Fdr's Funeral Train: A Betrayed Widow, a Soviet Spy, and a Presidency in the Balance

by Robert Klara

Book Overview

Weaving together information from long-forgotten diaries and declassified Secret Service documents, journalist and historian Robert Klara exposes the private tensions and conflicts of a journey long shrouded in mystery.

In April 1945, the funeral train carrying the body of Franklin D. Roosevelt embarked on a three-day, thousand-mile odyssey through nine states before reaching the president's home where he was buried. Many who would...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0230108032
• ISBN13: 9780230108035
• Release Date: June 2011
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Fdr

Book was great telling about the country turning world war 2 and how hard is was for Truman to take over the country at that time

A History Like No Other

Of late, there have been a lot of books written about FDR including a memoir written by his grandson. I have read all of the recent ones and have enjoyed them to varying degrees. However, by far this is the one that is the standout. Intensively researched, it reconstructs the events leading to FDR's last trip to Warm Springs, GA ('the little White House'), his death, and the two legs of the funeral train that returned his body to his beloved Springwood at Hyde Park, NY. Reading more like a novel than a history, the premise of transporting the fallen president's body for a public funeral and burial was a gargantuan task and one that was mind boggling, dangerous, and probably never should have been undertaken. Even in a pre-9/11 America there was no shortage of security concerns. The country was at war on two fronts and national security was imperative. The game plan was essentially to include all the key players in the government in the massive funeral procession to Hyde Park by train. The security aspects of this undertaking and the logistics involved might well have been enough for one book. However, interwoven within this undertaking is the stuff that elevates this book into a totally different category. The president's widow finds out that FDR died in the company of a former mistress named Lucy Rutherfurd. Harry Truman becomes president after 3 months as vice president. Completely unprepared for the job, FDR has not shared information with him regarding Stalin or the A-bomb or anything else for that matter. There is the typical political jockeying which occurs when a new president assumes office as another president is buried. Complicating matters further for Truman is a soviet spy and an oddball character with political aspirations which will cause some embarassment for Truman in the future. As for the late president, it is apparent that his physical condition had been deteriorating for quite some time. Suffering from uncontrolled high blood pressure and calcified arteries for starters, the public was kept unaware of just how ill FDR was. A grieving nation mourns and the country seems directionless at a critical time. This book is loaded with information culled from a variety of sources. Interestingly, there are files pertaining to the funeral that have yet to be declassified by the FBI. While FDR'S FUNERAL TRAIN covers some commonly known information, much of what is covered is new material. It is a well-written and an absorbing account of FDR's death and burial.

The last train

Robert Klara's book tells the story of Roosevelt's death and the train ride from Warm Springs to Hyde Park. The details of building Roosevelt's Pullman car will interest railroad fans and those who find the methods of protecting the president absorbing. There is a quantity of remarkable history here; the helplessness of almost nothing that could be done for Roosevelt's blood pressure that read 260/150, the story of Eleanor's terrible distress at the confirmation that her husband continued to see Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, the story of Truman's learning of the Manhattan Project and his desperate race to discover all that he had not been informed of during Roosevelt's presidency. The step by step funeral plans, logistics and problems solved are told, including the usual bureaucratic tangles that left the West Point officer in charge of ceremonies in the dark concerning the exact movement of the train until he asked the New York Central employees. Amazingly there is still classified material 65 years after regarding this funeral train The book ends with Truman's brilliant speech that gave reassurance not just to the US but to the allies that were still fighting the axis powers. An epilogue is included that gives the information concerning those included in the writing and the Pullman sleepers. A list of dramatis personae will help those not familiar with some of the historical figures, notes and an index is included. There are similarities to Lincoln's funeral train and closer to today the ceremonies for John Kennedy and the funeral train of Robert Kennedy; but `FDR's Funeral Train' will be of interest to those who like to read stories of history, especially those in relation to the domestic front during WWII; but it will also be a captivating book for those who have a love of trains and the railroad system. It is written well and reads as easy as a novel.

FDR's final whistlestop

So much has been written about Franklin Roosevelt that you would think there was little left to mined; you could fill a small library with the number of books written on him and this era of history. Yet the final chapter in FDR's life has not really been covered to quite this degree of detail. And Klara certainly serves up the details, many of which were quite astonishing and astounding. FDR's sudden death unleashed all sorts of drama, both on the global scale and on a more micro level amongst those closest to him. There was no way to cover-up that at the time of his death he had resumed his affair with his longtime paramour Lucy Mercer; a fact that devastated his widow Eleanor. Klara plays out all the various unfolding dramas with a tension that is gripping for the reader, even if you've read these details before. And Klara comes up with new details such as Eleanor's private viewing of her late husband's body in the East Room. But that isn't all. Klara points out the stunning breech in security as virtually every member of the government is loaded onto the two trains to carry them and FDR's body to Hyde Park for burial. More surprising, FDR's body and family were carried in the sole bullet-proof Pullman car; President Truman and virtually every other government official traveled in unarmored Pullman cars, creating the potential to wipe out the entire government in the event of sabotage or an accident. Such were the exigencies of wartime and the sudden and profoundly sad demise of FDR. Truman's moving eulogy of FDR and his pronouncement to the world that we would continue to fight on to victory is a wonderfully fitting coda to the book. The result is a lively page-turner that is a template for how to write history well. Klara also includes a dramatis personae to help readers keep track of all the characters; something I wish EVERY monograph did. Well worth the read!

Revelations about FDR's Funeral Train Revealed

Robert Klara has written an excellent book about the railroad train that carried FDR's body from Warm Springs to Washington, D.C. He also gives detailed logistical information about the two trains that carried the body, family, Cabinet, Court, old cronies and friends, and of course the Truman's from Washington, D.C., and on to Hyde Park. This is a must-read for anyone who is a devotee of the FDR era. All the drama is here: his death in the Little White House at Warm Springs, Georgia (in the presence of a Russian artist and her friend, FDR's old flame, Lucy Mercer). Other events at the White House are not overlooked, including Eleanor's little known visit to FDR's body in the East Room (witnessed by J.B. West, Chief Usher); the details involved in who would accompany the funeral train for the burial in Hyde Park; all are included. In short, it is a page-turner. And the author raises some good points about the safety, in wartime, of the two trains which would convey almost the entire U.S. government up to Hyde Park...something that would never be considered today, especially since only the body and the Roosevelt family was in the bullet-proofed Pullman, leaving Truman in one that was not. The author has done an excellent job in detailing the thoughts and actions of the principal players while entrained, including a soviet spy and another man who later became a public embarrassment to Truman. The end of the book is especially satisfying, with details of Truman's address to the Joint Session of Congress. Not wanting to give away any "spoilers" of the book's content, suffice to say, it is a story that has been thoroughly researched and documented. There is a surprise on almost every page; a little nugget of information, that, before now, has never been in print. My highest recommendation.