FDR's funeral train : a betrayed widow, a Soviet spy, and a presidency in the balance

The April 1945 journey of FDR's funeral train became a thousand-mile odyssey, fraught with heartbreak and scandal. As it passed through the night, few of the grieving onlookers gave thought to what might be happening behind the Pullman shades, where women whispered and men tossed back highballs. Inside was a Soviet spy, a newly widowed Eleanor Roosevelt, who had just discovered that her husband's mistress was in the room with him when he died, all the Supreme Court justices, and incoming president Harry S. Truman who was scrambling to learn secrets FDR had never shared with him. Weaving together information from long-forgotten diaries and declassified Secret Service documents, journalist and historian Robert Klara enters the private world on board that famous train. He chronicles the three days during which the country grieved and despaired as never before, and a new president hammered out the policies that would galvanize a country in mourning and win the Second World War.

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 recall the journey later would agree it was a foolhardy idea to start with--putting every important elected figure in Washington on a single train during the biggest war in history. For the American people, of course, the funeral train was just that--the train bearing the body of deceased FDR. It passed with darkened windows; few gave thought to what might be happening aboard. A closer look inside the train, however, would reveal a Soviet spy about to leak a state secret, a newly widowed Eleanor Roosevelt, who just found out that her husband’s mistress was in the room when he died, and the entire family of incoming president Harry S Truman. The thrilling story of what took place behind the Pullman shades, where women whispered and men tossed back highballs, has never been told. On the occasion of the sixty-fifth anniversary of FDR's death, Klara chronicles the action-packed threeiday train ride during which, among other things, Truman hammered out the policies that would galvanize a country in mourning and win the Second World War.

AMERICA IN WWII magazine

FDR put steel in the spine of a nation stunned and bewildered by the disaster of Pearl Harbor, promising, We shall gain the inevitable triumph-so help us God. The depth of feeling his death aroused and the sorrow that surrounded the train bearing his body to the capital and finally to the banks of the Hudson River is recalled and captured by Klara.This slim volume recreates vividly a sense of what America was like in 1945 and puts us aboard the melancholy train.--(Brian John Murphy, Fairfield, Connecticut)

Contents......Page 10 Foreword......Page 12 One: Pine Mountain......Page 22 Two: "Run Slow, Run Silent"......Page 44 Three: The Fish Room......Page 58 Four: The Main Line......Page 74 Five: Twelve Hours......Page 92 Six: The Train of Secrets......Page 118 Seven: Car No. 3......Page 148 Eight: "Where the Sundial Stands"......Page 170 Nine: Homeward......Page 178 Ten: "We Do Not Fear the Future"......Page 202 Epilogue......Page 214 Dramatis Personae......Page 220 Acknowledgments......Page 224 Notes......Page 226 D......Page 260 H......Page 261 P......Page 262 R......Page 263 T......Page 264 Y......Page 265 Color Plates......Page 266 Describes the people on and events that occurred inside Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral train as it carried his body along with Soviet spy, his widow, and the family of the next president through nine states to his burial place