‘Eternity’ stressed at Roosevelt bier
‘Yet shall he live,’ bishop intones
By Merriman Smith, United Press staff writer
Saturday, April 14, 1945
WASHINGTON – A handful of the millions who loved Franklin D. Roosevelt heard in a hushed White House today this promise “Yet Shall He Live.”
Those words, essence of all that the Bible contains of hope and assurance were uttered while Americans everywhere stood silent at 4 p.m. in tribute to the leader and friend who piloted them to the threshold of victory and peace.
Other words of hope – words voiced by Mr. Roosevelt at his first inaugural in the depression days of 1933 – were also given utterance in his name.
Warning against fear
The Rt. Rev. Angus Dun, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, departing from the text of the moving Episcopal service, quoted: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself…”
Then, the bishop added:
As that was his first word to us, I am sure he would wish it to be his last, and that we should go forward into the future as those who go forward without fear…
A few hours before, the nation’s great helmsman in its greatest war had completed his long last journey to the White House. A few hours later – at 10:42 p m. – he began the final trip home to his beloved ancestral estate on the Hudson at Hyde Park, New York.
But now, in the East Room of the mansion which was his home for 12 years of ceaseless labor, they were saying over his flag-draped casket the simple words of faith and hope which are the Episcopal service for the dead.
Widow bears up bravely
There in the great room, where in happier times gaiety had ruled, stood the trustees of a world’s grief.
They were few – compared to the many who mourned. At their head was the new President, Harry S. Truman, the man who had given his pledge to fight on for the dead President’s goals.
At Mr. Truman’s side was the gallant lady, the mother of four fighting sons, who had shared as best she could with Franklin Roosevelt the burdens which finally killed him. Clad simply in black, she bore a grief too great for tears.
With Mrs. Roosevelt was Brig. Gen. Elliott Roosevelt, the only one of her four fighting sons who was able to come home for his father’s funeral. With her, too, were her only daughter, Anna Boettiger, and her four daughters-in-law.
There were also the official representatives of all the freedom-loving nations. Among them was Anthony Eden, British Foreign Secretary and personal representative of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the dead President’s friend and co-architect of doom for the Axis.
Bowed by a grief as great as any in that grief-filled room was one of Mr. Roosevelt’s most intimate friends – dark-skinned Arthur Prettyman, wearing the uniform of a Navy chief petty officer, who for six years had been the President’s personal valet. Two days before, he had carried his stricken chief to the bed on which he died.
Old friends mourn
Also in the funeral chamber were two friends of old, on whom Mr. Roosevelt had leaned constantly for years – White House Secretaries Stephen T. Early and William Hassett.
Among those who rushed here from various parts of the world for the funeral were Bernard M. Baruch, who flew from London: Harry L. Hopkins, who came by plane from the Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota; Gov. Thomas E. Dewey of New York, and the Earl of Athlone, Governor General of Canada.
Hymn opens services
The brief services began with a hymn the President loved – “Eternal Father! Strong to Save.” They ended 24 minutes later with a prayer, composed and spoken by Bishop Dun who asked of God this boon:
Quicken and knit together in common loyalty the willy of this whole people, that we may resolutely take to ourselves the responsibilities bequeathed to us by our stricken leader.
Keep us in this land and those peoples who struggle at our side peoples who struggle at our side steadfast and united in the unfinished task of war.
Seven hours before the funeral, under a cloud-flecked April sky, the President had come back to his greatest triumph. Nearly 40,000 persons, more than ever had paid homage to him alive, watched with grief-constricted throats while his casket moved from Union Station to the White House.
Military procession
The funeral train had rolled slowly northward during the night from that “Other Home” in Warm Springs, Georgia, where a cerebral hemorrhage snuffed out the President’s life at 4:35 p.m. Thursday. It arrived in the capital at 9:58 a.m.
A great military procession, symbolizing a peaceful nation’s might in a righteous cause, led the way to the White House. The President’s mahogany casket, wrapped in the flag. rede on a shining, jet-black caisson drawn by six gray horses.
It entered the White House at 11:17 a.m. as a military band softly played “Lead Kindly Light.”
At the White House, President Truman took leave of Mrs. Roosevelt and went to the executive office to work until funeral time – the old President was dead but the new one was carrying on.
Honor Guard of servicemen
The casket was carried to the East Room where an Honor Guard of two soldiers, a sailor, and a marine, with a naval lieutenant at the head, took charge of it.
The walls were banked high with flowers – despite Mrs. Roosevelt’s request that no flowers be sent. Their fragrance permeated the mansion.
Between the casket and one wall was a walnut pulpit. The portraits of Martha and George Washington looked down on it. Gilt chairs, a little more than 200 of them, were placed in semi-circular rows on either side.
In the center front raw were 12 special chairs, upholstered in pale green tapestry, for the family. On each chair was a prayer book.
The funeral was conducted by Bishop Dun, assisted by the Rev. John G. Magee, pastor of St. John’s Church, the “Church of Presidents” where Mr. Roosevelt went to pray on the morning of his first Inauguration Day, March 4, 1933.
Wesley Steele. organist of St. John’s Church, opened the services with “Eternal Father,” the hymn which concludes:
O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger’s hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe’er they go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.
Bishop Dun’s first words were the reiteration of Christ’s promise:
I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith The Lord: He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me, shall never die.
Then the Bishop said: “The Lord gave and The Lord hath taken away, Blessed be The Name of The Lord.”
The Rev. Mr. Magee then read two Psalms, the 46th – “Lord of Hosts is with us, and the 21st – “The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth forevermore.”
Bible lessons read
The Rev. Howard S. Wilkinson, rector of St. Thomas’ Church, read the Bible lessons. They included this from Romans VIII-14: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” and these words of promise from St. John XIV-1:
“In My Father’s house are many mansions: If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”
Then followed another of Mr. Roosevelt’s best-beloved hymns, “Faith of Our Fathers” with the refrain “Faith of Our Fathers, Holy Faith! We will be true to thee till death.”
The Bishop then intoned the words “The Lord be with you,” and the congregation replied, “and with thy spirit.”
In his concluding prayer, Bishop Dun thanked God “for the qualities of heart and mind which this Thy servant brought to the service of our nation and our world.”
He prayed:
As we look ahead to final victory, enable us to strive even more mightily in peace than in way to bring new freedom and dignity to every member of our human race, and to bear without stint our destined responsibilities in the family of nations.
Make ready our shoulders to carry the burdens of victory; to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to free the oppressed, and to lay the foundation for a more just and ordered human life for all Thy people.
The prayer closed with:
…Through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
AMEN.
Services list body bearers
WASHINGTON (UP) – The following are the servicemen who acted as body bearers in the Roosevelt funeral cortege today:
-
Army: Sgt. James W. Powder, Rockford, Illinois; Sgt. Bentley K. Hurt, Williamsson, West Virginia; Sgt. Richard O’Neil, Arlington, Virginia.
-
Marines: Sgt. Roy A. Culberson, Syracuse, Alabama; Sgt. Robert F. Buckley, Detroit.
-
Navy: Chief Fire Controlman Thomas E. Ballew, El Paso, Texas; Chief Gunner’s Mate David H. Cleaver, Dunsmuir, California.
-
Air Forces: Sgt. William I. Murray, McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania.
-
Coast Guard: Boatswains Mate Arthur A. Arnold, New Alexandria, Virginia.