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

Robert Klara has written a book that is thoroughly entertaining, informative and fascinating in FDR’s Funeral Train: A Betrayed Widow, A Soviet Spy, and A Presidency in the Balance. FDR’s Funeral Train will appeal to readers interested in Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, presidential history, and especially, trains. I have read hundreds of books about FDR and there were still a few tidbits that I learned from Robert Klara.In 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a dying man. It was evident to his staff, several members of his family, and just about everyone but his personal doctor, Ross McIntire. Roosevelt suffered from severe hypertension at a time when there were no drugs for its treatment. His cardiologist knew that it was just a matter of time before he had a cerebral hemorrhage, or what he called “a pop.” That pop happened on April 12, 1945 at the Little White House in Warm Springs, GA. To make matters worse, he was in the company of his former lover, Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, the woman who almost broke up his marriage when he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy. One of the conditions of his staying married to Eleanor was the pledge that he never see Lucy again. As soon as his death was announced, intricate plans had to be made for his funeral and burial. But perhaps the most complicated issue was getting his body from Warm Springs, GA to Washington, DC and then again from DC to Hyde Park, NY. The second leg of the trip was especially complicated in that accommodations had to be made for hundreds of people who needed sleeper trains (it would be an overnight trip). In fact, there ended up being two separate trains—what was known as the Funeral Train and the Congressional Train. “The very idea of what took place on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of April 1945, borders on the ludicrous: The new president and his cabinet, the most senior and influential members of Congress, the nine robes of the high judicial bench, and the highest-ranking officers of the armed forces—in sum, the entire leadership of the free world—elected to board a single train and take a trip together.” After 9/11, something like this would be unthinkable today. Even so, several Secret Service files about the protection of the train are still classified.While there were many fascinating things to learn in FDR’s Funeral Train, I was especially drawn to how new president, Harry S. Truman, used that time on the train for a crash-course in the presidency. Roosevelt had kept Truman in the dark about almost everything that was important. So “Truman would have to use the funeral train as his classroom, both to work on his speech and to receive certain men—Roosevelt men, and some of his own, too—whose counsel he needed to cut the pattern of his leadership. The journey aboard the funeral train was obligatory, but it was also an ideal staging area. Seldom before and never since would railroad travel so favor the fate of the country with its inadvertent gifts of solidarity and isolation.”I was also moved by so many little anecdotes about the events that occurred after FDR’s death. Almost the entire city of Charlotte, NC was waiting for the funeral train when it rode through around 11 PM. “No one knows who started it, or whether it was planned or spontaneous, but as the train drew up to Charlotte’s tiny station, a clutch of Boy Scouts began to sing ‘Onward Christian Soldiers.’ A handful of adults around them joined in, then the ones behind them, and then the ones in earshot of those. In the next few moments, the bleary-eyed reporter heard thousands of voices rise in unison, such as no church-goer had ever heard.”Robert Klara has written a book that makes history educational and fascinating at the same time. It takes a special talent, which Klara obviously possesses. I can’t wait to see what he’s working on next.

If you want excruciatingly detailed information about trains and schedules, this is the book for you. I had hoped for more balance among train, widow, spy, and presidency, but was quite disappointed that the book leaned so much to train talk. The betrayed widow got some coverage, while the Soviet spy was barely mentioned. The forming of the Truman Presidency in the days immediately after FDR’s death was discussed at some length.As a native of north Georgia, I was stunned by Klara’s description of Warm Springs as “a hamlet outside Atlanta.” What?!! Never in my wildest dreams would I consider Warm Springs as “outside Atlanta.” The author later noted that Warm Springs is 84 miles south of Atlanta.What a surprise, too, to read about of “groves of Leyland cypresses and live oaks” on the train’s route through northeast Georgia. In six decades of traveling the general path of the train from Atlanta to northeast Georgia, I’ve never seen a grove of Leyland cypresses or a grove of live oaks. Leylands were introduced in the Southeast U.S. in the 1950s—1960s. Live oaks grow mainly in coastal areas—far from northeast Georgia.It seems that Klara knows his trains, but the mistakes he made about Georgia left me wondering if the book contained similar errors elsewhere.The pictures in the book, at least in the copy I got, were quite dim. A little darkening would have made for a better presentation.One interesting tidbit I learned is that during WWII, Georgia was divided into two time zones, Eastern and Central.Some books are worth re-reading. This is not one of them.

Warning: The woebegoneness level of this non-fiction book is very high! It's also a fact filled historical recreation of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's funeral train journey of April 13-15, 1945. Robert Klara writes a interesting and perceptive volume of what happened on the trip that history has forgotten. The facts of the book are backed-up by 45 pages of notes. This is another one of those books that I call 'non-fiction thrillers'. It compares well with other recent books written about past presidents such as, 'The President Is a Sick Man'. Lately, I can't get enough of this genre of writing, especially about previous Presidents, or historical events.In the book, FDR has just come back from The Yalta Conference attended by Churchill and Stalin and departs via his special train to Warm Springs, Georgia for a long needed rest. This is not a ordinary train- his car is a armored Pullman Car known as the Ferdinand Magellan. He has recently been diagnosed by Dr.Howard G. Bruenn as having hypertensive heart disease, which the doctor stated " No medications existed to reduce extreme blood pressure on the body's arterial walls ". His blood pressure was 260/150! Yet his other main doctor said he just is suffering the effects of flu, bronchitis, and being overworked. I guess it didn't matter since today's cures were not available in 1945.While in Warm Springs, FDR is working at a portable card table, having his portrait painted by Elizabeth Shoumatoff, when he suddenly waves his hands around his head and says to his favorite cousin, Daisy Suckley " I have a terrific pain in the back of my head " and he slumps forward. There is no reason to have a 'spoiler-warning', since this incident happens on page seven of the book. Eleanor Roosevelt, who is fifth cousin once removed to FDR and niece to Teddy Roosevelt, is in Washington,D.C., while FDR's ex-romantic liaison, Lucy Mercer Rutherford is in Warm Springs. Fireworks to follow, after Eleanor learns about this.After the first 22 pages, the story gets to the gist of the matter. I found that the train trip from Georgia to D.C, and D.C.( after the funeral ceremony ) to Hyde Park, N.Y. was most interesting. In today's world, would you have all the important people in the U.S.A on the same Train? What about an accident, or terrorist attack? On the train were the President's Cabinet, All the Supreme Court Judges, all the important Senators and Representatives, and the new President Truman and his staff! And the war was far from over. What happens on this train ride is quite remarkable, you will have to read this book to find out what happens. I'm not telling, but it is very engrossing and eye-opening.Robert Klara must be a train buff because his descriptions of trains ( especially the Pullmans ), and the overall railroad system, including the various companies are outstanding. The other amazing fact is how little Harry Truman knew about the war! FDR told him nothing! He didn't know what was said at the Yalta Conference and didn't know about the Manhattan Project. His discovery of these critical omissions are another absorbing phase of the book. If you love history, you will love this book!

While the focus of the book is on FDR's funeral train as it makes its way from Georgia to his final resting place in Hyde Park (with a brief stopover in Washington), the story also covers those first few hours of Truman's presidency. For those interested in American history, this book gives a compelling glimpse of those uneasy hours as the old Roosevelt staff moves over for the new Truman one and Truman, himself, lays down the foundation and direction of the new presidency. There's also some background info on Roosevelt's personal life and an attempt to portray the very real mixed emotions of his wife Eleanor. The part about the spy, however, is very brief and takes up maybe one or two pages in the whole book. One strong image you retain from reading, however, is how loved Franklin Roosevelt was when he died. The author writes time and again how many people stood for hours at the most difficult times of the day just to get a glimpse of the funeral train pass. And he states that many of those people were crying. This part of the book is quite moving.That said, the author is an expert on trains and, therefore, the book has a tremendous amount of detailed description about every physical aspect of the funeral train itself. This can be somewhat tedious if you are reading this book more for the history, rather than the technical stuff. Still, it is by no means dull and it is definitely worth reading if you are interested in the subject.One little mistake I noticed in the book, however, is on page 125. He claims that American citizenship is forfeited automatically when an American citizen lives outside the country for more than five years. He says this in the present tense, as if it is possible even today. According to what I have read, "The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Afroyim v. Rusk in 1967 that someone who was born or naturalized in the U.S. was constitutionally protected from losing their U.S. citizenship involuntarily, "involuntarily" as in without their intent to do so." So, if it was true in Roosevelt's time, it isn't true now. An American's citizenship can not be automatically forfeited.Anyway, I would recommend. It was an enjoyable read.

A very well written, most detailed and fascinating account of a remarkable series of events following the death of the wartime President.

Excellent book and very well written