"I COULD FEEL A CHILL IN MY HEART, A SENSE THAT THIS WAS DIFFERENT"

LONGEST SERVING POTUS IS DEAD

Warm Springs, Georgia (JFK+50) Shortly after 1 p.m. on April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the longest-serving President of the United States, died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the Little White House* here in Warm Springs.

The President, while having his portrait made in the living room,, suddenly grabbed his head and said..."I have a terrific headache".  

Grace Tully**, FDR's private secretary, was alerted that the President was sick and asked to call a doctor.  She later wrote...

"I could feel a chill in my heart, a sense that this was something different...I decided to go at once to the President's cottage."

When she arrived, two doctors were attending the President in his bedroom. They soon came out with the sad news.   President Roosevelt was dead.

JFK+50 NOTE

According to Mel Ayton's book "Hunting the President," the White House grounds had been open to the public up until the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Before visitors, as many as 15,000 a day, "could walk up to the front door" and "drivers could pass by the North Portico."

After December 7, 1941, that all changed.  "Gates were closed, tourists were banned, and armed soldiers....guarded the executive mansion."

*Little White House opened as a museum in 1948.  The portrait that artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff was painting at the time of FDR's collapse, now titled "The Unfinished Portrait," is on display here. 

**Grace Tully (1900-1984) was born in Bayonne, NJ.  She was educated at the Grace Institute of NY and served on the staff of NY Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt.  In 1941, she replaced Missy LeHand as FDR's personal secretary.

SOURCE

"Hunting the President, Threats, Plots, and Assassination Attempts--from FDR to Obama," by Mel Ayton, MJF Books, New York, 2014. 

FDR's Bedroom

Little White House

Warm Springs, Georgia

Photo by Thomsonmg2000

(own work) en.wikipedia.com/