the King was restored, and though the Knight withdrew, as the mythical Icarus of yore, he had flown too close to the sun and was forever banished from the royal court. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Through all, the people knew little of the Goose who had sustained and nurtured their King until she herself fell silent. For the Queen had achieved a greatness of her own measure, as she had roved far and wide and became known as a champion of goodness and freedom. As such the people were happy with the image of togetherness of the King and Queen, knowing not that they lived in separate cottages with separate courts to attend them. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now a great war was raging in foreign lands and the King dispatched the Greyhound to meet with a golden-throated Bulldog of the great island in the Atlantic, whose domain had nearly been conquered by a most evil Brown Ogre. And the Greyhound told the King of the power of the Bulldog. As the King and the Bulldog were kindred spirits they came together to lay down a charter of freedom and a plan for the future of the world. And the King spoke eloquently of his nation as an Arsenal of Democracy and thus did sustain the domain of the Bulldog with loans of goods, even as a great Eagle and the many that followed him did most vigorously disapprove. And the King spoke most eloquently that all peoples of the world should be free of hunger, fear and want and that they might worship without incumbrance. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But yet again the King’s mortal body would fail him, for as he spoke at the home of the King of the Great War in the valley of the river Shenandoah he fell gravely ill with a dearth of blood that robbed him of his strength. And though he nearly died, the Spider and the Second Wizard spun a web and the people were be told but little of it, yet all the King’s Wizards could not discover of what had afflicted him. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After an image he had drawn, the King built a great temple of health on the healing land of Bethesda, so that the Wizards might best sustain him and to soothe the wounds of the soldiers of battle. And in great secrecy he went there often to be restored. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And as he now knew that the curse would surely return to take him, he built a library next to the castle of the Dutchess, as no King had done before, to preserve the images he had created. In his repository, he placed documents that did attest to his greatness yet little that spoke of his infirmities and none of his most secret affliction. And he beseeched the deeply spellbound Maiden of Wilderstein to assist him, and she most gladly followed, for he had often spoken to her with an intimacy as only few had known. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And when the Dutchess died, a great oak on her land fell as though an omen of her passing. For her castle was now but an ornament, as the King had built a cottage of his own and the Queen had been long absent.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now it came to pass that leaders of the evil Empire of the Rising Sun did without notice most dastardly smite the vessels of the Land of Freedom. In his finest hour, he gallantly spoke of a day of infamy and of how his people would prevail and his words became a rallying cry and his voice and image sentinels of freedom. And the screams of the Eagle were most abruptly silenced. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And as the Cygnet had died, the Swan came again to comfort the King, as did a princess of the land of Odin.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the Ogre and a Black Duke of Italy had joined the Empire of the Rising Sun to form an axis of evil, the King sent the Greyhound to a Red Bear of the east who had been crossed by the Ogre. And the Greyhound told him of how the Bear could help him fight the Ogre. With the greatest power of all, the King joined the Bulldog, the Bear and a Blue Dragon of the Orient, and led them in their fight against the axis. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The King traveled with the Bulldog to the land of the Moors to plan great battles and most surprisingly declared that he would offer no mercy to the evil axis. And there they met with a pompous Peacock of Gaul whose domain had been conquered by the Ogre. And then he traveled to the land of the Persians to lay his eyes upon the Bear. With a most reluctant Bulldog, they did plan a time that a great invasion of the Ogre’s fortress would come to pass and they spoke in earnest of the shape of the world after the evil axis had been conquered.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But, alas, while in the land of the Persians a great pain came upon the KIng that was a harbinger of the return of the dreaded curse. And the Second Wizard did most surreptitiously bring a flock of Great Wizards of the Knife to attend him, but the curse had spread within his mortal body and could no longer be excised. And the vigor of the King did now inexorably decline, for now his stout heart did also fail. And though the die had been cast, the second Wizard brought a powerful third Wizard of the heart to hold off the angel of death.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the King knew he would soon be no longer, he planned a great Temple of Peace for all</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the kings of the world so that his memory would be forever honored, as he had borne witness to failure of the King of The Great War to do so, and how it had devastated him. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And when the kingmakers saw their King was weakened, they did enquire as to whom might succeed to his throne, but the King cared little for who was chosen, for his waning powers were now consumed by his Temple of Peace. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The King planned a meetings with the Bulldog to speak of the great invasion and to be at his side on the great day, but he had not the strength to make the journeys. And he went to the Temple at Bethesda and the Wizard of the Heart was most appalled, for he now knew that only with the most powerful medicines could the King continue his reign. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One last time, the Second Wizard called together all of the great Wizards to save their King, but they were powerless. Now the Wizard of the Heart could never leave the King’s side, for he alone could sustain him. And the King was taken to the land of a Baron of the South to be restored, as the first Wizard had done before him. With a roster of afflictions to which weaker men would surely succumb, he valiantly fought on. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As he sat with his admirals and generals on a distant island, the Goose died and the King dispatched the Queen to honor her, for though he most dutifully had assured her comfort, he could never bear witness to her weakness. As the voice of the Goose had been silenced in life, so were her writings in death, for the tales they told could never be known. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With great effort, the people were made to believe that their King was strong. As if a miracle, before a flock of laborers he most skillfully spun a ribald tale of a dog that the Maiden had given him and the people yet again affirmed him to be their leader. At his last coronation, he called upon all the remaining strength he possessed to speak but briefly and with great discomfort. Hereafter he would stand no more. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On their last great voyage, the ailing King and Greyhound and Lion traveled to the Palace of the Emperors on the Black Sea in the land of the Bear. And now the King could no longer hide his weakness. While the Bulldog gasped in horror at the plight of his friend, the wily Bear now knew that he would be strong. Indeed, the King did secretly give him a gift of great power, for without the Bear, his Temple of Peace would be but a sham. And the Bear used the power the King gave him to give strength to a Red Dragon, long a rival of the Blue Dragon who had fought the evil Empire of the Rising Sun long before the world knew of the bad deeds it performed. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As he returned the from land of the Bear, the Lion died, and the the King was most despondent, for he had not only lost a loyal courtesan but had been most bitterly reminded that his own time was growing ever short. Soon, he spoke to the people to tell of his vision for the future of the world. But now his legs were too weak to carry him and the voice that had once been a clarion call of hope was now but a whisper, and the portent of death loomed on his countenance for all to see.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One last time he returned to the land of the Warm Spring to be restored, but it was not to be so. And when he died, his beloved Swan and devoted Maiden were at his side.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And though his body was no more his powerful spell lived on, for the Queen continued in his good deeds and stood in his place at the first gathering of the Temple of Peace and his courtesans continued to sing his praises as the Second Wizard spoke of his vigor and greatness.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a sign of the good he had done for the afflicted, his image was placed upon a coin of his realm, for though he had long put aside his wizardly duties, the day of his birth had become a day of charity and his deeds an inspiration. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And it came to pass that the King’s gift of power to the Bear bore bitter fruit, for the new leader of the Land of Freedom had been told little of the goings of the world and the Red Dragon took the power he had been given by the Bear and drove the Blue Dragon from his land. Soon the Dragon and the Bear came together to build a powerful Red Empire and a war of ideas came to pass between the Red Empire and the Kingdoms of Freedom. Once and again, the soldiers of Freedom were called to fight the Red Empire on distant lands but now they could not prevail as when the King was their leader. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the Queen died she was laid to rest beside the King, as though they had always been together. And the spell of the Great King still lives on, as the memory of their togetherness is strong, even as all the royal princes and princess are gone, for the sons and daughters of his sons and daughter wish it so.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After the second Wizard died, there came a time that that people began to doubt the tale he had spun. Now it fell upon the third Wizard to weave a yet more tangled tale that he oft retold so convincingly that the recorders of history continue to echo it in their scrolls.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And when the Maiden died, she also left a scroll for the world to discover that attested to his greatness but told little of what she had known of the plagues that the Wizards could not conquer.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alas, talk of the greatness and devotion of the noble Goose is but a whisper while the memory of the togetherness of the King and Queen ring loudly in the hearts and minds of those that make the record of history, as though they had always lived ... happily ever after.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-62486372625318612152012-03-18T16:43:00.007-07:002012-04-06T04:55:34.510-07:00A "new" picture of FDR in a wheelchair. USS Indianapolis 1933<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoIOHyQup9Wrh1Smvpm_zRRMeo1lceEpZqAT-4v8bJlPUlnIlM0MirEebgKe9YIGGOMjdA8uG89FqLpkNRiUqWVa7qsV1vG7kLyiDYiOYhkNgKT6lHisGlxV6Cx85d6Rbjqbb3Z0sACFDJ/s1600/photo.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoIOHyQup9Wrh1Smvpm_zRRMeo1lceEpZqAT-4v8bJlPUlnIlM0MirEebgKe9YIGGOMjdA8uG89FqLpkNRiUqWVa7qsV1vG7kLyiDYiOYhkNgKT6lHisGlxV6Cx85d6Rbjqbb3Z0sACFDJ/s400/photo.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5721406535310919186" /></a><div><br />In 1933, a Machinist's Mate on the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis Gerhard Stoeckel, Sr. of Allentown, Pennsylvania., snapped a photo of FDR during his visit to the ship and stowed it away in a scrapbook. It was found by his son and used by his daughter as a "show and tell" at her school. When Stoeckel Jr. subsequently heard that only two photos of FDR in a wheelchair were known he contacted the FDR Library and one of the archivists, Mark Renovitch, confirmed the authenticity.</div><div><br /></div><div>The keel of the Indianapolis was laid in 1932. In 1933 it picked up FDR at Campobello and transported him stateside. This was the first time the President was a guest on the ship. He again boarded it in May 1934 to review the Navy in New York Harbor but never donned casual clothing. Numerous photos from this day are known, most of which with FDR under on the the large guns with various dignitaries and family members. Again 1936, FDR chose the Indianapolis for his "friendship cruise" to South America. Gus Gennerich died on this cruise while having dinner in a restaurant in Buenos Aires. The much admired aide was given a state funeral by FDR.<br /> <div><br /></div><div>The man on the left is August Adolph "Gus" Gennerich. To his his left, the rumpled man is Louis McHenry Howe, the political genius most responsible for FDR's ascendency to the presidency. Howe died in early 1936 and this unfortunate fact unequivocally excludes 1936 as a possible date for the photo, since Howe died earlier in that year. </div><div>The photo is unfortunately of poor resolution since it was an AP wirephoto, essentially a fax. Despite the appearance of a 1999 article in the Allentown Morning Call, the discovery of this important photograph failed to be widely noticed. The text of the original article, sleuthed out by my co-author Eric Fettmann, appears below. It contains numerous historical inaccuracies, though importantly, it identifies that Stoeckel had been stationed on the Indianapolis since 1932. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thanks to FDRL archivist, Bob Clark for his impeccable research in identifying the correct date of the photo. My copy of the photo now resides at the FDRL, where it will soon be placed on display.</div><div><br /></div><div>Enjoy a piece of history!</div><div><br /></div><div>SL</div><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">Morning Call (<a name="ORIGHIT_1"></a><a name="HIT_1"></a><span class="hit"><span>Allentown,</span></span> PA)<center><br />March 9, 1997, Sunday, THIRD EDITION</center><br /><span class="SS_L0">A RARE PHOTO;<br />* WHILE HE WAS A SAILOR ON BOARD THE USS INDIANAPOLIS, AN <a name="ORIGHIT_2"></a><a name="HIT_2"></a><span class="hit"><span>ALLENTOWN</span></span> MAN;<br />CAPTURED THIRD KNOWN PHOTOGRAPH OF FDR IN A <a name="ORIGHIT_3"></a><a name="HIT_3"></a><span class="hit"><span>WHEELCHAIR.</span></span></span><br /><br /><b>BYLINE:</b> JIM KELLY; The Morning Call<br /><br /><b>SECTION:</b> NATIONAL, Pg. A1<br /><br /><b>LENGTH:</b> 1709 words<br /><br />In an era when there was no official White House photographer, President <a name="ORIGHIT_4"></a><a name="HIT_4"></a><span class="hit"><span>Franklin</span></span> Delano <a name="ORIGHIT_5"></a><a name="HIT_5"></a><span class="hit"><span>Roosevelt</span></span> was probably the most photographed man in the nation.<div> </div><p class="loose">More than 25,000 images of him are on file at the FDR Presidential Library in Hyde Park, N.Y, most of them taken by news photographers who willingly adhered to a strict ruling by the<a name="ORIGHIT_6"></a><a name="HIT_6"></a><span class="hit"><span>Roosevelt</span></span> family that the president was not to be photographed in his <a name="ORIGHIT_7"></a><a name="HIT_7"></a><span class="hit"><span>wheelchair.</span></span></p><div> </div><p class="loose">Only two photographs of FDR in his <a name="ORIGHIT_8"></a><a name="HIT_8"></a><span class="hit"><span>wheelchair</span></span> have been known to exist -until now.</p><div> </div><p class="loose">The photograph accompanying this story is the third.</p><div> </div><p class="loose">It was taken more than 60 years ago, in 1936, by Gerhard Stoeckel Sr. of <a name="ORIGHIT_9"></a><a name="HIT_9"></a><span class="hit"><span>Allentown,</span></span> while he was a chief machinist's mate on board the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis on which <a name="ORIGHIT_10"></a><a name="HIT_10"></a><span class="hit"><span>Roosevelt</span></span>sailed to Latin America for what was called "The Good Neighbor Cruise."</p><br /><br />The historic photograph has laid all these years in a scrapbook retained by Stoeckel's son, Gerhard Stoeckel Jr., 69, of 1536 Liberty St.<p class="loose">Stoeckel Jr. rediscovered the photo after reading a recent article stating that only two photos exist of FDR in a <a name="ORIGHIT_11"></a><a name="HIT_11"></a><span class="hit"><span>wheelchair.</span></span></p><p class="loose">Only then did Stoeckel realize what he had. He knew he had a photo of FDR in his house, and it was one of the president in a <a name="ORIGHIT_12"></a><a name="HIT_12"></a><span class="hit"><span>wheelchair.</span></span></p><p class="loose">Mark Renovitch, archivist at the Hyde Park library, confirmed the find. "We have for years told anybody who called us that there were only two. Now we have to correct what we've been saying all these years."</p><p class="loose">Renovitch said he would love to see Stoeckel's photo join the library's collection.<br /><br />* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p class="loose">The cruise began on Nov. 18, 1936, shortly after <a name="ORIGHIT_13"></a><a name="HIT_13"></a><span class="hit"><span>Roosevelt</span></span> was overwhelmingly re-elected for his second term.</p><p class="loose">Accompanying him were his bodyguard August "Gus" Gennerich; FDR's physician, Dr. Marvin McIntyre; his military aide Edwin "Pa" Watson and the president's son, James.</p><p class="loose"><a name="ORIGHIT_14"></a><a name="HIT_14"></a><span class="hit"><span>Allentown</span></span> educator Dr. John J. McHugh, who has studied FDR and the <a name="ORIGHIT_15"></a><a name="HIT_15"></a><span class="hit"><span>Roosevelt</span></span> family since 1945, believes the civilians in the photo with the president are Gennerich and McIntyre.</p><p class="loose">The Hyde Park library confirmed that it is, indeed, Gennerich standing at the left. They were not able to confirm if the man next to <a name="ORIGHIT_16"></a><a name="HIT_16"></a><span class="hit"><span>Roosevelt</span></span> is McIntyre, based on the fax sent them.</p><p class="loose">The fact that it is Gennerich shows that the picture was taken on the way to Latin America because Gennerich died Dec. 1 of a heart attack while in Buenos Aires.</p><p class="loose">It is probably the last picture taken of the man who had been the president's faithful aide since 1928.</p><p class="loose">"Gus was <a name="ORIGHIT_17"></a><a name="HIT_17"></a><span class="hit"><span>Franklin Roosevelt's</span></span> legs," said McHugh. He was a New York cop who met FDR in Albany while he was the governor. Gus was a jovial man who loved to tell stories, McHugh said. "Gus was his best buddy and his protector.</p><p class="loose">"He had a special place at the White House where he would sit at the door with a big dog that he owned.</p><p class="loose">"He took precedence over everybody else, including the Secret Service, and <a name="ORIGHIT_19"></a><a name="HIT_19"></a><span class="hit"><span>Roosevelt</span></span> thought so highly of him, he gave Gus a White House burial. His body lie in state in the East Room of the White House, an honor usually reserved for only the president."<br /><br />* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p class="loose">The Stoeckel picture surfaced about 15 years ago when Stoeckel Jr.'s son, Gerhard Stoeckel III, made an enlargement of the scrapbook picture so his daughter, Holly, could take it to a grade school show-and-tell.</p><p class="loose">Neither little Holly, now 26 and a teacher in Myerstown, nor her family or classmates at McKinley School had any idea how rare a piece of history was on display in the classroom that day.</p><p class="loose">It was just another day at school and the picture was returned to the family files -- until last week.<br /><br />* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p class="loose">Gerhard Stoeckel Sr. was born in Kemetz, Germany in 1900, but his family had emigrated to <a name="ORIGHIT_20"></a><a name="HIT_20"></a><span class="hit"><span>Allentown</span></span> where his father worked as a shoemaker. Gerhard left school, worked at the Bonney Forge Tool and Die shop for a spell and then joined the Navy in 1919, on the condition set by his parents that he continue to send money home to help the family.</p><p class="loose">Stoeckel thrived on Navy life, finishing first in his class at machinist's school and eventually rising to the enlisted rank of chief petty officer.</p><p class="loose">He had been on board the cruiser Indianapolis since 1932 and was ranking CPO in the engine room when the president came aboard.</p><p class="loose">For <a name="ORIGHIT_21"></a><a name="HIT_21"></a><span class="hit"><span>Franklin Roosevelt,</span></span> being at sea was the greatest tonic, notes McHugh. His physician was constantly after him to take a vacation, so FDR combined his love of the Navy, his need for a vacation and the political need to establish good relations with Latin America.</p><p class="loose">The president had made other cruises on the USS Indianapolis, said Stoeckel Jr. His father told him that the cruiser had an elevator installed expressly for FDR so he could move from deck to deck.</p><p class="loose">Stoeckel Jr. relates a tale about the time his dad "put the lights out for the president." The president wanted more light in his room, so an officer was dispatched to the engine room where Chief Stoeckel was at his station.</p><p class="loose">"The president wants more light," he was told. "Can you give any more electric power?"</p><p class="loose">"I have one more generator," Chief Stoeckel said. "Give me 20 minutes."</p><p class="loose">The officer said, "Now!"</p><p class="loose">Had he been given the time to build up more steam, everything would have been fine. But like a good sailor, when you get an order you do it, his son said.</p><p class="loose">"He turned on the last generator and everything went black."</p><p class="loose">But it didn't seem to hurt his career. He stayed on board the Indianapolis until 1939 and was discharged from the service Dec. 10, 1940.</p><p class="loose">It was a short departure, however, because he went right back to serve his country and his Commander in Chief again when World War II began.</p><p class="loose">"After training 20 years for war," he told his son, "it would be like turning your back on your country. Eventually father and son both would serve in the Navy during the war.</p><p class="loose">As a footnote to the story, Chief Stoeckel was aboard another ship when it was sunk off Casa Blanca during the war, and he lived to tell about it.</p><p class="loose">After the war he returned to <a name="ORIGHIT_23"></a><a name="HIT_23"></a><span class="hit"><span>Allentown</span></span> and worked at Bethlehem Steel until he retired. He died in 1980 at the age of 80.</p><p class="loose">His old ship, the USS Indianapolis, was sunk at 12:15 a.m. July 30, 1945, by two torpedoes from the Japanese sub I-58. The cruiser capsized and sank within two minutes, with no S.O.S. sent out. Only 318 of her crew of 1,199 survived. Many were lost to sharks.<br /><br />* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *</p><p class="loose"><a name="ORIGHIT_24"></a><a name="HIT_24"></a><span class="hit"><span>Franklin Roosevelt</span></span> became an invalid in 1921. He lived the last 24 years of his 63-year life disabled by polio.</p><p class="loose">The first <a name="ORIGHIT_26"></a><a name="HIT_26"></a><span class="hit"><span>wheelchair</span></span> photos were taken by Margaret "Daisy" Suckley (pronounced "Bookley"), according to McHugh.</p><p class="loose">"Margaret Suckley was a distant cousin of FDR's, but during his presidency she became his closest companion," McHugh said.</p><p class="loose">"She was a remarkable woman who dedicated her life to the president. She was the only person with whom he would talk confidentially," McHugh added.</p><p class="loose">McHugh met and interviewed Suckley often, he said, but she would always deflect personal questions about her relationship with the president. She took her story with her when she died at the age of 100.</p><p class="loose">She willed her estate Wilderstein to a preservation group that discovered a steamer trunk under her bed filled with diaries, letters and memorabilia of the president, including the two previous <a name="ORIGHIT_27"></a><a name="HIT_27"></a><span class="hit"><span>wheelchair</span></span> photos.</p><p class="loose">One is a frontal photo of the president, his dog Fala in his lap, and a 5-year-old girl named Ruthie Bie, by his side.</p><p class="loose">The second is a photo from the rear showing FDR's broad shoulders against the <a name="ORIGHIT_28"></a><a name="HIT_28"></a><span class="hit"><span>wheelchair,</span></span> which actually was a homemade contraption made from a cutdown kitchen chair.</p><p class="loose">The photos wound up with Geoffrey C. Ward, the former editor of American Heritage Magazine, who turned the material into a book, "Closest Companion: The Unknown Story of the Intimate Friendship between <a name="ORIGHIT_29"></a><a name="HIT_29"></a><span class="hit"><span>Franklin Roosevelt</span></span> and Margaret Suckley."</p><p class="loose">Ward, questioned about the possibility of other photos of the type, said, "Probably in the world there may be others."</p><p class="loose">There may have been a Life magazine picture taken at great distance of FDR being wheeled to his library at Hyde Park, Ward said, but he didn't look it up.</p><p class="loose">"No other pictures of him in a <a name="ORIGHIT_31"></a><a name="HIT_31"></a><span class="hit"><span>wheelchair</span></span> were ever published in his lifetime," he said.</p><p class="loose">Another cherished possession of the Stoeckel family is an official "Shellback" certificate signed by the president.</p><p class="loose">Among the letters in "Closest Companion" is a letter from FDR to Daisy that confirms The King Neptune Ceremony as a highlight of the cruise for the men and the president.</p><p class="loose">In his letter to Daisy, FDR described the traditional ceremony:</p><p class="loose">"Monday 23 -- All is preparation for the Crossing of the Equator -- I am the Senior Pollywog ... at 7:30 tonight there was a loud beating of drums and blowing of bugles ... announcing that at noon tomorrow Father Neptune & his court will come on board to initiate all Pollywogs into the mysteries of the deep & make them into Shellbacks!</p><p class="loose">"Tues. 24 -- At last YF (Your <a name="ORIGHIT_32"></a><a name="HIT_32"></a><span class="hit"><span>Franklin)</span></span> is a Shellback! Are you duly proud of him? ...</p><p class="loose">"As a matter of fact, I got off very lightly -- The King, Queen, Royal Baby & a large Court retinue appeared in the most gorgeous costumes, were duly seated on a platform & then the fun began -- I had to make a speech in defense -- but the others were dunked in a tank, put in a coffin, "electrocuted," spanked, tickled, etc. -- over 200 of them & it lasted from noon till 4.</p><p class="loose">"Weds. 25 -- All on board have settled down to the usual routine after the 'show' of the past two days -- and I slept till ten this morning ... I spend spare moments signing the King Neptune certificates -- big colored affairs -for the whole ship's company -- about 700 of them!"</p><p class="loose">It appears that FDR was much more thrilled with being a Shellback than being a goodwill ambassador.</p><p class="loose">With the death of his buddy, Gus, the joyous cruise was turned into a somber journey home, where he would return to all the problems that awaited.</p><p class="loose">But with the help of an <a name="ORIGHIT_33"></a><a name="HIT_33"></a><span class="hit"><span>Allentown</span></span> sailor's scrapbook, the world can see President <a name="ORIGHIT_34"></a><a name="HIT_34"></a><span class="hit"><span>Roosevelt</span></span> as he really was -- a remarkable man in a <a name="ORIGHIT_35"></a><a name="HIT_35"></a><span class="hit"><span>wheelchair</span></span></p></span></div></div></div></div>Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-88805230747118072502011-11-05T15:58:00.000-07:002011-11-05T17:45:22.718-07:00Pearl Harbor by Steven M.Gillon. FDR and CocaineMy co-author Eric <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Fettmann</span>, who has read an advance copy of a new FDR book by Steven M. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Gillon</span> entitled "Pearl Harbor" discusses certain aspects of FDR's health. I'm told in particular he theorizes how Dr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">McIntire</span> treated FDR on a daily basis with nasal medicine for his "sinus" condition that contained cocaine. He further notes that a number of physicians confirmed that cocaine was commonly employed at this time. In the 1960's when I was an operating room technician, before med school, cocaine was routinely employed as an anesthetic for nasal treatments and still is today.<div><br />The use of cocaine by FDR for "sinus treatments" is not surprising. We know, from readily available information that from mid-1939, FDR saw <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">McIntire</span> on a daily basis for "sinus treatments". I believe the only incorrect assumption is that cocaine was being used to treat FDR for chronic sinusitis. Cocaine is a powerful anesthetic and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">vasoconstrictor</span> and was being used to combat the pain brought on by the constant irritation from therapy. With the goal of affecting a slow cosmetic removal of the cancerous lesion, FDR had innumerable painful procedures over his left eye and in his sinuses, performed by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">McIntire</span> Between early 1940 and late 1941. Daily use of cocaine obviously leads to addiction, ceasing use, brings about a"rebound" phenomenon, a nasal swelling and intense congestion begging for more cocaine. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Mcintire</span> had no problem obtaining cocaine for medical use.<br /><br />Yes, FDR was probably dependent on cocaine from 1939 on. The really interesting part is how it affected the other aspects of his health, i.e. his blood pressure, and even more so his personality and decision making. I would refer the reader to "An Anatomy of an Addiction" by Howard <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Markel</span>, 2011, Pantheon Books, which provides an excellent and detailed discussion of the effect of cocaine on Sigmund Freud and William Stewart <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Halsted</span>. It is a good basis for the non-medical historian to begin to understand how FDR really functioned.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the historical community continues assess Franklin Roosevelt as Howard <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Bruenn</span> portrayed him and not how he really was. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">McIntire's</span> continuous assertion that he rarely touched his patient is so much crap, he was a top notch physician and FDR always received the best medical care. McIntire knew how dangerous this was for FDR, he had not other options. Sometimes the best medical care creates addiction.</div>Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-51972574747609972742011-10-15T08:55:00.000-07:002011-10-15T17:45:26.592-07:00A Tale of Two Presidential Medical Coverups. Grover Cleveland and Franklin RooseveltHere's a great example of how one cover-up was revealed and yet another perpetuated.<br /><br />My reading of the recent (highly recommended) book By Matthew Algeo "The President is a Sick Man" brought about this post. You will soon discover why. <br /><div><br /><div><br /><div><br /><div></div><br /><div>On July 1, 1893 Grover Cleveland had an extensive surgical procedure aboard the yacht Oneida to remove a (subsequently biopsy proven) cancer of the hard palate. A second surgery was eventually performed and he was fitted with a prosthesis (now in the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia) to replace the portions of his upper jaw (maxilla).<br /><br /><br /><div><br /><div><br /><div><br /><div><br /><div>On August 29, 1898, reporter Elisha Jay Edwards<br /></div><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK7pRLLM8ZbxJStXO7QmUgoNUSTDukf4-qXd9rnPhGNF-a4Nra97QrM_RlWkuRkgMaAYSb95tSxttcmhLy3Bl4juBNorLRLwl6N0E-Rtd-Pj1qIEHWelvOyHUAwfd3MP1r_YU17s-2Fl7l/s1600/EDWARDS.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 158px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663756074190906178" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK7pRLLM8ZbxJStXO7QmUgoNUSTDukf4-qXd9rnPhGNF-a4Nra97QrM_RlWkuRkgMaAYSb95tSxttcmhLy3Bl4juBNorLRLwl6N0E-Rtd-Pj1qIEHWelvOyHUAwfd3MP1r_YU17s-2Fl7l/s200/EDWARDS.jpg" /></a><br /></div><br /><br /><div>of the <em>Philadelphia Press</em> published the following article exposing the absolute truth of the incident based on an eyewitness account.<br /></div><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcGcl24vI2H742SUcB4ZYMhaWQ4_gVN-Qq7uq0bY14mS1yiTjMlOBIqyAJP3ksuQGZIpwq-x3KnIF87wRRVS8KssMN8URXYtXXl71qewXJ9_yLSwmFPHPbggqb5yusBW71i8V0Eq8nHI88/s1600/cleveland2.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 148px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663752574331910482" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcGcl24vI2H742SUcB4ZYMhaWQ4_gVN-Qq7uq0bY14mS1yiTjMlOBIqyAJP3ksuQGZIpwq-x3KnIF87wRRVS8KssMN8URXYtXXl71qewXJ9_yLSwmFPHPbggqb5yusBW71i8V0Eq8nHI88/s200/cleveland2.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Two days later he followed it with a confirmation with even greater detail. </div><br /><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUhRvk6zAt5vGFpyMb-Ag3uwinXWl8pqB5CPtIP25cUeXv3YSBB4QIAJv8P2kseR6wwEalx3mIlQajwjmcayAk-KbCTwHvP4oB1kZK6WnOGX9l1SkjAuwinNF-6LGLyhhHIlOMu2NgGJhy/s1600/cleveland1.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 109px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663752478500240882" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUhRvk6zAt5vGFpyMb-Ag3uwinXWl8pqB5CPtIP25cUeXv3YSBB4QIAJv8P2kseR6wwEalx3mIlQajwjmcayAk-KbCTwHvP4oB1kZK6WnOGX9l1SkjAuwinNF-6LGLyhhHIlOMu2NgGJhy/s200/cleveland1.jpg" /></a><br /><br />The White House, assisted by the reports of a rival newspaperman, Alexander McClure of the Philadelphia Times, went on a campaign to deny Edwards' story. </div><br /><br /><div><br />On September 1, 1893, <em>The New York Daily Tribune</em> published the following story which continued and cemented the cover-up</div><br /><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2JwIVE8iEQuK-ZPmHwpGH0_seTe8tytlHG6UYTj4fJ3EvwYfVIL_JP8TAcsFENgJcDMAy50kybzPpSbCQD5KpsmbxEtnGiD9LiNWJFF_3oCQtgraofCQLX-2p7RDmT3AeMttxk7_T0Ua5/s1600/cleveland3.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 80px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663752714804585042" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2JwIVE8iEQuK-ZPmHwpGH0_seTe8tytlHG6UYTj4fJ3EvwYfVIL_JP8TAcsFENgJcDMAy50kybzPpSbCQD5KpsmbxEtnGiD9LiNWJFF_3oCQtgraofCQLX-2p7RDmT3AeMttxk7_T0Ua5/s200/cleveland3.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Edwards was villified. Twenty four years later he was vindicated. In September 1917, one of the operating surgeons, W.W. (Willlam Williams) Keen </div><br /><div><br /></div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFa6VhrYovaH2qbljuyubC5o6JTRBQ2zlfd9xlg7xGFjK5D9Lh1n8QggYlcSAW31NwPUAsWVZS5gevDrM6lehyphenhyphenTU6RctrWJJoyilvDMelHp8Heyxhc4ARpraiLh9QDE9-m4wofIPVyxZrm/s1600/220px-WW_Keen.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 141px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663755939841393938" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFa6VhrYovaH2qbljuyubC5o6JTRBQ2zlfd9xlg7xGFjK5D9Lh1n8QggYlcSAW31NwPUAsWVZS5gevDrM6lehyphenhyphenTU6RctrWJJoyilvDMelHp8Heyxhc4ARpraiLh9QDE9-m4wofIPVyxZrm/s200/220px-WW_Keen.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><div><br />wrote an article in the <em>Saturday Evening Post</em> that confirmed the story. Kean followed the story with a book, the first edition of which being a proud addition to my library. Kean lived to the ripe old age of 95. Kean was also connected to Roosevelt. He was called to Campobello at he outset of FDR's polio in 1921 and misdiagnosed him as having a spinal cord infarction (stroke). Most famously, he submitted an outrageous bill for his services to the family. </div><br /><br /><div>On April 13, 1945, Chicago Tribune reporter Walter Trohan (here with great Republican senator from Ohio, Robert Taft, who died of Cancer at age 63)</div><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiphwHFzX7v6aXC9uuZ9OhW7dOHHDA3nKA4nbpWnFweSf_p1paUvSrKG7yqbKSoiD2wmbJc2-GNvpief2WE_xSWXSTj4nAjp-vCOrdtMzh3Dcqa7cdj6mcL_ufhbm5XDcKTqnlZbfye1Vzo/s1600/trohan.bmp"><img style="WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 118px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663757135734636754" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiphwHFzX7v6aXC9uuZ9OhW7dOHHDA3nKA4nbpWnFweSf_p1paUvSrKG7yqbKSoiD2wmbJc2-GNvpief2WE_xSWXSTj4nAjp-vCOrdtMzh3Dcqa7cdj6mcL_ufhbm5XDcKTqnlZbfye1Vzo/s200/trohan.bmp" /></a></div><br /><br /><div>published <em>on the front page</em> of the <em>Chicago Tribune</em>, the following account of Franklin Roosevelt's (who died of cancer at age 63) health on the day after his death. Trohan lived to the ripe old age of 100 and was never publically villified for his article. Presidential physician Ross McIntire simply ignored it, as did the American public. </div><br /><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKmvYBOhpTWxLvXevSBz5LeuOTjK7m3AoEIKhNPbr_XI08wyeGNa2yex1e8EfGViq6Ay606ovYFZ9aHbQ0XseNBIbn7htmStwSwYpPs3q4c-hN-q0rXPQWZASrqkZOE4lkxhkI4NZpSH3Z/s1600/trib+article+1.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 88px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663752817391184914" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKmvYBOhpTWxLvXevSBz5LeuOTjK7m3AoEIKhNPbr_XI08wyeGNa2yex1e8EfGViq6Ay606ovYFZ9aHbQ0XseNBIbn7htmStwSwYpPs3q4c-hN-q0rXPQWZASrqkZOE4lkxhkI4NZpSH3Z/s200/trib+article+1.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_OyZN5kq4o5AjukaxRUlVO2wF2n2Ht3pe3vmGjIzw1D6mEy282TSyXXnRyKo01qEGyYXNKvkGaEEfWCXjgrINqSY7YoE7bgVztQyX30Tn43x3L3NlidKVse6x3emeWS1gcrTyJEukinUK/s1600/trib+article+2.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 63px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663752902910674402" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_OyZN5kq4o5AjukaxRUlVO2wF2n2Ht3pe3vmGjIzw1D6mEy282TSyXXnRyKo01qEGyYXNKvkGaEEfWCXjgrINqSY7YoE7bgVztQyX30Tn43x3L3NlidKVse6x3emeWS1gcrTyJEukinUK/s200/trib+article+2.jpg" /></a> </div><br /><br /><div></div><br /><div>Twenty five years later, FDR's physician Howard Bruenn (here with Samuel Rosenman) published a paper that perpetuated and reinforced the cover-up, one that still needs to be continuously reiterated, despite our widely circulated book.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGVw6KHx3r2gACuaofw3_evWbk7vo5LC91k2nUVPdAyyjhyx-zN0gQ3cV8pkCZxarGI1899sDZvriIQ8VSySiGScoYW8wmS6lQhBB517BvgMScw1aixfJ3dt0iokApdcY-aLR4hhK2AiI0/s1600/bruenn.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 155px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663761702508198946" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGVw6KHx3r2gACuaofw3_evWbk7vo5LC91k2nUVPdAyyjhyx-zN0gQ3cV8pkCZxarGI1899sDZvriIQ8VSySiGScoYW8wmS6lQhBB517BvgMScw1aixfJ3dt0iokApdcY-aLR4hhK2AiI0/s200/bruenn.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6D2nZnQn0OV0E8YmVPyHBNwgud8mYb7Iheu-BHS_pQHQqDEU8oMe13CtzL40-GRTdT4aC0NFolj1my6-rsfRKotc3zvQR17DcqP7LTH8sdN0jhDrPxkJFKnur0e1S-S580uvBw-tP0gWn/s1600/bruenn+paper.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 147px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663761452789869970" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6D2nZnQn0OV0E8YmVPyHBNwgud8mYb7Iheu-BHS_pQHQqDEU8oMe13CtzL40-GRTdT4aC0NFolj1my6-rsfRKotc3zvQR17DcqP7LTH8sdN0jhDrPxkJFKnur0e1S-S580uvBw-tP0gWn/s200/bruenn+paper.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><div></div><br /><div>The ghost of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the most powerful man of the twentieth century, continues to exert its influence. Eventually, acceptance of Roosevelt's cancer will equal that of Cleveland's. Unfortuately, the process will have taken more far more than twenty-four years! </div><br /><div>Sometimes doctors explode cover-ups after a quarter of a century- sometimes they perpetuate them.</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-34560547520326278942011-09-25T17:59:00.000-07:002011-09-27T05:09:48.135-07:00"Hyde Park on the Hudson" Bill Murray, Margaret SuckleyThere will be quite a bit of attention paid in a year or so to a movie, adapted from a British play with the above title centered around a visit of King George VI to Hyde Park. I am sure it will be well written well produced and well acted as Bill Murray and Laura Linney will be playing the featured roles. The movie asserts a physically intimate "incestuous" relationship between FDR and his distant cousin Margaret Suckley. (I might point out here that the the second most influential man in FDR's life after his father, Reverend Endicott Peabody, was <em>married to his first cousin</em>).<br /><br />The facts of the matter, though, are far from the reality. Whether or not FDR and Margaret Suckley ever physically consummated their relationship is still a matter of great speculation. By far the leading expert on the relationship is the renowned historian Geoffery Ward, who has not publicly opined on the matter. I'm sure after all the hoopla the press will be beating a path to his door to find out what he thinks.<br /><br />My take is that Daisy, as FDR called the spinster Suckley (pronounced sook-lee), and the President were never physically intimate, though clearly she filled a very special emotional role in FDR's life. FDR, for all the public aplomb, was a very lonely man and enjoyed gossip. Daisy was the vehicle to share his intimate thoughts and kept him up on all of the goings on in Hyde Park. Their correspondence and her famous diary reveals that Daisy had a deep and enduring love for her distant cousin. I'm not sure that FDR was capable of loving anyone other than himself, though he surely had a great affection for her and let down his guard with Daisy as much as any person that can be documented.<br /><br />Until 1941, FDR <em>was</em> intimately involved with Marguerite Alice "Missy" Lehand. He also had a fling with publisher Dorothy Schiff. FDR liked woman and was a flirt but it would be doubtful that Missy would have tolerated her "FD" having another steady bedmate. In the mid-twenties, as the great historian Frank Costigliola points out, FDR spent far more time alone with Missy rehabiliating from polio on the houseboat Larooco than he did with Eleanor. Unfortunately, all of the pertinent correspondence between FDR and Missy has been destroyed (unlike FDR's medical records!) Just to add another twist to this amazingly tangled web of intimacy, Missy was also in love with FDR confidante William Bullitt, who himself was concurrently involved in a homosexual relationship! (see Costigliola). Admittedly, this all sounds very strange, but it is indeed the case.<br /><br />After 1918, Eleanor evolved into a role of a sister rather than a wife. She had a great respect for FDR and his ambition to be the POTUS and did what she could to assist him to that end. They entered into a peculiar, even bizarre by some standards, relationship, whereupon he set her up at Val Kill, where he established a furniture business for her and she lived in a blissful menage a trois with a well known lesbian couple, Nancy Cook and Marian Dickerman. The three women all taught at a prominent NYC girls school. Of course the love of Eleanor's life was the cigar-smoking reporter Lorena Hickok. One needs to go no farther than Rodger Streitmatter's 1998 publication of their correspondence "Empty Without You" to fully appreciate this. During FDR's Presidency, Eleanor would dutifully show up for ceremonial events and knit during a fireside chat, but other than matters of the children and Eleanor's "causes", that was about the extent of their relationship.<br /><br />Now let's go back to the weekend of "Hyde Park on the Hudson." Daisy's diary, which I will address in more detail later, finds her to be an interested yet distant observer of the pomp and circumstance. It is doubtful that she played any greater role than that. The real female hero of the event was FDR's favorite daughter-in law, Betsey Cushing (yes, her father was the neurosurgical icon, Harvey Cushing) Roosevelt, who was more or less the official hostess. Eleanor wanted little to do with the whole event. Betsy was charming and filled the bill with great success.<br /><br />Betsey was married at the time to FDR's oldest son Jimmy. After Jimmy took up with his nurse, they divorced (the first of four for him) and married the exceedingly wealthy and accomplished Jock Whitney. Whitney later became ambassador to the court of St. James where Betsey established a close and unique relationship with queen to be Elizabeth (who, with Margaret, did not make the 1939 trip). Betsey was truly one of the great women of the twentieth century as a patron of the arts and philanthroper. Interestingly and perhaps tellingly, her children with James were adopted by Whitney and abandoned the Roosevelt name! Hopefully someone will write a long overdue biography of Betsey.<br /><br />Now that I've shocked most of you with the facts, I am going to enter into some educated speculation about Daisy and the "P" as she referred to him in her diary. "FDR's Closest Companion" edited and wonderfully annotated by Geoffery Ward is really all we have to historically assess their relationship. It is an exceedingly valuable tool and a must read for anyone attempting to understand FDR. The diary does, though, raise almost as many questions as it answers.<br /><br />Virtually the most important years of the relationship between FDR and Daisy were from 1939 to 1941. In these years, Daisy gave FDR Fala, whose activities she virtually obsessed on. Likewise, the time included FDR's decision to run for an unprecedented third term and all of the monumental events that occurred prior to America's entry into World War Two. It also included the years that his pigmented lesion was cosmetically removed and the time he nearly died from a massive gastrointestinal bleed. In fact, the only entry into in the usher's diary on the night that FDR was nearest to death was, yes, Margaret Suckley. Yet for all of this, Daisy's diary is notably silent. It is also notable that nowhere does Daisy address the seizures that were observed and recorded by dozens of people with far less access to the president.<br /><br />OK, now for the speculation: Of course, Daisy knew about all of FDR's medical problems. After FDR opened his library in 1941, he gave Daisy the job of "archivist", a position she occupied for many years after his death. While FDR was alive, he, with Daisy's assistance, made sure that not an iota of evidence about his health problems made it to the shelves. After he died, it was Daisy's mission to continue the job. Either she destroyed the sensitive parts of the diary or Doctors McIntire and Bruenn went over the diary together with her.<br /><br />There is not a doubt in my mind that if Daisy knew of FDR's wishes to suppress the knowledge of any notion of his illness, she absolutely would have done everything in her power to follow them- and there is little doubt that she knew, though with a highly unsophisticated fund of medical knowledge. What remains of her diary is a sanitized version to best comport with FDR's wishes. I suspect the final product is a collaboration between her and Bruenn, who after 1970 created the presently accepted fairy tale of FDR's health.<br /><br />OK. Now I've said it. I doubt many will believe what I just committed to cyber-posterity but somewhere down the line perhaps it will be appreciated.<br /><br />Thanks for listening. comments appreciated.<br /><br />My reward for an unedited video of the March 1, 1945 speech is now $15,000. (like the scientist who recently offered a cash reward to Michelle Bachman to produce a single person who is mentally retarded from an HPV vaccination, I have no expectation whatsoever that I will ever have to pay!)Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-25834050005163675192011-09-24T09:59:00.000-07:002011-09-27T05:10:39.143-07:00Review of David M. Jordan's FDR, Dewey and the Election of 1944Since I am sensitive to the fact that posting a negative review on Amazon will adversely affect the sales of Mr Jordan's work (my critics were aware of this and used it to that end) I have decided instead to confine my comments to this blog.<br /><br /><br />Perhaps this review will be viewed as sour grapes, but as long as non-physician historians continue to opine upon medical facts, I feel obliged to defend the thesis put forth in "FDR's Deadly Secret" that Mr. Jordan dismissed in one sentence as "not dispositive".<br /><br /><br />This work once again echoes "the gospel according to Bruenn", that has influenced every FDR biography since James MacGregor Burns' Pulitzer Prize-winning work done in collaboration with Dr. Bruenn in 1969.<br />Mr Jordan even quotes Turner Catledge's July 1944 account of FDR's seizures without ever stating the reason for this behavior. My neurological colleagues, ones who are qualified to judge the veracity of my allegations, have chosen to publish my article on FDR's epilepsy as fact in their prestigious journal NEUROLOGY.<br /><br /><br />FDR's battle with cancer and other health problems played an ongoing and important role in many of his most important decisions, especially his obsessive focus on the establishment of the United Nations. FDR ran in 1944 because he felt that he could best accomplish this goal as a sitting president.<br /><br /><br />FDR's Deadly Secret has taken the important step of exposing the long-standing deception perpetrated by FDR and carried out by Doctors McIntire and Bruenn. Without consideration of the reality of FDR's health, any narrative of his life, especially from the period after 1940, cannot be considered valid.Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-61912131793804755522011-08-04T17:08:00.000-07:002011-08-04T18:06:43.698-07:00An Amazing FDR Artifact. His T-Shirt from February 2, 1944The story of how the existence of this T-shirt came to light defies all odds.<br /><br />On February 2, 1944, FDR went to Bethesda Naval Hospital for an operation to remove a "wen",known to doctors as an epidermoid cyst, from the back of his head at the hairline. It was described by Daisy Suckley to be about the size of a bantam's egg.<br /><br />While the procedure was well known to have occurred, remarkable for anything pertaining to FDR's health, the details were not. Until the recent publication of Harry Goldsmith's book, rumors were rampant whether this was indeed a benign cyst of something more sinister and malignant.<br /><br />The operation was one of the subjects addressed in the press conference of February 4th, where the President deflected the problem in his characteristic style of it to reporters with some humorous, inane comments.<br /><br />The surgeon had been thought to be Winchell Craig, the chief of Neurosurgery at Bethesda. In fact, he was indeed present and scrubbed in but as first assistant to George Webster, the chief of plastic surgery. This fact was revealed in a letter from Webster to Goldsmith that Harry put in his book.<br /><br />Webster's letter also confirms that the surgical lesion was indeed a wen. He also described that the surgery was inordinately bloody and FDR's t-shirt became soaked with blood and had to be removed and replaced.<br /><br />After the procedure it was found, to the dismay of all present, that the bloody t-shirt had mysteriously disappeared. The entire hospital was locked down and searched but the shirt was never located. Webster bemoaned to Goldsmith that the fate of the t-shirt would never be known.<br /><br />This is where an astounding degree of serendipity enters the picture.<br /><br />About six years ago I was in Dayton, Ohio at the annual convention of collectors of Pulp magazines known as pulpcon (it has since been moved to Columbus). As most of my conversations at the time, I was speaking to one of the principal dealers, John Gunnison and the subject of my book on Roosevelt came up, since John was indeed a resident of Bethesda Maryland.<br /><br />As I mentioned FDR, John piped in:<br /><br />"my father was one of Roosevelt's medical assistants and worked at Bethesda."<br /><br />I then mentioned the operation and was flabbergasted when John told me "oh yes, the operation was very bloody and FDR's t-shirt had to be replaced." When I enquired as to how he knew this he exclaimed, "my father was the one who was assigned to get a clean shirt. He took the bloody one, put it in his locker and replaced it with one of hos own!!" This conversation occurred at a time prior to the publication of Webster's letter, so there was absolutely no way that John could have known the story from anyone else and this was the first I had heard of it.<br /><br />As it turns out, I had told my story to one of only a handful of people in the the world who knew the shirt's whereabouts! The odds of this happening are in the billions!<br /><br />R.(Rolla) Harry Gunnison, John's father, was a pharmacist's mate at Bethesda whose primary job was to assist Ross McIntire and George Fox in putting together the packets of pills that FDR took when he traveled. (Sadly, Mr. Gunnison died in the 1970's, oh! the secrets he could have revealed)<br /><br />After purloining the shirt, he took it home where his wife thoroughly laundered it. It has been in the possession of the Gunnison family ever since and John has kindly supplied me with photos.<br /><br />So here it is, FDR's long lost (formerly) bloody t-shirt.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrW_g0rE2F0lITF8YEXUJmeUx-ZYeYIM0w0VSiK951dyIBIjI-6fM-eoFzjP8SxzoMkMC9tiHLcD9vFgRi1erUVW9V0O7sgX0saVUulxXA3nX-x7ZC6tW3LBMK7MvlwVsylyaLWw9wJdbq/s1600/t+shirt+2.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 132px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637157556475275106" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrW_g0rE2F0lITF8YEXUJmeUx-ZYeYIM0w0VSiK951dyIBIjI-6fM-eoFzjP8SxzoMkMC9tiHLcD9vFgRi1erUVW9V0O7sgX0saVUulxXA3nX-x7ZC6tW3LBMK7MvlwVsylyaLWw9wJdbq/s200/t+shirt+2.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEyBDb-42WO7B42fJhp8kGzx3XFT0PRbGfWJ3k-gAGQr0E-bxb44oRBe6KJEHIh7ZOYI6JsParfDYBfI3n_n_Q8s1q4hjMoWd3mV9byFfL-GPYC6V-jCYfzmsLzwx8kCDMw2mlKoYNWmcx/s1600/t+shirt+3.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 132px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637157784193493554" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEyBDb-42WO7B42fJhp8kGzx3XFT0PRbGfWJ3k-gAGQr0E-bxb44oRBe6KJEHIh7ZOYI6JsParfDYBfI3n_n_Q8s1q4hjMoWd3mV9byFfL-GPYC6V-jCYfzmsLzwx8kCDMw2mlKoYNWmcx/s200/t+shirt+3.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div><br /><div></div></div>Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-52532346717982496962011-07-19T17:21:00.000-07:002011-07-19T17:43:01.636-07:00Another Roosevelt Fairy Tale<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXxXYUirox0BtqYEnfpn6qav89J4KoNzx6ZMBM7Ofo1Jy04TT_j2l0s6bUzZyv7O7TS5dYTVJyxRIuwfHeTTI9g86wLrqFB8OxQM7zBdgm9sNdxPfUz8sQt08qfHU4O4umStGA3FWn5TWB/s1600/horse+front.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 198px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631227995161343202" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXxXYUirox0BtqYEnfpn6qav89J4KoNzx6ZMBM7Ofo1Jy04TT_j2l0s6bUzZyv7O7TS5dYTVJyxRIuwfHeTTI9g86wLrqFB8OxQM7zBdgm9sNdxPfUz8sQt08qfHU4O4umStGA3FWn5TWB/s200/horse+front.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJHP6rHnMgKmbyO0gaG2CYh2DyHZyFzyQgbx1OtuE250IzyeEwTQ3kpXu0poSDO5Qgmzdu6fRxS5UL6kYDakckZRcP9S0YAlovESiL8OqbWhWQNqehYoPjAApHwFzOnEfWqWzCIdP7n5J2/s1600/horse+rear.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 70px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631228113102350274" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJHP6rHnMgKmbyO0gaG2CYh2DyHZyFzyQgbx1OtuE250IzyeEwTQ3kpXu0poSDO5Qgmzdu6fRxS5UL6kYDakckZRcP9S0YAlovESiL8OqbWhWQNqehYoPjAApHwFzOnEfWqWzCIdP7n5J2/s200/horse+rear.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div>FDR never denied his polio. In fact, he used it to his advantage as an example of how he overcame it to achieve the Presidency. Yet, he never admitted just how disabled he really was, taking extraordinary measures to present to his constituents the picture of a man who was only minimally bothered by his disability.<br /><br />Here is a wonderful example. I just purchased this photo on ebay that ostensibly shows FDR <em>after</em> his polio riding a horse. With the state of his legs, this is simply impossible. </div><br /><br />This must have been a very calm horse, for if he had taken a step, FDR would have surely fallen off. No doubt a skilled rider was just off camera should any problem had arisen.<br /><br /><br />I've included the back of the photo that confirms that this was (allegedly) taken after 1921,Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-85820221313227862832011-06-11T09:22:00.000-07:002011-06-11T10:02:16.365-07:00The Yalta Speech. Reward Now $10,000. What was FDR's greatest speech?I recently offerred a $5000 reward for the first person to produce an unedited complete video of the speech delivered by FDR on March 1, 1945 to a national radio audience and a joint session of congress. I have now increased that amount to $10,000. It might as well be a million.<br /><br />There is little dispute as to FDR's top two speeches: The first inaugural "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" and the day following December 7, 1941 "The day that will live in infamy". Take your pick which is better- they're both forever etched in history as among the greatest ever given (personally I vote for the first inaugural).<br /><br />After that, there's room for debate. The March 1945 Yalta speech is my vote for number three in importance, obviously not on the basis of the horrendous oratorical performance, but as his final effort to consolidate his presidency into a legacy for the future of the world, The United Nations. It was the last ditch effort of a dying man to do what his mentor Woodrow Wilson could not, establish a successful vehicle to establish world peace.<br /><br />What is not appreciated, despite every effort on my part, is that FDR actually knew he was doomed before his <em>third</em> term. Nonetheless, Frank Lahey put an exclamation point on it in July 1944, after which the United Nations became FDR's final obsession.<br /><br />Unfortunately, Roosevelt's appeasement of "Uncle Joe" Stalin to get it done created an environment from which developed the cold war, Korea and Vietnam. The real tragedy of Yalta was not Poland. This was a "fait accompli" forged at Teheran. Stalin already had his puppet government established in Lublin and wasn't about to compromise his western flank.<br /><br />The loss of Chiang Kai Shek as leader of China, (no bargain but the far better of two evils) was sealed by the secret agreements made at Yalta, unbeknownst to Chiang, his Cheif of Staff General Albert Wedemeyer and Ambassador Patrick Hurley. For a liberal democrat such as myself this may seem an odd assertion, but more than political philosophy, the hard, cold evidence is uncontrovertable.<br /><br />The lack of existence of the Yalta Speech video is testimony to the incredible power over the media that FDR established over twelve years. If by some miracle a copy survives, it will blow a huge hole in Howard Brueen's fairy tale and confirm all we have asserted in our book. I'm not holding my breath!<br /><br />It would be interesting to hear from readers how they rank FDR's top speeches. Please respond with comments to <a href="mailto:lomazow@comcast.net">lomazow@comcast.net</a>Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-2677343141809504952011-05-30T11:15:00.000-07:002011-05-30T11:29:54.745-07:00A Tale of Two YearsAt the cost of being repetitious, here are a group of photos from 1940 and 1941. I just bought the earliest one, which underscores just how obvious the lesion was on January 5th. <br /><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPIHOHoWEpQML2SUYOxmcu0NdJzQQzBaBAnyr7R6gkg70sDkWi369AA9l6Wfnec7cd10EjdiDL7p8m7DWoS8JDiy4yAhc2vmUkl8xGz4QLeXH6s6AFKd2OME3YKRN387jhQanaXT1paDLS/s1600/fdr+1-6-40.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 148px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612575282207060178" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPIHOHoWEpQML2SUYOxmcu0NdJzQQzBaBAnyr7R6gkg70sDkWi369AA9l6Wfnec7cd10EjdiDL7p8m7DWoS8JDiy4yAhc2vmUkl8xGz4QLeXH6s6AFKd2OME3YKRN387jhQanaXT1paDLS/s200/fdr+1-6-40.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div>January 5th<br /></div><br /><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCjuz8nH-OJ3eNugDR0K9phc9WQvuCIQau-EYYOnfN6F71mp4ysP2cGfQGYCHY_qcQOmhfZkBSqux3Ta3hhznNlvDKfbwBE1-WJFSE-NPbOSdvYc_J62l9YrrdptFRGw0DDx0GCO9ns9lE/s1600/11-11-40.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 160px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612576108334951426" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCjuz8nH-OJ3eNugDR0K9phc9WQvuCIQau-EYYOnfN6F71mp4ysP2cGfQGYCHY_qcQOmhfZkBSqux3Ta3hhznNlvDKfbwBE1-WJFSE-NPbOSdvYc_J62l9YrrdptFRGw0DDx0GCO9ns9lE/s200/11-11-40.jpg" /></a> </div><br /><div>November 11th</div><br /><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkc-xsZ6ERQCbNucTgg8HiQYLxjVg9Q2r_Jkqa2Zcyb1TmAHkJV-bvtEHVwvmamq2L2t6G5GMyRRmqn_1ED8dLtH0h2SMTVNWWRywxtMHHLuRvVQE_F-J-NQjN0NvUqFVnCy-ejJjLl_Fu/s1600/9-11-41.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 160px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612577449631969794" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkc-xsZ6ERQCbNucTgg8HiQYLxjVg9Q2r_Jkqa2Zcyb1TmAHkJV-bvtEHVwvmamq2L2t6G5GMyRRmqn_1ED8dLtH0h2SMTVNWWRywxtMHHLuRvVQE_F-J-NQjN0NvUqFVnCy-ejJjLl_Fu/s200/9-11-41.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div>September 1941</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>There are many others. I'll just keep hammering away until the increasingly obvious reality becomes the mainstream opinion. There is only one explanation for the changes in its appearance- surgical removal.</div>Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-3248916360734504842011-05-20T13:21:00.000-07:002011-05-20T13:41:38.156-07:00Another Small Piece of the Puzzle<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaWvPHVkPL6fciaMKKomov43gI5pT093DJdCsLlNfnk3CZd9CrEPFCn4oruCH4sHHEWzvHwEDJaV8Q9LZUwkh_yj8qKcNHPoF-nk3HDLAaODd0G5fLVAWVdWj4pxTSi_7YaIj6dmdT5Zs5/s1600/bert2.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 152px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5608899199053519330" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaWvPHVkPL6fciaMKKomov43gI5pT093DJdCsLlNfnk3CZd9CrEPFCn4oruCH4sHHEWzvHwEDJaV8Q9LZUwkh_yj8qKcNHPoF-nk3HDLAaODd0G5fLVAWVdWj4pxTSi_7YaIj6dmdT5Zs5/s200/bert2.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDMhaAjr9bOhVdHMZ5aTl89GJJYu11I0wbzquyFVNUfbrK8zEuDKjXECsLFgtTm2N2nSg_Bh7flvAVpewyrGAkRm5e_pKKCJ1fGR-cnzCLtOR1KRHnpEFvPQNe0rIXfojueRpsRHPqylC0/s1600/bert3.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 178px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5608900523076168290" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDMhaAjr9bOhVdHMZ5aTl89GJJYu11I0wbzquyFVNUfbrK8zEuDKjXECsLFgtTm2N2nSg_Bh7flvAVpewyrGAkRm5e_pKKCJ1fGR-cnzCLtOR1KRHnpEFvPQNe0rIXfojueRpsRHPqylC0/s200/bert3.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div><br /><div><br /><div><br /><br /><div>I found this letter on ebay recently in my ongoing search for for details about the real illness of FDR.<br /><br />It was written in September 1944 by a patient at the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, whose duty was basically to sit around and wait to have a flare-up of malaria so experimental therapy could be undertaken.<br /><br />Most significantly be writes "By the way, this hospital is the personal pet of President Roosevelt and he has a private suite on the nineteenth floor where he comes for a checkup once in a while".<br /><br />Of course this was never acknowledged by Ross McIntire or anyone else and this is the first hard documentation of the location of FDR's "private suite" I have ever seen.<br /><br />A related document comes from a newsletter from the museum devoted to the presidential yacht Potomac, an oral history of a nurse who states that he FDR was at Bethesda every Monday for "swim therapy", a curious assertion to say the least considering FDR had a pool constructed in the White House basement shortly after his first inauguration. </div><br /><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0IfhU_U1-ffmg4E3dG7VsBFtuJs46NuWIcrDykfi2cyrELQuEiJFQMiPaQFgtqSwKBJVcOO7jAdHo3AeYiNGmmhk9IjNvriMYB0MHO9mqWxtBkqQ_kkpWkgaTFw2N6ykh3x3igMAhkAu9/s1600/lint2.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 89px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5608899403255785298" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0IfhU_U1-ffmg4E3dG7VsBFtuJs46NuWIcrDykfi2cyrELQuEiJFQMiPaQFgtqSwKBJVcOO7jAdHo3AeYiNGmmhk9IjNvriMYB0MHO9mqWxtBkqQ_kkpWkgaTFw2N6ykh3x3igMAhkAu9/s200/lint2.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGKplVGAu1JHgtVRipWgGW0DL2GKLzAdKYM0OUCuy1xgWLl5g5frbAeGYCMn5ZD4Y5XcFv-Y0ni7gJAuGpM_bxS6VjYw0QtPZ9wlrV3ptLoeyrB8-egXvIWEhqaTWByu4bc9Ui8A7Pm6O3/s1600/lint1+copy.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 74px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5608899318184781794" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGKplVGAu1JHgtVRipWgGW0DL2GKLzAdKYM0OUCuy1xgWLl5g5frbAeGYCMn5ZD4Y5XcFv-Y0ni7gJAuGpM_bxS6VjYw0QtPZ9wlrV3ptLoeyrB8-egXvIWEhqaTWByu4bc9Ui8A7Pm6O3/s200/lint1+copy.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div><br />Best guess: the swim was to ease the discomfort from radiation therapy for his prostate and/or face. </div></div></div></div>Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-45187500438090205352011-05-19T04:34:00.000-07:002011-05-19T04:48:17.555-07:00Why the Right Didn't Reveal the FDR/ Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd Affair.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmRiupylEbQW89He9EJ5pnriYTrj28cnQBTxW2lz2yg9TCI7SYiA4o3of6q1x_TyLRxke8VEHixBEkHXPSkUgEVNBkN7HxdKp31uUxqIqn1vwqSOgl7sLdsBBxqIdTSKGd4GVXwoVvjPMB/s1600/jtf+to+peg.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 135px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5608389338621136786" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmRiupylEbQW89He9EJ5pnriYTrj28cnQBTxW2lz2yg9TCI7SYiA4o3of6q1x_TyLRxke8VEHixBEkHXPSkUgEVNBkN7HxdKp31uUxqIqn1vwqSOgl7sLdsBBxqIdTSKGd4GVXwoVvjPMB/s200/jtf+to+peg.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div></div><br /><div>Here's another document from the Westbrook Pegler papers at the Herbert Hoover Library in North Branch, Iowa.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>It's a 1949 letter between two conservative (some would say ultra-conservative) journalists, John T. Flynn, author of The Roosevelt Myth (available free online) and Westbrook Pegler, who later "went off he deep end" writing for the John Birch Society.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>The letter clearly reflects that both Flynn and Pegler knew the truth of Roosevelt/Mercer affair (as did Walter Trohan as previosly posted on this blog) whereupon Flynn lays out his philosophy as to why the information should not be released. It was not until 1966 that Jonathan Daniels finally came clean with the story that 0thers had been keeping quiet for over a decade and a half. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>The letter also contain a bitter attack on the Roosevelt morality, frankly inferring that "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree".</div>Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-32738340211491992592011-05-14T18:51:00.001-07:002011-05-14T19:04:45.032-07:00Another Intentionally Deceptive FDR Photo<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCoHRfTf5HQQzL62CdVaaliuhSYWACDP2aK9lhf2z5Gg5RRJbciary8_rv2-11Aes16xC8kyEoV68XEJ3FqbOPDMUIoWC_3sg-Soj2xyrc2cY0uVpuSsDCtLU1qhNbW_2GMLLFpEXQqDFy/s1600/BEW-716-BS_F.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 167px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606754780371747570" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCoHRfTf5HQQzL62CdVaaliuhSYWACDP2aK9lhf2z5Gg5RRJbciary8_rv2-11Aes16xC8kyEoV68XEJ3FqbOPDMUIoWC_3sg-Soj2xyrc2cY0uVpuSsDCtLU1qhNbW_2GMLLFpEXQqDFy/s200/BEW-716-BS_F.jpg" /></a><br /><br />This photo is presently on ebay, ostensibly showing FDR standing using a phone with both hands. This is a physiologic impossibility. Someone or something must be holding him up from below or his is being supported in some other way from behind.<br /><br />The fact of the matter is that he was never able to stand unsupported after 1921. If he attempted this maneuver unassisted he would have fallen flat on his face.<br /><br />Here's another example. Note the second photo where his left hand is behind his back holding a second cane that can be seen lateral to his left shoe.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq06qewu5sOpa9W19wIntU1SCeUTnBerHytMj9F73QMxZqzzoYIwENpLonAVbFGDtA6M5AlnSognph124VDpiZpvbWMThJS92xl0Ylhfn6_0WJAPYV7aFC2Ti_qMLP8RncnRUOL07b_WKY/s1600/cane1.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 134px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606755104676237138" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq06qewu5sOpa9W19wIntU1SCeUTnBerHytMj9F73QMxZqzzoYIwENpLonAVbFGDtA6M5AlnSognph124VDpiZpvbWMThJS92xl0Ylhfn6_0WJAPYV7aFC2Ti_qMLP8RncnRUOL07b_WKY/s200/cane1.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje3hB08EHKIAH3jR9Aka6ePLE0MkldTeSRxiq7FmGKX52NgXiFjyDbJ8cYQnQuW84XVM_unbc94krGfJKZuNhxiAun4t2nsz_sJ7VoAFD13YpqB1xwh_pe65QI3slgue4XxPeVVrCCWII6/s1600/cane2.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 138px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606755225523726994" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje3hB08EHKIAH3jR9Aka6ePLE0MkldTeSRxiq7FmGKX52NgXiFjyDbJ8cYQnQuW84XVM_unbc94krGfJKZuNhxiAun4t2nsz_sJ7VoAFD13YpqB1xwh_pe65QI3slgue4XxPeVVrCCWII6/s200/cane2.jpg" /></a><br /><br />FDR never denied he had polio and fought as valiant a fight as any one to overcome it. He did, though, go to great measures, as witnessed above, to hide the extent of his disability. As Carly Simon sung, nobody did it better! People visiting the White House were shocked to find that their president was wheel chair bound.Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-42389637252641363362011-05-14T18:10:00.000-07:002011-05-14T18:27:23.267-07:00Sixty Three and Still Going StrongSince I am now 63 and was born on January 24th and FDR died at 63 on April 15th 1945 and was born on January 3oth, I have now outlived him. While I feel my age, I am just as active as I was thirty years ago.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><div>Even accounting for the increased longetivity of the present, the cadaveric images from Yalta speak for just how sick our 32nd President was- dying of cancer that still today has not been completely accepted as the cause of his demise.</div><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><div><img style="WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 160px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606746104006767282" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieykaeYgzDZiCiaALA6RKwHDa_vu_YEquUqvJX7wcBw6d9-arQ5OvqTPphLeB_ZjOfB5DNLkg6pczG8lEukmpZdBWS7OKK85j2vLDJH2UCvCGYqGzlK8YZziRM3HNaExoBRA9XXOvl3rIK/s200/fdr+at+yalta.jpg" /></div><br /><div></div><br /><div>The official cover story of the deterioration being due to terrible strains of managing the war simply does not hold any water. FDR was working a four hour day the last year of his life and spent months of quiet rest in South Carolina and Georgia. </div><br /><div></div>Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4397889920115543091.post-35093082072260800072011-04-15T05:39:00.000-07:002011-04-16T06:47:31.763-07:00The Lahey Memorandum<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDDzTWR4fJjM_k4fSutBRe7-SXyfdJVLCYSXpNJ6ACGz3TqEyeD13dzbHc3EJxBrMCLIyX7qqlOMn-FE_7QDZCp7oHng6_7sRljSz3YkdbGtZ1wXUpV0-mBPGcOf3L1UqD4lPMdWCUlqoG/s1600/Memorandum.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 148px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595831693724846754" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDDzTWR4fJjM_k4fSutBRe7-SXyfdJVLCYSXpNJ6ACGz3TqEyeD13dzbHc3EJxBrMCLIyX7qqlOMn-FE_7QDZCp7oHng6_7sRljSz3YkdbGtZ1wXUpV0-mBPGcOf3L1UqD4lPMdWCUlqoG/s200/Memorandum.jpg" /></a> <br /><br />First of all, I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all of the fine people at Lahey, especially John Libertino, Lisa Polacke, for their hospitality and kindness in putting together a most pleasurable event last weekend. The star of the show was the Lahey Memorandum, the document rescued from destruction through the efforts of Dr. Harry Goldsmith, who was also in attendance. Now lets dissect what the memorandum really says and means. <br /><br />The two previous posts are required reading. <br /><br />The first question is why one of the world's pre-eminent surgeons is prognosticating on a cardiac diagnosis, especially so since the notion of hypertension even being dangerous at the time was not widely accepted?This is coupled with the fact that FDR had a serious abdominal problem in April 1944, well documented by Howard Bruenn in 1970, that was not seen or mentioned by Lahey. <br /><br />Strange indeed. <br /><br />As I have previously written, Bruenn likely conferred with Lahey over the wording of the memorandum and his 1970 whitewash was purposely designed to be compatible with it. Bruenn surely did not want to be caught in his lie if it came out. He undoudtedly knew about it. The deal was the following: Lahey and McIntire were long standing associates in FDR's treatment and when Lahey expressed concerned about his reputation and place in history. Mcintire recognized this as legitimate. The only continginency was that he could not mention the real reason for the prognosis- FDR's Deadly Secret. <br /><br />The other interesting aspect of the document is that when it was finally turned over to Linda Strand by the law firm of Herrick and Smith, it was a copy. The original had been "stolen"! John Libertino believes that McIntire, who knew attorney Hanify, destroyed it. He has a hand-written letter from H &S attorney Edward B. Hanify stating that he did not know where the document was. My take was that Howard Bruenn was the culprit. Regardless, Mrs. Strand verified that the copy was indeed from the original. <br /><br />The other mystery is Lahey's reference to a "trip to Russia". This did not occur until February 1945, long after the July 1944 date of the document. Roosevelt last trip across the Atlantic was Teheran in November 1943. He was also in Casablanca in January 1943, when Mcintire imposed a strict 8000 feet altitude restriction on his flight to protect his heart (a problem he allegedly didn't have until March 1944!).<br /><br />Oh! What a tangled web we weave!!! <br /><br />Others beside me know the truth of all this, likely told of it by Howard Bruenn himself. The family's silence is deafening. The ghost of the most powerful man of the twentieth century continues to prevail.Steven Lomazow M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08595077768521739130noreply@blogger.com0