FDR'S FUNERAL TRAIN

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 an 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 a "non-fiction thriller". 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 an armored Pullman Car known as the Ferdinand Magellan. He has recently been diagnosed by Dr.Howard G. Bruenn as having hypertensive heart disease, for which, as the doctor noted, "No medications existed to reduce extreme blood pressure on the body's arterial walls" at the time. His blood pressure was 260/150! Yet his other doctor said he was just suffering the effects of flu, bronchitis, and overwork. I guess it didn't matter either way since today's cures were not available in 1945.

In Warm Springs, while working at a portable card table and having his portrait painted by Elizabeth Shoumatoff, FDR 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. His wife Eleanor, a 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 follow after Eleanor learns of this.

After the first 22 pages, the story gets to the heart of the matter. I found that the train trip from Georgia to D.C, and from D.C.(post-funeral) to Hyde Park, N.Y. was most interesting. In today's world, would you have all of the important people in the U.S.A on the same train? What about an accident or terrorist attack? On the train was the President's Cabinet, all of the Supreme Court Justices, all of the important senators and representatives, and the new President Truman with his staff! And,WWII was far from over. What happened on this train ride is quite remarkable. You'll  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), the overall railroad system, and 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!

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: Eleanor Roosevelt was not loved by FDR's mother, Sara, who thought Eleanor homely. Even though Eleanor became an author, lecturer, columnist and our delegate to the newly formed United Nations, she couldn't afford to keep the Hyde Park estate and instead moved to N.Y.C. The special train used by FDR and later by Truman was called the POTUS (President Of The United States). History shows that Truman surrounded himself with country bumpkins from Missouri, but did retain some brilliant people, such as James F. Byrnes, FDR's "assistant president".