Speaker of the House William B. Bankhead of Alabama, 66, died at the Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. A few days earlier on September 10, Bankhead, who had been suffering poor health, left for Baltimore to speak at a political gathering against the advice of the Capitol physician, Dr. George W. Calver, and lost consciousness shortly before arriving. Calver immediately arranged for Bankhead’s return to the Washington area for medical treatment. Over the next several days Bankhead regained consciousness and his wife Florence, daughter Eugenia Hoyt, and brother, Alabama Senator John Bankhead II, were able to visit. His other daughter, the actress Tallulah Bankhead, was on her way from New Jersey. Late on September 14th, Bankhead lost consciousness and died early the next morning. Calver’s announcement listed the cause of death as a ruptured blood vessel in the abdomen, but he also said that the Speaker died “a martyr to his determination to do a good job for his political party.”
Not long before his death, he said:
The major objective of both parties must be unity and solidarity of purpose in preserving inviolate the structure of our Government and the perpetual freedom of its people.
Reading Eagle (September 16, 1940)
SAM RAYBURN ELECTED SUCCESSOR TO BANKHEAD
Washington, Sept. 16 (AP) –
Sam Rayburn, the 58-year-old Texas Democrat, was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives by acclamation today while the body of his predecessor, the late William B. Bankhead of Alabama, lay in state at the foot of the House rostrum.
Members of a Democratic conference held just before the election said there was no discussion regarding filling the majority leadership which Rayburn is vacating and some expressed belief that nothing would be done about it immediately.
Representative Boland of Pennsylvania, the Democratic Whip, told newsmen, however, he would be a candidate for the floor leadership and expressed the opinion that the party should caucus soon after the funeral to decide the matter.