EIGHT MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE
Tuesday, April 12, 195S
Roosevelt Still Lives in Minds
Of People at Little White House
Editor' Note: The author of th
following dispatch is the lenior
White House correspondent. He
has covered Presidents Roosevelt,
Truman and Eisenhower. His
latest book, "Meet Mr. Eisen
hower," was published yesterday.
He was at Warm Springs with the
presidential party when FDR died
10 years ago today.
By MERRIMAN SMITH
United Press While House
t Wriier
Warm Springs, Ga. CU.R)
Ten years ago today Franklin
D. Roosevelt was sitting in a
white clapboard cottage here,
posing for a portrait. It was 1:15
p.m.
Suddenly he clapped his hand
to the back of his head. His face
twitched in pain and he said:
"I have a terrific headache."
Two hours and 20 minutes
later he was dead.
The man is gone but he still
lives here in the minds and
hearts of the people who reside
around and near the "Little
White House."
Looking around the cottage
you get the idea that Mr. Roose
velt merely , has stepped out for
a few minutes. His old floppy
Panama hat rests on a cupboard
shelf 'just off the kitchen. His
wheel chair waits by the front
door. His monogrammed towels
lire stacked in an open linen
closet. Fala's leash hangs from
a hook in another closet as
though the venerable scottie
were waiting for a walk along
the wooded path outside the
house.
I have just been back revisit
ing Warm Springs. It seems such
a shorter time than 10 years.
The epic events of those days
still stand out in great headlines
in my memory.
World War II was racing to
its victorious close. Mr. Roose
velt had just returned from
Yalta and come here for one of
those breaks that had so often
refreshed him. But the signs ef
his coming death were there for
those who looked closely.
I shall never forget the sultry
Easter of April 1 when he went
for the last time to the small
white chapel on the grounds of
the Warm Springs Foundation.
Around him in the church were
his fellow victims of infantile
paralysis.
During the service FDR be
gan to shake and quiver in the
manner of a palsied man. A loud
chord from the choir made his
head bob even more pro
nouncedly. Sweat burst from his
forehead and his glasses fell
suddenly from his face to the
seat of the pew.
A wide-eyed youngster on a
litter lay nearby. He looked in
surprise at the President, then
at one of the Foundation offi
cials. The man shrugged his
shoulders mutely as if to say, "I
don't know."
A few days later he had three
of us reporters in for a talk. We
sat on a small couch in his tiny
workroom. It was cluttered with
mail, documents just flown in
from Washington by a special
courier, newspapers and other
personal odds and ends.
We talked about the forth
coming United Nations confer
ence in San Francisco and a host
of other subjects.
He smoked constantly, fitting
cigarettes into his much-cartooned
and burned ivory holder.
Each time he lighted what he
called "a cig," it seemed to re
quire unusual effort on his part
to scratch a kitchen match. I'd
never seen his hands shake so
badly.
Five days later he was posing
for the New York artist, Eliza
beth Shoumatoff. He was in the
living room of the cottage, sit
t i n g somewhat despondently,
gray and tired in a leather chair
given to him by members of his
"cuff links gang" who had tried
to elect him vice-president in
1920.
Painting Never Finished
When he suddenly collapsed
and sagged against the side of
the chair, the artist was terrified.
The President's cousin, Laura
Delano, raced from the rear of
the room where she had been
sewing and cried out for help.
House servants carried him to
his small bedroom. He was un
conscious. Secret Service agents
outside the cottage could hear
him gasping for his life. He
never recovered consciousness.
He died at 3:35 p.m. of the cere
bral hemorhage.
When I revisited the cottage
last week it was a gray, rainy
day. The stream of tourists (110,
000 a year) dropped their voices
as they entered. They looked in
silence at the unfinished Shou
matoff portrait. It has been left
exactly as it was when the artist
dropped her brush in dismay.
I walked out into the kitchen
and there was Daisy Bonner, a
dignified Negro woman who
cooked for Mr. Roosevelt down
here from the late 1920s until
his death.
What were his favorite foods
here? Daisy says they were
chocolate souffle and her special
ty, "country captain." The lat
ter is a fantastic heap of chicken,
rice, mushrooms, currants and
about 40 ether ingredients.
I asked her if she missed her
old boss. Tears came to her eyes
and her voice choked up when
she answered.
"It surely hasn't been the
same," she said. "He did love my
cooking."
As I talked to the people here
who remember FDR so well, it
was amazing to me that no one
of them, not even some of his
closest old friends, discussed pol
itics, his impact on the world's
affairs.
Here they talk of Roosevelt
the man. They speak of what he
has done for people who are
crippled as he was.
Fred Botts, an urbane, cul
tured fixture of this community
of people who labor sweatingly,
doggedly to educate their strick
en arms, legs and chests to the
demands of a modern, mobile
life, says:
"The president was a man, re-'
gardless of your politics, who
brought to those of us who can
not travel easily an exciting, in
spiring sample of the outside
world several times a year.
"His success, his smiles, his
warmth reminded us that when
you're fighting polio there are
no Democrats, no Republicans."
X. ... e f i Phone 2-8075 S
117 S. Central or 2.4546 y
Here's Proof of Low Prices
IN WARDS MIDSPRING SALE BOOK
.Listed below are just a few values you'll see at low prices in
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MISSES', WOMEN'S WEAR
Misses' Cotton Blouses 32.90 '
Misses' Nylon Dresses Lowest Prices
Misses' Shirt, Earrings 1.97
Pleated Cotton Dresses 7.88
Misses' Can Can Slip 1.97
INFANTS', GIRLS' CLOTHING
Western Style Jacket : 3.49
Rayon-Linen Skirts 25.00
Stretch Sox 2100
Tote-Bag Dresses 2.57
Pleated Skirt Material.
.14c in.
Sarong Girdle, free Colognes 5.95 up
Women's Cotton Dresses 25.50
Misses' Bermuda Shorts 1.97
Misses' Denim Skirts 2.47
Cardigan Sweater 3.27
Duster Set 4.95
Print Blouses
Nylon Petticoats
Poplin Jacket
Jeans .
J3.00
1.29
2.59
Dacron-Nylon Slip
.3.88
Canvas Oxfords
Infants' Sweater Set.
Birdseye Diapers
Infant's Sleep Set
Infants 'Sleep Set
J2.30
2.06
2.77
.121.98
1.77
1.77
MEN'S, BOYS' CLOTHING
Boys' Denim Jackets 3.59
Boys' Slacks 2.97
HOME FURNISHINGS
63-Pc. Silver Set 59.75
Nylon Bed Spread 9.79.
Boys' Sport Shirts.
Boys' T-Shirts
.1.67 Maple Trundle Beds.
Men's Dacron Dress Shirts.
Men's Stretch Sox
Men's Denim Slacks
Men's Cotton , Robe
Twill Shirt-Pant Outfit
Men's Pajamas
.63.75
3.95
A 1 1. 20
2.94
3.97
6.14
2.37
Unfinished 4-Dr. "Desk.
Unfinished 3-Dr. Vanity.
.92.88
.25.88
.17.88
Men's Dacron Slacks.
Men's Boxer Shorts
Boys' Dress Shirt
Boys' Pioneer Jeans.
10.97
.43.24
1.67
1.44
Unfin. Bunk Bed wMattresses 77.88
Unpainted Bookcase 15.49
Snack Table Set set of 4 5.88
Captain's Table 11.88
Hair Clipper Set 8.75
Reconditioned Typewriter 44.25
Kleenex Tissues 6 boxes 1.25
B Complex Vitamins 500 caps 3.49
All Diamonds Cut 20
Prices do not include transportation charges
SHOP AT HOME fogK BY PHONE
THE EYES ARE BIGGER Terry Bretzke, 8, may have
"eyes larger than his stomach" but since it's for a good
cause he's going to put away that stack of flapjacks and
more to boot. The Minneapolis Southwest Lions Club in
vited Terry's Boy Scout troop to the pancake eating session
and donated 50c to construction of a summer camp for'
crippled children for each flapjack eaten by the boys.
Portland (U.R) The corps
of engineers has invited bids
here for 10,200 cubic yards of
dredging at Depoe Bay on the
Oregon coast.
There are 64,875 private air
planes owned by individuals and
businesses, not counting the
commercial airlines, in the Un
ited States.
Domiciliary Officer On Wage Study Team
Camp White H. J. Heitkemp
er, domiciliary personnel officer,
is on special assignment here
this week in connection with
the establishment of new wage
board schedules.
He is a member of a group of
wage analysts conducting sur
vey of comparative wages in dis
tricts where Veteran Adminis
tration stations are located. The
study being made here is similar
to that being undertaken ' at 40
other points, and is expected to
be completed by July 1.
Heitkemper is the only per
sonnel officer on the team se
lected to make the report, upon
which the new wage scale of
specializezd civil service em
ployees will be based. He plans
to go to the VA Hospital at Rose
burg next.
"The real job is getting ac
customed to the weather in the
different parts of the country,"
he says. "In the East it was the
heat, in Montana, the snow, and
in Colorado, the wind."
Roadside Cleanliness
Plan of BF Lions Club
Butte Falls Butte Falls Lions
club and high school students
are cooperating in a program to
keep roadside areas clean during
coming months.
They plan to place three signs
along roads in this area asking
motorists not .to throw trash
from car windows. It is hoped
to have the signs in place be
fore start of the fishing season.
Dead line Sunday Classified Is at
noon Saturday: 1 a. m. Monday for
Monday: other days 5:30 orevious day.
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