Who's Buried In Grant's Tomb? Part 5

From Long Island, Connecticut and Western Ma.s.sachusetts: Take I-95 North to I-91 North to exit 6 at Rockingham, Vermont. Travel north on Route 103 through Chester and Ludlow to Route 100 North. Proceed north on Route 100 for approximately nine miles to Plymouth, then turn right onto Route 100A. Travel one mile and you will see a sign for the Calvin Coolidge Historic Site on the left.

From Boston and Rhode Island: From the Boston area, take I-93 North to Concord, New Hampshire. Just south of Concord take I-89 North to exit 1 in Vermont/Route 4 West for Woodstock-Rutland. Follow Route 4 to Route 100A, approximately eighteen miles. At Bridgewater Corners, turn left and follow 100A for approximately eight miles. You will see a sign for the Calvin Coolidge Historic Site on the right.

Once inside the cemetery, follow signs to President Coolidge's gravesite.

For additional information President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site P.O. Box 247 Plymouth, Vermont 05056 Phone: (802) 672-3773 Fax: (802) 672-3337 www.historicvermont.org/coolidge "...the recently opened papers of White House physician Joel Boone reveal just how great a toll the presidency exacted on Coolidge..." "...the recently opened papers of White House physician Joel Boone reveal just how great a toll the presidency exacted on Coolidge..."-Richard Norton Smith Nothing in his subsequent behavior was so revealing as Coolidge's conduct on that sultry night in August 1923, when Warren Harding died in a San Francisco hotel room and the new president was sworn into office by his seventy-two-year-old father, a Vermont notary public. Before setting out for Washington the next morning, Coolidge, a deeply sentimental man, visited the hillside cemetery where five generations of his family lay buried. He paused before the grave of his mother. Hers was the first picture he placed on his White House desk; he would carry her likeness with him until the day of his own death.Exploding the myth of a do-nothing president who slept away his term, the recently opened papers of White House physician Joel Boone reveal just how great a toll the presidency exacted on Coolidge, who never recovered from the 1924 death of his namesake son. As he wrote in his spare yet revealing autobiography, when young Calvin died, he took the glory and the power of the presidency with him. "The ways of Providence are often beyond our understanding," Coolidge added, in a Job-like cry of despair. "I do not know why such a price was exacted for occupying the White House." power of the presidency with him. "The ways of Providence are often beyond our understanding," Coolidge added, in a Job-like cry of despair. "I do not know why such a price was exacted for occupying the White House."[image]Plymouth Cemetery is part of the Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site[image]Six generations of the Coolidge family are buried on this Vermont hillsideInformed that ex-president Coolidge was dead in January 1933, Dorothy Parker famously wisecracked, "How can you tell?" H.L. Mencken responded differently. With the perspective of time, Mencken had come to reconsider his scathing criticism of the Coolidge presidency. Contrasting Coolidge with Wilson "the World Saver" and Hoover "the Wonder Boy," Mencken antic.i.p.ated the revisionist scholarship of post-Reagan America. Should the day ever dawn, said the Sage of Baltimore, "when Jefferson's warnings are heeded at last, and we reduce government to its simplest terms, it may very well happen that Cal's bones now resting inconspicuously in the Vermont granite will come to be revered as those of a man who really did the nation some service."Not a bad epitaph for one whose first thought on being roused from bed in the middle of the night and thrust into the presidency was "I believe I can swing it."-RNS

Herbert Hoover Buried: Herbert Hoover Library and Birthplace, West Branch, Iowa Thirty-first President - 1929-1933 Born: August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa Died: October 20, 1964, in New York, New York Age at death: 90 Cause of death: Bleeding from upper gastrointestinal tract; strained vascular system Final words: Unknown Admission to Herbert Hoover Library and Museum: $6.00 Though many a.s.sociate his name with the bread lines of the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover was also responsible for feeding millions in Europe as part of the relief efforts during World War I. Hoover gained worldwide attention for his management of American aid programs that led to his appointment as Warren Harding's secretary of commerce in 1921. He was groomed unsuccessfully for the Republican vice presidential nomination in 1924, only to capture the top spot four years later.

In 1894 while studying geology at Stanford University, Hoover fell in love with Lou Henry, the only female student in the geology department. The two married on California's Pacific Coast on February 10, 1899. He earned his millions as a mining engineer before entering politics. The couple entertained lavishly during their years in the White House but did it all with their own funds. Hoover never accepted a salary for his service as president.

The stock market crashed in the first year of Hoover's administration. Unemployment continued to rise. Americans looking for a change elected Franklin Roosevelt to the presidency in 1932. Herbert Hoover attended Roosevelt's inauguration and retreated to his home in California. He later settled in New York City where he became a vocal critic of his successor's administration.

When war raged in Europe, Hoover returned to his earlier role as a relief organizer. During the Truman administration, he served as chairman of a commission that studied the effectiveness of the executive branch.

Entering his tenth decade, Hoover's rapidly declining health left him nearly deaf and blind. He spent his last days in a suite on the thirty-first floor of the Waldorf Towers in New York City. On October 19, 1964, Hoover slipped into a coma. He died the next morning of ma.s.sive internal bleeding at age ninety.

The former president's closed coffin lay on public view for two days at Saint Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York City. There was also a brief private memorial service. Both of the candidates in that year's presidential race, Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater, paid their respects. Former presidents Truman and Eisenhower were ill and unable to attend.

Herbert Hoover's boyhood home. His grave lies across the lawn to the left.

Hoover's body was taken to Washington by train where it lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda. President Johnson placed a wreath of red and white carnations before the funeral bier. The formal state occasion included a military guard and twenty-one-gun salute. Hoover's casket rested on the same catafalque used for John F. Kennedy's funeral the year before. The Senate chaplain, Frederick Brown Harris, remembered that "we bear the worn bodily tenement of the oldest chief executive to this highest pedestal of honor where so recently lay the martyred form of the youngest." He had it slightly wrong: Herbert Hoover was then our second-oldest former president. John Adams was 176 days older when he died. (And Gerald Ford pa.s.sed them both, living to be 93 years, 165 days old.) This museum display shows Hoover fly fishing, a favorite pastime Hoover was buried in West Branch, Iowa according to his Quaker tradition. He had chosen the site himself, on a hill overlooking the two-room cottage where he was born. The simple graveside service was attended by seventy-five thousand mourners, some of whom had flown from Washington. Fifteen limousines carried the official delegation some thirty-three miles from the airport in Cedar Rapids. As the sun shone, Hoover's coffin was lowered into the ground to the sounds of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." At the family's request, there was no gun salute.

Lou Hoover, who preceded her husband in death by twenty years, had been buried at their alma mater. Her body was re-interred with her husband's one month after his death.

The Hoover Library and Museum is located near his birthplace in West Branch, Iowa Touring the Tomb at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site The Herbert Hoover National Historic Site is located in West Branch, Iowa, ten miles east of Iowa City and offers guided tours for the summer season. It is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. Admission to the historic site, including the birthplace and gravesite, is free. Admission to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is $6.00 for adults and $3.00 for senior citizens. Children sixteen and under are admitted free.

From the east or west: Take I-80 to exit 254. Travel 0.4 miles north to the Visitors Center. Maps to the gravesite are available at the Visitors Center.

To reach the gravesite from the Hoover National Historic Site on Main Street, turn south on Parkside Drive. Follow Parkside Drive until reaching Library Road. Turn right on Library Road heading west. Follow the signs to President Hoover's gravesite. Public parking is available near the gravesite.

To reach the grave on foot from the Historic Site, take the walkway from the Visitors Center to the Library Museum. Then follow signs to President Hoover's gravesite.

For additional information Herbert Hoover National Historic Site 110 Parkside Drive P.O. Box 607 West Branch, IA 52358 Phone: (319) 643-2541 Fax: (319) 643-7864 www.nps.gov/heho "'I outlived the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds,' [Hoover] said."-Richard Norton Smith[image]The white marble gravestones of Herbert and Lou HooverAsked in the twilight of life how he managed to survive the long years of ostracism coinciding with the New Deal, Hoover gave a characteristically pungent response. "I outlived the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds," he said.But not even Hoover could outrace the rigors of old age. In October 1964, he learned of a domestic accident involving one of his closest, if most unlikely, friends. "Bathtubs are a menace to ex-presidents," he informed Harry Truman. "For as you may recall, a bathtub rose up and fractured my vertebrae when I was in Venezuela on your world famine mission in 1946." It was the last communication sent from Hoover's Waldorf Towers suite.His death six days later at age 90 evoked twinges of guilt as well as grief. While he might be remembered by many as "the Great Objector," columnist Walter Lippmann wrote, "that was the tragic result of having been run over by the Great Depression." Such negativism was not in harmony with Hoover's "generous, liberal and magnanimous nature." In common with the crowds who a.s.sembled in New York, Washington, and Iowa to bid farewell to the nation's thirty-first president, Lippmann preferred to remember Hoover as "a bold and brilliant philanthropist who binds up wounds and avoids inflicting them."-RNS

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Buried: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York Thirty-second President - 1933-1945 Born: January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York Died: April 12, 1945, in Warm Springs, Georgia Age at death: 63 Cause of death: Cerebral hemorrhage Final words: "I have a terrific headache."

Admission to Franklin Roosevelt Library and Museum: $14.00 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, master of the fireside chat, was the only president elected to four terms. He was at the nation's helm during two major events of the twentieth century: the Great Depression and World War II. Governor of New York when he won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1932, Roosevelt spoke of a "New Deal" for the American people, which became a hallmark of his administration.

In addition to the economic crisis at home, events overseas occupied much of the president's attention. On December 8, 1941, FDR asked Congress to declare war on j.a.pan after the bombing of Hawaii's Pearl Harbor. Soon thereafter, the United States enjoined the Allies in Europe. The war lasted through the remainder of Roosevelt's service as president.

Franklin Roosevelt was a cousin of our twenty-sixth president, Theodore Roosevelt. He was also a distant relative of two other U.S. presidents (Ulysses S. Grant and Zachary Taylor) and of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. FDR married yet another distant cousin: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, his fifth cousin once removed. Eleanor Roosevelt became an activist first lady, holding regular press conferences and speaking out on social issues.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Hyde Park home During his third term in the White House, Franklin Roosevelt grew increasingly fatigued. He'd been stricken with polio at age thirty-nine which left his lower body paralyzed. Though unable to walk without crutches, his energy had always seemed boundless. But by March 1945, Roosevelt felt the need to retreat to Warm Springs, Georgia-a spot dubbed the "Little White House"-for some much-needed rest.

Surrounded by friends, including his onetime mistress, Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, Roosevelt soon seemed like his old self again. The group went for leisurely drives in the country by day and spent their evenings with long meals and conversation. On the morning of April 12, his guests thought FDR looked better than he had in weeks. Lucy Rutherfurd's friend, Elizabeth Shoumatoff, was sketching the president's portrait when he raised his hand and said, "I have a terrific headache."

Those were his last words. FDR fell unconscious. He was carried to his bedroom by his valet and butler. The doctor came almost immediately, but nothing could be done. The president had suffered a ma.s.sive brain injury. He died just before 3:30 that afternoon without regaining consciousness. For propriety's sake, Lucy Rutherfurd and Elizabeth Shoumatoff made a hasty departure from the "Little White House."

The First Lady was summoned back to the White House from a charity event she was attending. When she arrived, Press Secretary Steve Early and Dr. Ross McIntire told her that the president was dead. Soon after, Eleanor Roosevelt broke the news to Harry Truman that he was president.

At 7:00 p.m. that evening in Washington, D.C., Harry Truman took the oath of office. A few minutes later, Mrs. Roosevelt flew to Warm Springs. The next morning, Eleanor began the 800-mile trip back to Washington on the presidential train, her husband's bronze coffin visible through the windows. Hundreds of thousands lined the route, crying and praying. When the train pulled into Union Station, a military procession escorted the late president's body back to the White House. There, Eleanor was alone with her husband for the last time, placing her gold ring on his finger.

A simple funeral service was held in the East Room. The Roosevelt family was joined by the new president and his family, government leaders and heads of state. Mrs. Roosevelt remained stoic while others wept. Hymns were sung, including "Faith of Our Fathers," the president's favorite. The service ended with the famous line from FDR's first inaugural: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Before his death, Franklin Roosevelt indicated his wish to be buried at the family estate in Hyde Park, New York. His body was borne home for the last time on the presidential train. On arrival, the casket was placed on a caisson drawn by six horses, led by a riderless horse. The cortege was met at the gravesite by President Truman, the cabinet, numerous dignitaries, family, and friends. A military band played. Cannons were fired. A gun salute sounded. The longest-serving president was laid to rest beneath a monument listing only the dates of his birth and death.

Eleanor Roosevelt continued to lead an active life for nearly twenty years. She died of tuberculosis in 1962 and is buried next to her husband in Hyde Park. Franklin Roosevelt's beloved Scottish terrier, "Fala," is also buried near his master.

Touring the Tomb at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., except New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. April through October, the site remains open until 6:00 p.m. Hours are subject to change and visitors are advised to call for further information. Self-guided tours of the museum and FDR home are available. There is a $14.00 admission fee for visitors sixteen years and older. Children fifteen and under are admitted free. Tours of the museum are $7.00, and tours of the home are an additional $7.00. A combination admission ticket to both the museum and the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt is $14.00. To visit the home with a group of ten or more, you must make a reservation by calling (800) 967-2283. The grounds and burial site are free and open from dawn to dusk.

From Manhattan/Albany/New Jersey: Take the New York State Thruway to exit 18 at New Paltz. Follow Route 299 East to Route 9W South. Cross the Mid-Hudson Bridge to Route 9 North. The Library is on the left, four miles north of Poughkeepsie.

From Long Island: Take the Long Island Expressway to the Cross Island Parkway. Cross the Whitestone Bridge. Follow the Hutchinson River Parkway to Route 684 North, then Route 84 West to Route 9 North. The library is on the left, four miles north of Poughkeepsie.

From Connecticut: Take Route 84 West to Route 9 North. The library is on the left side of Route 9, four miles north of Poughkeepsie.

To reach the tomb from the ticket booth, walk toward the west end of the parking lot leading into the site. Follow the signs to the FDR Rose Garden. The gravesite is located in the middle of the Rose Garden.

For additional information The Museum of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library 4079 Albany Post Road Hyde Park, NY 12538 Phone: 1-800-FDR-VISIT or (845) 486-7770 Fax: (845) 486-1147 www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu "In Berlin, Hitler's propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, called for champagne on learning of Roosevelt's death."-Richard Norton Smith On the final morning of his life, surrounded by newspaper accounts of the steady advances being made by Allied armies in Europe and Asia, Franklin D. Roosevelt chatted with Lizzie McDuffie, a two-hundred-pound housekeeper who interrupted her dusting of the "Little White House" at Warm Springs to discuss theories of reincarnation. If there were such a thing, said Lizzie, she hoped to come back to life as a canary bird-an image whose very improbability caused FDR to roar with laughter. It was a perfect sendoff for the Happy Warrior of whom Churchill once said that meeting him was like opening a bottle of champagne.In Berlin, Hitler's propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, called for champagne on learning of Roosevelt's death. In Moscow, Joseph Stalin asked Averell Harriman what the Soviet Union could do to show its admiration for the late president. "Send Molotov to the San Francisco Conference," replied Harriman. The conference was called by Roosevelt to organize the postwar United Nations.Stalin nodded. "The Foreign Minister will go."At the New York Times an editorial writer composing a tribute for the next day's editions tapped out, "Men will thank G.o.d on their knees a hundred years from now, that Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House." At Warm Springs, an Atlanta mortician named Fred W. Patterson struggled to embalm the president's arteriosclerotic body. Patterson and his co-workers finally resorted to individual injections by hypodermic syringe.Mrs. Roosevelt asked Grace Tully, FDR's secretary, if he had left instructions regarding his burial. As it turned out he had, but they would not be found until after the Hyde Park funeral. (The local selectmen had to be tracked down at their homes, since a special permit was required to allow the president to be buried on his own estate.) According to Tully, Roosevelt had asked to be buried at sea in the event of his death while on the water. The sea had always seemed like home, he remarked. be tracked down at their homes, since a special permit was required to allow the president to be buried on his own estate.) According to Tully, Roosevelt had asked to be buried at sea in the event of his death while on the water. The sea had always seemed like home, he remarked.[image]Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's gravesite. FDR's dog Fala is also buried there.Otherwise, FDR expressed his preference for a service "of utmost simplicity" in the East Room of the White House. No lying in state. A simple ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, with two hymns and "no speaking." A funeral train to arrive in Hyde Park at 8:00 p.m., followed by a brief service at St. James Church "for old neighbors." A final evening in front of the fireplace of his mother's "Big Room." Burial the next morning in Sarah Roosevelt's rose garden, with the president's dark wood casket to be carried to the grave by workers on the nearby estates.There was to be no public viewing-on that score Franklin and Eleanor were as one. Regarding his tombstone, FDR asked for an austere marker containing only the names and dates of his wife and himself. Thus Eleanor's wish to have inscribed the famous line "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" on the marble block was overridden by her husband's preferences.-RNS

Harry S. Truman Buried: Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, Missouri Thirty-third President - 1945-1953 Born: May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri Died: 7:50 a.m. on December 26, 1972, in Kansas City, Missouri Age at death: 88 Cause of death: Cardiovascular failure Final Words: Unknown Admission to Harry S. Truman Library: $8.00 Harry Truman was having c.o.c.ktails in the Capitol with House Speaker Sam Rayburn when FDR died and he became president on April 12, 1945. He later said, "I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me."

Eleanor Roosevelt met Truman at the White House to relay the news of her husband's death. When he asked if there was anything he could do, she responded, "No, Harry. Is there anything we can do for you? You're the one in trouble now." He had been vice president less than three months.

During "Give 'Em h.e.l.l Harry's" administration the atomic bomb was used against j.a.pan, World War II ended, the Korean War began, and the United Nations was established. Truman also oversaw big changes at home-his home-during his presidency. The interior of the White House needed to be rebuilt after a piano leg fell through a crumbling floor. For four years, the Truman family lived across the street at Blair House.

Truman's wife Bess, his childhood sweetheart, found one advantage to being displaced: fewer social obligations. She disliked life as first lady and was thrilled when her husband decided not to seek a second full term.

In 1953, the couple returned to their home at 219 North Delaware in Independence, Missouri. Truman supervised the creation of his presidential library, which opened in 1957. He worked on his memoirs in an office there and loved to give tours to visitors surprised to see the former president on site.

By 1964, Truman was increasingly frail. After a fall in his home, the eighty-year-old former president never fully regained his strength. In early December 1972, Truman left his home for the last time and was admitted to Kansas City's Research Hospital. He was seriously ill with lung congestion and bronchitis. His condition improved briefly, but on December 14, Harry Truman lost consciousness. Most of his major organs were shutting down. By Christmas Eve, Truman was near death. His heart stopped at 7:50 a.m. on December 26, 1972. He was eighty-eight years old.

The government's plans for Truman's funeral were extensive. Arrangements by the Military District of Washington called for a five-day state affair, with his body being flown to Washington to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. The army even prepared "Black Jack," the riderless horse used in John Kennedy's funeral, for a flight to Missouri for the burial. However, Citizen Truman had himself vetoed the notion of lying in state. He and his wife opted instead for a simple private ceremony in Independence.

Still the streets were lined with soldiers on the day Truman took his final trip to his library. President and Mrs. Nixon laid a wreath of carnations on the casket. Lyndon Johnson, who was also there, would himself live just three more weeks.

An estimated seventy-five thousand people paid their respects before Truman was buried in the library's courtyard. As he'd told his staff, he wanted to be "out there, so I can get up and walk into my office if I want to." There was a simple graveside service with no hymns and no eulogy. He was laid to rest in the bitter cold to the sounds of taps. His beloved Bess was buried alongside him when she died in 1982 at age ninety-seven. She is America's longest-living first lady.

Touring the Tomb at the Harry S. Truman Library The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum is open daily, except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. It is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Sat.u.r.day, with extended hours until 9:00 p.m. on Thursdays from May through September. Sunday hours are from noon to 5:00 p.m.

Admission is $8.00 for adults, $7.00 for senior citizens, and $3.00 for children ages six to fifteen. Children under six are admitted free.

From Kansas City International Airport: Travel east/south on I-435 approximately thirty-two miles to the Winner Road exit. Winner Road becomes U.S. Highway 24. Travel east three miles to the library, which is on the north side of U.S. Highway 24.

From the north: Take I-35 to I-435 South to Winner Road/U.S. Highway 24 East. The library is on the north side of U.S. Highway 24.

From the east: Take I-70 to Noland Road north (about 5 miles) to U.S. Highway 24 West (about one mile). Look for the Harry S. Truman Library sign at the intersection of Noland Road and U.S. Highway 24.

From the south: Take I-35 to I-435 North to Winner Road/U.S. Highway 24 East. The library is on the north side of U.S. Highway 24.

From the west: Take I-70 to I-435 North, to Winner Road/U.S. Highway 24 East. The library is on the north side of U.S. Highway 24.

To reach the gravesite from the Library and Museum's east entrance, go to the courtyard. President Truman's grave is located in the center.

For additional information Harry S. Truman Library 500 West U.S. Highway 24 Independence, MO 64050-1798 Phone: (800) 833-1225/(816) 268-8200 Fax: (816) 268-8295 www.trumanlibrary.org "...funerals invite reconciliation."-Richard Norton Smith

A man defines himself in many ways, not least of all through his loyalties. In January 1945, less than a week after being sworn in as Franklin Roosevelt's vice president, Harry Truman learned of the death of Tom Pendergast, the Kansas City politico who had sponsored Truman's early career and who had later gone to prison on charges of income tax evasion. Courageously, Truman decided to attend "the Big Boss's" funeral. It was a lifelong habit. In his magisterial Truman, David McCullough quotes an Independence minister who was taken aback one bleak winter day to find himself presiding over a committal service at which the sole mourner was the thirty-third President of the United States. Having said the benediction, the pastor turned to Truman. man defines himself in many ways, not least of all through his loyalties. In January 1945, less than a week after being sworn in as Franklin Roosevelt's vice president, Harry Truman learned of the death of Tom Pendergast, the Kansas City politico who had sponsored Truman's early career and who had later gone to prison on charges of income tax evasion. Courageously, Truman decided to attend "the Big Boss's" funeral. It was a lifelong habit. In his magisterial Truman, David McCullough quotes an Independence minister who was taken aback one bleak winter day to find himself presiding over a committal service at which the sole mourner was the thirty-third President of the United States. Having said the benediction, the pastor turned to Truman."Mr. President, why are you here?" he asked. "It's cold and bitter. Did you know this gentleman?""Pastor," replied Truman, "I never forget a friend."[image]Truman's home at 219 North Delaware Street, a few blocks from his libraryOld men spend an inordinate amount of time burying each other. At the same time, funerals invite reconciliation. For example, it took the burial of John F. Kennedy to bring Truman together with his successor, Dwight Eisenhower, after a period of estrangement that dated back to the 1952 campaign. Truman never forgave Eisenhower for failing to come to the defense of General George Marshall when the former secretary of state was attacked by Joe McCarthy. For his part, Eisenhower resented Truman's strident attacks in the closing days of the campaign (in later years, he acidly dismissed New York's patrician governor, Averell Harriman, as "a Park Avenue Truman"). reconciliation. For example, it took the burial of John F. Kennedy to bring Truman together with his successor, Dwight Eisenhower, after a period of estrangement that dated back to the 1952 campaign. Truman never forgave Eisenhower for failing to come to the defense of General George Marshall when the former secretary of state was attacked by Joe McCarthy. For his part, Eisenhower resented Truman's strident attacks in the closing days of the campaign (in later years, he acidly dismissed New York's patrician governor, Averell Harriman, as "a Park Avenue Truman").Yet when Marshall died in the fall of 1959, the two men sat side by side in the Fort Myer chapel where Marshall was memorialized. Two years later they attended the funeral of Speaker Sam Rayburn. Joined by President Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson, they were on hand in the rose garden at Hyde Park as Eleanor Roosevelt was laid to rest in November 1962. But it was the Kennedy funeral, during which they rode together to and from the services at Arlington, that drained the poison from their relationship. After the services, Truman and Eisenhower spent an hour reminiscing at Blair House, being careful to avoid past controversies.-RNS

Dwight D. Eisenhower Buried: Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum, Abilene, Kansas Thirty-fourth President - 1953-1961 Born: October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas Died: 12:35 p.m. on March 28, 1969, in Washington, D.C.

Age at death: 78 Cause of death: Congestive heart failure Last words: "I want to go. G.o.d take me."

Admission to Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum: $8.00 Dwight Eisenhower's childhood fascination with military history led him to West Point. He worked his way up through the army ranks to become a five-star general-one of only five in history. A hero of World War II, Eisenhower held the lofty t.i.tle of Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization when he won the Republican presidential nomination in 1952. In both the '52 and '56 elections he ran successfully against Democrat Adlai Stevenson.

In his two terms as president, the lifelong military man saw the end of the Korean War. He also presided over the admission of the forty-ninth and fiftieth states-Alaska and Hawaii.

It was not until they left the White House in 1961 that Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower settled into their first permanent home, a farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The seventy-year-old former president wrote his memoirs in between rounds of golf. Despite the relaxed schedule, the general's health began to suffer. He'd survived one heart attack as president and had several more after he retired.

These pylon plaques on the Eisenhower Center grounds describe the contributions of the Eisenhower family On May 14, 1968, Eisenhower traveled to Washington. Weakened by each successive heart attack, he was admitted to Walter Reed Army Hospital, where he lived out the last ten months of his life. His wife stayed in a suite down the hall. Finally, on March 28, 1969, the old warrior's heart gave out.

Three years earlier, Eisenhower had approved a funeral plan carefully crafted by the Military District of Washington, which has oversight of modern presidential funerals. Each moment of the ceremony was outlined with military precision in a fifty-four-page doc.u.ment, including the timing of the gun salutes and the pace at which the procession would travel down Const.i.tution Avenue. Many of those elements, including the riderless horse preceding the caisson, had been seen just a few years before at the funeral of John Kennedy.

Eisenhower's body was taken to lie in state in the Capitol rotunda. Citizens waited to pay their respects in a line that stretched six city blocks. In twenty-four hours, fifty-five thousand people pa.s.sed by the catafalque. President Richard Nixon, who had served as Eisenhower's vice president, gave a eulogy. Government offices closed and flags flew at half mast.

The funeral was held at Washington National Cathedral. Two thousand invited guests filled the church to capacity. Representatives from more than seventy-eight countries attended, including French President Charles De Gaulle. Lyndon Johnson was also there on his first trip to Washington, D.C., since leaving the White House. Thousands more gathered on the lawn in freezing weather to listen to the service over a public address system. Reverend L.R. Elson quoted scripture and the congregation sang "A Mighty Fortress is Our G.o.d" and "Onward Christian Soldiers."

After the funeral, Eisenhower's body was taken by train to his hometown, Abilene, Kansas, the site of Eisenhower's presidential library. In Abilene, the hea.r.s.e pa.s.sed slowly by Eisenhower's modest boyhood cottage on its way to the library. Thousands lined the route. Three hundred invited guests gathered at the library steps. A minister read Psalms 23 and 121 before the military guard fired its twenty-one-gun salute and the bugler sounded taps. The former president's widow was given the flag that covered his casket.

The walls of the crypt are inscribed with quotes from several of Dwight Eisenhower's speeches Eisenhower was buried as he wished in his army uniform and in an eighty-dollar standard-issue military coffin. He was laid to rest in the Place of Meditation, one of five buildings in the Eisenhower complex. Later that afternoon, a grieving Mamie Eisenhower returned to the gravesite. She placed a gladiola on her husband's grave and chrysanthemums on her son's. When she died ten years later, she was buried alongside them.

Touring the Tomb at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum The Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum is located in Abilene, Kansas, approximately 150 miles west of Kansas City and 90 miles north of Wichita.

The complex is open daily from 7:45 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. from Memorial Day until mid-August. The rest of the year the opening hours are 9:00 a.m. until 4:45 p.m. The chapel is open year-round from dawn until dusk. All buildings are closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. A fee is charged for the museum only. Admission is $8.00 for adults aged sixteen to sixty-one. The fee for senior citizens is $6.00. Children ages eight to fifteen are admitted for $1.00. Children under eight are admitted free.

To reach the Library and Museum: Take Interstate 70 to exit 275. The Library and Museum are located about two miles south of I-70 on KS-15.

For additional information The Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum 200 SE 4th Street Abilene, KS 67410 Phone: (785) 263-6700 Fax: (785) 263-6715 www.eisenhower.archives.gov Eisenhower was eight years old when his family moved into this Abilene, Kansas home "On the morning of March 28, 1969, the old soldier issued his final command."-Richard Norton Smith

In 1967 amidst stringent secrecy, the former president traveled to Denver to exhume the remains of his first son, Doud Dwight, known to his doting parents as Icky, who had died of scarlet fever in 1921 at the age of four. The former president, his grief still fresh after four decades, accompanied the small casket to Abilene, Kansas. There he personally supervised Icky's interment near the crypts reserved for himself and Mamie in a plain sandstone chapel across the street from his boyhood home and presidential library.Thereafter Eisenhower's health deteriorated rapidly. By the spring of 1968, a series of heart attacks led to his hospitalization at Walter Reed. Mamie took up residence in a tiny room next to his suite. One early visitor was the Reverend Billy Graham, whose help Ike sought in patching up an occasionally strained relationship with Richard Nixon. The upshot was Eisenhower's public endors.e.m.e.nt of his former vice president before Republican delegates met in Miami Beach that August to choose their presidential candidate. Pleased as he was by Nixon's victory at the polls that fall, he was made even happier by the December nuptials of his grandson David to Nixon's daughter Julie.As Eisenhower's condition worsened, Billy Graham returned to Walter Reed for a visit. After half an hour of conversation, Ike asked his doctor and nurses to leave the room. Taking the evangelist's hand, he said, "Billy, you've told me how to be sure my sins are forgiven and that I'm going to Heaven. Would you tell me again?"Graham reached for his copy of the New Testament. He read the old, familiar verses promising eternal life, before adding a short prayer of his own."Thank you," said Eisenhower. "I'm ready." On the morning of March 28, 1969, the old soldier issued his final command. After ordering his son and grandson to prop him up in his hospital bed, Ike told John Eisenhower, "I want to go. G.o.d take me."-RNS

John F. Kennedy Buried: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia Thirty-fifth President - 1961-1963 Born: May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Ma.s.sachusetts Died: 2:00 p.m. on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas Age at death: 46 Cause of death: Shot by a.s.sa.s.sin Final words: Reputed to have said, "My G.o.d, I've been hit."

Admission to Arlington National Cemetery: Free John F. Kennedy was the first president born in the twentieth century. He was also the first Roman Catholic to hold that office. He defeated Vice President Richard Nixon to become the thirty-fifth president of the United States.

Kennedy held that office for just over a thousand days. His administration increased the military advisors in Southeast Asia and faced off with Communist regimes in Cuba, East Germany, and the Soviet Union. At home, Kennedy began work on a legislative program addressing civil rights.

On November 21, 1963, Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson traveled to Texas on a political salvage mission. After stops in San Antonio and Houston, the party flew to Dallas, where the president was to speak at the Trade Mart. His motorcade made its way from Love Field through downtown Dallas. As it pa.s.sed the Texas School Book Depository, shots rang out.

An eternal flame burns above the simple plaque bearing John F. Kennedy's dates of birth and death The president was struck twice: once in the neck and once in the back of the head. Texas Governor John Connally, riding in front of Kennedy, was also wounded. The car carrying the two wounded men was quickly diverted to Parkland Memorial Hospital.

Efforts to save the president were futile. John F. Kennedy, age forty-six, was p.r.o.nounced dead at 2:00 p.m. Jacqueline Kennedy, her pink suit stained with her husband's blood, placed her wedding band on his finger. In the waiting area, attention shifted to the new president, Lyndon Johnson.

A few hours later, Johnson was sworn in by Judge Sarah Hughes aboard Air Force One with John Kennedy's coffin in the back of the plane. That afternoon, not far from the Book Depository, Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit was shot and killed when he approached a suspect near the a.s.sa.s.sination scene. The suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, was captured thirty minutes later.

In Washington, the White House staff acted swiftly. They consulted history books hoping to recreate the majesty of Abraham Lincoln's 1865 state funeral. Kennedy's young widow directed much of the operation. The East Room was bordered in black crepe and decorated with leaves taken from Andrew Jackson's magnolia trees on the South Lawn.

On Sunday, November 24, as Oswald was being transferred from the Dallas city prison to the county jail, Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner, shot the alleged a.s.sa.s.sin in the abdomen. NBC beamed live images of the shooting to millions of Americans. Oswald died ninety minutes later. The slain president's family, accompanying JFK's coffin from the White House to the Capitol, was unaware of the latest turn of events.

Waiting in a line that stretched for more than three miles, 250,000 people pa.s.sed by Kennedy's flag-draped coffin lying in state in the Capitol rotunda. A military guard stood watch over the catafalque, a red, white, and blue wreath from President Johnson resting at its base. Monday morning, nine men from the five armed services carried the casket down the Capitol steps. A military band played "Hail to the Chief," the navy hymn, and Chopin's funeral march as the caisson made its way to the Executive Mansion, where the family, along with hundreds of dignitaries, began a procession to the funeral.

More than a thousand invited guests were packed into St. Matthew's Cathedral. Richard Cardinal Cushing, who had officiated at Kennedy's wedding, performed the requiem ma.s.s. Bishop Philip Hannan read scriptural pa.s.sages and portions of Kennedy's inaugural address.

After the service, the caisson began its journey to Arlington National Cemetery, to a site selected by Mrs. Kennedy overlooking the city. "Black Jack," a riderless horse with boots reversed in its stirrups in honor of a fallen leader, followed behind. John F. Kennedy, Jr., celebrating his third birthday that morning, saluted his father's pa.s.sing casket. At a graveside service, fifty jets, followed by Air Force One, flew overhead. The widow joined brothers-in-law Robert and Edward Kennedy in lighting the grave's eternal flame.

Jacqueline Kennedy became the first president's widow to receive a staff and Secret Service protection. She was buried alongside her husband when she died in 1994.

On September 24, 1964, the President's Commission on the a.s.sa.s.sination of President Kennedy submitted its final report. The investigative panel, known as the Warren Commission after its chairman, Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, concluded that accused a.s.sa.s.sin Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Many still believe that a larger conspiracy was at work but no conclusive evidence has been found.

Touring John F. Kennedy's Tomb at Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is open daily, 365 days a year. Hours are from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. from April through September and 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from October through March. Admission to the cemetery is free.

Arlington National Cemetery is located across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., at the north end of the Memorial Bridge. The bridge is accessible from Const.i.tution Avenue or Twenty-third Street N.W. near the Lincoln Memorial. The cemetery can also be reached by Metrorail at the Arlington Cemetery stop on the blue line.

Cars are not allowed on the cemetery grounds except by special permission. Paid parking is available near the Visitors Center. Tourmobile offers motorized tours of the cemetery for a fee; Kennedy's gravesite is one of the tour's scheduled stops.

Maps of the cemetery are available at the Visitors Center. To reach Kennedy's grave from the cemetery's main entrance (Memorial Drive), take Roosevelt Drive to Weeks Drive. Signs clearly mark Kennedy's grave.

For additional information Superintendent Arlington National Cemetery Arlington, VA 22211 Visitor Center Phone: (703) 607-8000 www.arlingtoncemetery.org "For anyone who lived through those four shattering days in November 1963, memory conjures a flawless pageant of grief..."-Richard Norton SmithOver the years Americans have witnessed with heartbreaking frequency Kennedy funerals. For anyone who lived through those four shattering days in November 1963, memory conjures a flawless pageant of grief, brilliantly ch.o.r.eographed by a young widow. The horse-drawn caisson and riderless horse, the eternal flame, even JFK's interment in Arlington National Cemetery: all were her doing. But the past, as always, informs the present, and with her love of history, it was hardly surprising that Jacqueline Kennedy should turn to the White House Historical a.s.sociation and its guidebook-both largely her work-with its engraving of the funeral of that nineteenth-century martyr, Abraham Lincoln.Incredibly, Mrs. Kennedy found time to send condolences to the widow of the Dallas policeman, J.D. Tippit, who was Lee Harvey Oswald's other victim. She held out for St. Matthew's Cathedral and not the ma.s.sive Shrine of the Immaculate Conception as the site of her husband's funeral. Determined to walk the eight blocks from the White House to St. Matthew's, nothing and no one could change her mind. At first, it was widely a.s.sumed that JFK would be laid to rest in his native Ma.s.sachusetts, in the Brookline cemetery where, a few months earlier, he had buried his infant son Patrick. The Navy was even holding a destroyer in readiness to transport the presidential casket. earlier, he had buried his infant son Patrick. The Navy was even holding a destroyer in readiness to transport the presidential casket.[image]Robert F. Kennedy's cross lies on the slope near his brother's grave in Arlington National Cemetery. In September 2009, Edward M. Kennedy was interred nearby.[image]Political activist Allard Lowenstein is buried near JFK's graveNot until Sat.u.r.day, the twenty-third, a day of incessant downpours and numbing grief, was Kennedy's final resting place decided. While the so-called Irish Mafia pushed for Brookline, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara thought the Boston area "too parochial." Visiting Arlington National Cemetery, McNamara was captivated by the slope in front of the Lee-Custis Mansion whose stately pillars crowned Arlington's summit. Robert Kennedy was soon converted, as was Jean Kennedy Smith. Returning to the White House that afternoon, she blurted out, "Oh Jackie, we found the most wonderful place!"Mrs. Kennedy immediately left for Arlington where she, too, fell under its spell. Before evening, work had begun on the gravesite, located on a direct axis with the Lincoln Memorial. By then McNamara had encountered a young college student who worked at the Lee Mansion and who recalled an earlier visit to the site by President Kennedy during which JFK had called the view from the hilltop the most beautiful sight in Washington. It was the ultimate confirmation of McNamara's hunch.-RNS

Lyndon Baines Johnson Buried: LBJ Ranch, near Johnson City, Texas Thirty-sixth President - 1963-1969 Born: August 27, 1908, near Stonewall, Texas Died: 4:33 p.m. on January 22, 1973, near Johnson City, Texas Age at death: 64 Cause of death: Heart attack Final words: Unknown Admission to LBJ Ranch: Free On November 22, 1963, Lyndon Baines Johnson became the thirty-sixth president of the United States. Vice President Johnson was riding two cars behind President John F. Kennedy in a Dallas motorcade when an a.s.sa.s.sin fired shots at JFK. Kennedy was p.r.o.nounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital. A few hours later, as the plane carried the dead president's body back to Washington, Johnson was sworn in by Judge Sarah Hughes aboard Air Force One. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Johnson's wife, Lady Bird, stood at his side. A stunned nation spent the weekend glued to television sets as news of John Kennedy's a.s.sa.s.sination reached across the globe.