April 14, 1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral procession on the streets of Washington, D.C.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

FDR’s casket in White House East Room after railroad trip from Georgia, today 1945: #FDRL

Honor guards of servicemen and an outpouring of citizens of all races and walks of life lined the route from Warm Springs, GA to DC.

Link to tweet

Here is footage from CriticalPast about the funeral procession in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, April 14, 1945.

It's in an original 4:3 format that has been stretched to fill a wide screen. I don't know how you can undo that.

This is the first time I've seen this footage. When the video was made from the film, some portions were flipped.

In a sequence starting at 2:20, the soldiers or Marines (the uniforms are OD), and some sailors too, are saluting with their left hands. I could verify that this part was flipped by knowing how a flag is supposed to be placed over a coffin.

I just looked that up. See: United States Flag Code

The flag in mourning

{snip}

When used to cover a casket or coffin, the flag should be placed with the union at the head and over the left shoulder. It should not be lowered into the grave; it is also to be removed before the casket is set for cremation. It is considered a proper sign of courtesy to salute a casket covered with the American flag as the pall (in military and state funerals) at the proper time.

In the same footage where the military personnel are saluting with their left hands, the flag is on the coffin so that the union is over Roosevelt's right shoulder. Flag protocol would have been excruciatingly observed for such a service, so the footage is reversed in this portion.

In a sequence at 3:18, Admiral Ernest King salutes with his right hand, and the steering wheels of the automobiles are on the left hand side. That part is right.

How did we ever get along without computers?

The funeral procession of President Franklin D. Roosevelt moves on the streets of...HD Stock Footage
41,745 views May 16, 2014

CriticalPast
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CriticalPast is an archive of historic footage. The vintage footage in this video has been uploaded for research purposes, and is presented in unedited form. Some viewers may find some scenes or audio in this archival material to be unsettling or distressing. CriticalPast makes this media available for researchers and documentarians, and does not endorse or condone any behavior or message, implied or explicit, that is seen or heard in this video.
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https://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675059246_funeral-procession_caisson_color-guard_Roosevelts-funeral
Historic Stock Footage Archival and Vintage Video Clips in HD.

The funeral procession of President Franklin D. Roosevelt moves on the streets of Washington DC

Spectators line sidewalks in Washington,DC, to watch the funeral procession of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Police motorcycle escort surrounds flag-draped coffin of the President, resting on caisson pulled by team of horses. Color Guard and several closed black limousines are immediately behind. Two open cars, with Secret Service agents on their running boards, are seen next. The closest one carries the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Sam Rayburn, and other officials. A contingent of Women Marines, in dress blues, marches ahead of the casket. Other military units march ahead of them in the distance. Change of scene with brief glimpse of sailors marching along Delaware Avenue, with Union Station in the background. Shift back to the President's casket continuing to move along. Grass and trees line the sides of the street, where spectators fill the sidewalks. Closeup of an open car carrying DC police chief, Edward J. Kelly and other police officials, followed by motorcycle policemen, and the team of horses pulling the caisson with the President's casket. Closeup of closed limousine carrying mourners. Open car carrying House Speaker Rayburn, and others. US Navy Fleet Admiral Ernest King and an officer salute. People in the background. Location: Washington DC. Date: April 14, 1945.

{snip}

Here's a newsreel of Roosevelt's death:

Funeral Of President Roosevelt (1945)
210,068 views Aug 25, 2011

Nuclear Vault
199K subscribers

United News Newsreel. Part 1, President Roosevelt's body is placed on a special train at Warm Springs, Georgia. The train is met in Washington, D.C., by Vice Pres. Truman and Henry Wallace. The body is carried by caisson to the White House and reposes there in state. Funeral ceremonies are held at Hyde Park, New York. Part 2, Harry S. Truman attends the 1944 Democratic convention with his daughter, and, as President, receives Lord Halifax, Anthony Eden, Sec. of State Stettinius, Gen. Marshall, Adm. King, Sec. of War Stimson, and James Byrnes at the White House. Also shows Eleanor Roosevelt.

On board the train, and in the procession in DC, the flag is shown correctly placed on the coffin. See 1:11, 3:18, 3:36, and 4:08.

One more. I find these fascinating.

Again, see 2:53 for the proper placement of the flag. That scene shows the procession coming up ... well, I don't know what that's called. Google says it's Union Station Drive NE, or maybe it's Columbus Circle NE. It's that street on the east side of Union Station that goes down and makes a right to become F Street NE. The SEC is there now, right at the bottom where the turn is. See https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8968247,-77.0046912,19z .

Roosevelt died on the 12th. FDR's body was moved to Atlanta on the 13th, and a train took it up the Southern Railway mainline to DC. It made the trip on the night of the 13th and morning of the 14th.

Please go to Google Books to see the coverage of Roosevelt's death in the April 23, 1945 issue of Life magazine. You will be amazed. The following week, it went right back to coverage of debutantes, as if nothing had happened.

From Life magazine, the issue of April 23, 1945: ROOSEVELT'S DEATH

Here is the train at dawn in Charlottesville, Virginia:



Edited: no can do. The historical society has changed its name and its policy on linking to photographs. Here's an article from the Charlottesville Daily Progress with a lower-quality version of the photograph:

A crowd gathered on the West Main Street Bridge to see FDR's funeral train in 1945
The Daily Progress staff reports Apr 14, 2017

125 Years of Progress takes you inside The Daily Progress' archives every day in celebration of our 125 years serving Charlottesville and the rest of Central Virginia. Sponsored by Hanckel-Citizens Insurance Charlottesville



“The 11-car funeral train, drawn by two steam locomotives, slid quietly into the station at 6:20 a.m., as the armed guards, their officers and uniformed members of the Charlottesville Police Department saluted. Other stood silently with bowed heads.”

This was the scene at the Southern Railway Station on April 14, 1945, when the train carrying the body of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt paused briefly on its journey from Warm Springs, Ga. to Washington, D.C., and then on to his final resting place in Hyde Park, NY. A crowd numbering more than 1,000 lined the station platform and the West Main Street Bridge to catch a glimpse and pay their last respects.

“The President’s casket, covered by a large American flag and surrounded by floral decorations, was in the lighted rear portion of the last coach. A guard of honor, consisting of non-commissioned members of the various branches of the armed forces, stood motionless beside the coffin bearing their dead commander-in-chief. The crowd gazed silently.”

Shortly after noon that day, a non-denominational worship service was held in Cabell Hall. Dr. Henry Porter, pastor of First Baptist Church, offered a prayer noting that “Roosevelt’s courage and gallantry, despite physical afflictions, had ‘lifted up the hearts of the forgotten man. The grief at his death is shared by every freedom-loving person.’”

A day earlier, as the nation learned of the president’s death, The Daily Progress editorial noted: “The perspective is lacking today for an appraisal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s place in history, but it may be said with confidence that with the exception of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, no man has played so decisive a role in the life of our country, and that no American has achieved a stature equal to his as a world figure.”

Send news tips to [e-mail], call [phone], tweet us @DailyProgress or send us a Facebook message here.

That's looking to the northeast. The large white building above the tracks, where Main Street goes over the tracks, is the old Queen Charlotte Hotel. It was torn down years ago. The train stopped so that railway officials could use the telephone. Southern Railway trainmaster (and mayor of Alexandria from 1940 to 1949) William T. Wilkins rode the train from Monroe, Virginia, (yes, the town mentioned in "Wreck of the Old 97") up to Alexandria or DC.

The picture was taken from an interlocking tower at the northeast corner of the crossing where the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway crossed the Southern Railway.

FDR Funeral Train {edited: bad link}

[The President’s last visit to Charlottesville, however, would be the morning of April 15th 14th. Amid the early morning darkness, local residents made their way to the Southern Railway Station, lining the West Main Street overhead crossing.

At 6:20 AM the two-steam locomotive pulling the 11-car funeral train eased into the station. President Roosevelt’s body lay in a casket covered with an American flag in the illuminated final car filled with flowers and a guard of honor all standing at attention. After resting for three minutes, the train pulled away, eventually reaching Washington at 9:50 AM the next morning later that morning.

Here's a thread at a forum for the TV show The Waltons about Roosevelt's funeral train:

The Outrage Part II

Jan 2, 2018 at 2:58am

Post by sandra09 on Jan 2, 2018 at 2:58am

I have just watched my daily dose of The Waltons, the episode was 'The Outrage' part II and I have some questions.
Did Franklin D Roosevelt die in a place called Warm Springs and is this in Virginia? Was he carried by train on his last journey, travelling slowly through all the states with four members of your armed forces standing to attention at each corner of his coffin? And lastly, did members of the public line the route in various towns, to pay their respects as he travelled slowly through?
You are probably thinking that I could have looked all this up on the Internet, I know I could, but I would much rather ask you all.

The first reply at that forum has a link to this:

Kenan Research Center, Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, Funeral Procession

FDR's last train ride
GILBERT SANDLER
THE BALTIMORE EVENING SUN

August 20, 1991

BY 7 O'CLOCK on Saturday night, April 14, 1945, thousands of men, women and children were lined up, wherever they could find a perch, along the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks through Baltimore. They were waiting solemnly, some tearfully, to view the coffin of Franklin D. Roosevelt as his funeral train passed through the city on its way from Warm Springs, Ga., to Hyde Park, N.Y., where he would be buried. It was raining.

{snip}

The following footage is out of order. There's a brief clip that starts at 0:11. That's of Alexandria, Virginia. The clip at 0:22 shows Alexandria too.

1945 FDR Funeral Train and Funeral
1,640 views • Jun 12, 2018

MyFootage.com
27.2K subscribers

Reel #: 1531 TC In: 012857 TC Out: 013212

This clip is available for licensing without time code and logo - To inquire about licensing email us at [e-mail] or call us at [phone] - Please Subscribe to our channel, as we are constantly adding new clips. Thanks!

Edited to add:

If you have the patience, here is a long version of the footage. I have not sat through this to see if they have the flipped sequence restored to its correct original version. As a commenter notes, this happened on Saturday, April 14, 1945, not on the 13th.

As the caisson is moving away from Union Station, at around 1:45, you can that the flag is correctly draped upon the coffin. That section of the footage is not flipped. At 4:02, the footage is flipped. I don't know why they can't get that right.

The funeral procession for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt {April 14}, 1945

Taps Bugler
54.3K subscribers

3,246 views Nov 23, 2022
The funeral procession for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt {April 14}, 1945
Roosevelt's body arrived in Washington DC following his death

Fri Apr 14, 2023: April 14, 1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral procession on the streets of Washington, DC

Thu Apr 14, 2022: April 14, 1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral procession on the streets of Washington, DC

Wed Apr 14, 2021: April 14, 1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral procession on the streets of Washington, DC

Tue Apr 14, 2020: April 14, 1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral procession on the streets of Washington, DC

Low-power FM station WERA, in Arlington, Virginia, ran a show {on the afternoon of Monday, April 13, 2020,} about the death of President Roosevelt. It consisted of radio broadcasts from the days following his death.

https://www.facebook.com/939941119429678/photos/a.942268432530280/2843874072369697/

Local radio personality Arthur Godfrey was covering the funeral from his vantage point on top of the Riggs Bank building at the northwest corner of 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. He had been sent there by WJSV, which became today's WTOP. He was quite knowledgeable and detailed in his narrative. I urge you to give the podcast a listen.

Sun Apr 14, 2019: April 14, 1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral procession on the streets of Washington, DC

Sun Jun 3, 2018: Funeral Of President Roosevelt (1945)

Sat Apr 14, 2018: April 14, 1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral procession on the streets of Washington, DC

Sat Apr 15, 2017: April 14, 1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral procession on the streets of Washington, DC

[Frances]

1. Thanks for this post

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Where would we be without FDR?

DeGaulle was there. Amazing.

[Silent Type]

3. Excellent. The videos of the funeral procession and photos of people crying/mourning are moving.