Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I just love this picture. I have made this post every year for a long time.

Tue Apr 12, 2022: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

Mon Apr 12, 2021: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

Sun Apr 12, 2020: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

Fri Apr 12, 2019: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

Thu Apr 12, 2018: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

Tue Apr 12, 2016: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

Fri Apr 12, 2013: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

Thu Apr 12, 2012: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

Tue Apr-12-11: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

Mon Apr-12-10: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

Wed Apr-12-06: Today is the day in 1945 that Roosevelt died

This picture of Graham Jackson is the image of that event that I always think of. As the caption notes, it was taken on April 13, 1945, as Roosevelt's body was being taken away that morning.



The caption of the original photograph starts out:

On the afternoon of the day he died President Roosevelt was scheduled to attend a barbecue at Warm Springs. That afternoon he would have heard Chief Petty Officer Graham Jackson, a Georgia Negro, play his accordion. The President had enjoyed Jackson's songs many times in the past. The next day when the President's body was borne slowly past the main dormitory at Warm Springs, where often he used to wave at the patients convalescing in the sun's rays, Jackson stepped out of the watching circle, sadly fingered the strains of Going Home. As he played, C.P.O Jackson wept open-eyed to the mournful phrases of his own lament.

Graham Jackson, from the wonderful Atlanta Time Machine

60 White House Drive SW

Many more links on Graham Jackson

Please go to Google Books to see the coverage in the April 23, 1945 issue of Life magazine. You will be amazed. (I can't make the link directly.)

Roosevelt's Death:

http://books.google.com/books?id=wEkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA19&dq=Roosevelt+funeral&hl=en&ei=TirDS4iHOIT7lwfx96jaBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Roosevelt%20funeral&f=true

Goin Home from Eleanor and Franklin
6,462 views Jun 11, 2019

Taps Bugler
37.3K subscribers

Goin Home from Eleanor and Franklin

FDR's Final Journey Home
2,329 views Jan 17, 2021

NPS Hyde Park
371 subscribers

What happened the day FDR died and his journey back to his home on the Hudson in Hyde Park. NY.

Tue Apr 12, 2022: Here are photographs of FDR taken two days earlier and the day before.

More private photographs taken of the very sick President Franklin Roosevelt at Little White House, Warm Springs, Georgia, April 10, 1945, two days before he died—FDR’s doctors and staff had been concealing crucial facts from Americans about gravity of his cardiovascular illness:

Link to tweet

At age 63, President Franklin Roosevelt was secretly photographed today 1945 while posing for a portrait at "Little White House,” Warm Springs, Georgia. The next day, he died.

This haunting end-of-life photograph of FDR, taken for private use by the portrait artist, Elizabeth Shoumatoff, was not shared with the public for decades after FDR’s death.

Link to tweet

[brer cat]

1. Thank you.

This deserves to be repeated every year. The picture always makes me cry.

[snowybirdie]

2. A great President

One of the most moving historical places I've visited is the Little White House at Warm Springs. Somehow his spirit remains.

[whathehell]

3. Yes, absolutely.

Historians rank him as the third, (some say second), greatest American President.

[MyOwnPeace]

4. Perhaps THAT is the pic......

that inspired tRump to claim that NY Cops were crying at his indictment........


IQ45 is SO delusional that I can actually see him equating his situation to that of the loss of a great, brilliant leader, with Roosevelt actually being a leader that DID serve his country and ALL of the people..........

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. "President Roosevelt Is Dead"--New York Times about news of today 1945:

“President Roosevelt Is Dead”--New York Times about news of today 1945:

FDR’s death certificate, today 1945:

Link to tweet

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. On this day, April 13, 1945, this was the scene in Atlanta, Georgia:

Tue Apr 13, 2021: On this day, April 13, 1945, this was the scene in Atlanta, Georgia:

Presidential funeral train: Recalling FDR’s last journey from Georgia’s Warm Springs



April 1945 -- An armed guard from Camp Sibert presents arms as the special funeral train bearing the body of President Roosevelt pulls into Atlanta's Terminal Station on its way from Warm Springs, Ga., to Washington, D.C.
Credit: AJC File

NEWS
By Brian O'Shea, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
April 12, 2019

When a special funeral train was outfitted last year to carry former President George H.W. Bush from Houston to College Station, Texas, it was an echo of the funeral train that carried Franklin D. Roosevelt from Georgia after his death at Warm Springs in 1945.

Roosevelt, a frequent presence in Georgia, was visiting his Warm Springs retreat when he died on April 12, 1945.

The president’s casket was carried in its own train car, with a military honor guard. Honor guards of military units and members of the public gathered along the route of the train, including at Atlanta’s Terminal Station.

The train traveled first to Washington for a small funeral service at the White House, then to FDR’s funeral and burial in Hyde Park, N.Y. In Washington, a horse-drawn Army caisson carried the casket from the train station to the White House.

A special funeral train carried the president’s casket from Warm Springs to Washington D.C., including a stop in Atlanta.

{snip}



Last return to Capital: Brought from Warm Springs, Ga., the flag-draped coffin bearing the body of President Roosevelt is transferred at Washington's Union Station from a special train. Guards arrange the caisson for the procession from the station to the White House, where private funeral services were held yesterday (April 14, 1945)
From AJC Archives.



President Franklin Roosevelt's train arrives from Washington D.C. at Warm Springs in the 1940s, where he spent time at 'The Little White House.'

Credit: KENNETH ROGERS / AJC FILE



From the AJC archives

About the Author
ajc.com
Brian O'SheaFollow Brian O'Shea on twitter
Brian O'Shea is a senior digital producer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He works with the newsroom to identify topics of interest to Atlanta readers and also works with voter guides and election results. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia and The Ohio State University Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism.

[Emile]

7. People will thank God 100 years from now that

FDR was President. So true!