Death of President Roosevelt
Guardian Staff
<b>April 12 1945:</b> On this day Franklin D. Roosevelt, wartime president of the United States, died. This is how the Manchester Guardian reported the news.
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the Guardian
A Sudden Collapse

Seizure on Holiday at Warm Springs

Mr. Truman Succeeds Him

We announce with the deepest regret that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States since 1933, died yesterday afternoon at Warm Springs, Georgia.

A White House announcement stated that the President died suddenly from a cerebral haemorrhage.

Mr. Harry Truman, the Vice-President, has already been sworn in as the 33rd President.

After stating that an immediate meeting of the Cabinet had been called the White House statement said that the four Roosevelt sons in the Services had been sent a message by their mother which said that "the President slept away this afternoon. He did his job to the end as he would want to do. Bless you all and all our love."

"The funeral services will be held on Saturday afternoon in the east room of the White House," the statement added. "The interment will be at Hyde Park - the President's New York estate - on Sunday."

President Roosevelt had been at Warm Springs for over a week. He had been there frequently in past years for treatment for infantile paralysis. His physician stated last night that he collapsed while a friend was making sketches of him and died two hours later without regaining consciousness.

President Truman announced this morning that the United Nations Conference at San Francisco will go on as planned. A view expressed in London earlier was that Mr. Roosevelt would have preferred the work to go forward. It is not yet known whether Mr. Truman will go to San Francisco to speak at the opening of the conference as Mr. Roosevelt was to have done.

News of the President's death was conveyed to the King at midnight and he received it with profound regret. Mr. Churchill was greatly shocked when given the news. It is expected that he will pay tribute to the late President in the Commons to-day, and that the House will then adjourn.

The German radio gave the news of Mr. Roosevelt's death, under an Amsterdam dateline, without comment.

How the President Died

Warm Springs, Georgia, April 12

The circumstances of the President's death were described by his doctors. Commander Bruen, who was with the President during the morning, said he was in excellent spirits.

"At one o'clock - 8 p.m. British Double Summer Time - he was sitting in a chair while sketches were being made of him by an architect. He suddenly complained of a very severe occipital headache in the back of the head. Within a very few minutes he lost consciousness. He was seen by me at 1.30 p.m., 15 minutes after the illness had started. He did not regain consciousness and died at 3.35 p.m."

The President had arranged to join a picnic party.

In Mr. Roosevelt's cottage at the time were Commander George Fox, the White House pharmacist and long attendant on the President: Mr. Hassett, a secretary; Miss Grace Tully, confidential secretary, and Miss Delano and Miss Suckley, his housekeepers.

Mr. Roosevelt's cottage was a bungalow at the top of a pine mountain. It was to Warm Springs he had been coming for treatment for 20 years.

Long before he became President he helped to found the Warm Springs Foundation for Victims of Paralysis and in past months had taken a deep interest in expanding it, for Service men afflicted with the disease.

Admiral McIntyre's Emotion

Admiral Ross McIntyre, the President's personal physician, who accompanied him to Yalta and on many of his other journeys abroad, but was in Washington when he died, gave details of his death to nearly 100 reporters assembled at the White House. He said: "This is a tough one for me to have to give you. This afternoon I had a call here from Warm Springs telling me that the President fainted while having his portrait done. The President was coming back next week. I asked Dr. James Paullin, to go to Warm Springs this afternoon when I heard of the fainting. I called again in 30 minutes and they said it was a very serious thing.

"Commander Howard Bruen, a local doctor, said it was cerebral haemorrhage. I made contact with Mr. Stephen Early, who came in at once and as we were talking over plans to go down to Warm Springs the phone rang again at 4.30 p.m. It was Doctor Bruen again to say that the President was about the same, but he was suddenly called away. A few minutes after he came back again to tell me that at 3.45..."

At this point the Admiral broke down: Veteran Washington correspondents crowded round him, tears streaming down their faces. Finally Admiral McIntyre resumed, saying: "The end came very suddenly."

Later Mrs. Roosevelt, Admiral McIntyre, and Mr. Stephen Early flew to Warm Springs.

Mr. Truman sworn in

Mr. Truman, the Vice-President, was working at his office when the news came and he went immediately to the White House. Members of the Cabinet soon began assembling for an emergency session. First to arrive were Miss Perkins, Secretary of Labour, and Mr. Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior.

Later Mr. Truman was sworn in as the 33rd President of the United States. Within ten seconds of the White House announcement, the news was flashed all over the United States by radio and over newspaper wires. Hundreds of people gathered at the White House. The news was given to Mr. Truman by Mrs. Roosevelt in one of her private rooms in the White House.

The effect of the news on the American public was stunning. Not knowing how to express their grief, people wandered out of their homes and began talking with neighbours, in bars a sudden silence fell, and men and women were unable to adjust their minds quickly to the loss.