Franklin D. Roosevelt dies at 63 during fourth term as President of the United States

来源: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/president-franklin-roosevelt-dies-63-article-1.2597712

(Originally published by the Daily News on April 13, 1945. This story was written by Merriman Smith.)

WARM SPRINGS, GA., April 12 — President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, thirty-first man to serve as President of the United States and the nation’s only four-time Chief Executive, died suddenly here at 4:35 P.M. (New York time) today.

Relaxed and in fine spirits, he had sat in front of the fireplace in his cottage at 2 P.M., posing for a portrait artist.

Suddenly he said, “I have a terrific headache.”

Those were his last words. He lapsed into unconsciousness at 2:15 and two hours and 20 minutes later died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage.

He was 63, and died as armies he helped to muster drove momentarily closer to final victory over Nazi Germany. He died on the eve of what he had hoped would be the inauguration of an era of peace in a world free from want and fear.

Only three persons were with the President when he died in his quarters at the Warm Spring Foundation for infantile paralysis victims. They were Comdr. Howard G. Bruenn, on the staff of Vice Admiral Ross T. McIntire, Navy Surgeon General, who was Roosevelt’s personal physician; Lieut. Cmdr. George Fox, a White House medical aid, and Dr. James Paullin, Atlanta physician, who had been summoned when the President was stricken.

单词：

1. Serve as: 担任；作为
   例：The United States also offered to serve as a negotiator in several international disputes during the late eighteen hundreds. 在19世纪末期的各种国际争端中，美国也自愿作为调解国这样的角色。
2. Terrific：极好的；极其巨大的，惊人的 A terrific bang. 一声巨响
3. Lapse into：陷入某种状态
   例：The driver lapsed into unconsciousness after the car accident. 车祸之后，司机陷入了昏迷状态。
4. Muster：召集，集结
5. On the eve of : 在…的前夜；在…的前夕
6. Infantile paralysis：小儿麻痹症，脊髓灰质炎
7. On the staff of ：作为….中的一员
8. Summon：传唤，召唤
   例：Ethan summoned the waiter for the bill. Ethan招呼服务员结账。

2 Cousins in His Cottage

Mrs. Roosevelt and his only daughter, Mrs. Anna Boettiger, were in Washington. His four sons are on duty with the armed forces.

In the cottage, called the Little White House, but not his room, were his cousins, Margaret Suckley and Laura Delano. With them was his private secretary, Grace Tulley, and White House Secretary William Hassett.

Death came to him on a pleasant Spring day. The scene was a little room overlooking a green and lovely Georgia valley.

So far from death were the President’s thoughts when he began his last day that he had planned an unusually busy afternoon and evening, even to attending a minstrel show at night.

The President had been in Warm Springs — which he called his second home — since March 30. Most of the preceding week he had spent at his home in Hyde Park.

The news of Roosevelt’s death came from the secretary, Hassett. He called in three press association reporters who had accompanied the President here and said:

“It is my sad duty to inform you that the President died of a cerebral hemorrhage.”

The news was phoned simultaneously to Washington.

After Roosevelt had complained of headache, he put his hand suddenly to the back of his head. A few minutes later he slumped in his chair.

Arthur Prettyman, Roosevelt’s [African-American] valet, picked the President up bodily and carried him to the small bedroom just to the left of the entrance to the Little White House.

Before receiving the portrait artist, the President worked on official papers. He seemed to be in good health. His face, though seamed, had been tanned by the Georgia sun.

His last official act was to sign legislation extending the life of the Commodity Credit Corp.

As he signed the bill, he remarked to Hassett, “Here’s where I make a law.”

A moment before, he signed several State Department appointments, citations for the Legion of Merit for U.S. war heroes, and a long list of postmaster nominations for small towns — such as Panaca, Nev.

Hassett left the Little White House a few minutes before the President felt the head pains which foretold his death.

Roosevelt would have tackled his paper work much earlier in the day had not the plane bringing his official pouch from Washington been grounded by weather. Usually, while in Warm Springs, the President went to work much earlier in the day, but today it was noon before he got started.

Hassett had asked the President whether, in view of the nearness of the lunch hour, he would like to delay going over his paper work until afternoon.

The President shook his head and told Hassett they could get to work right then.

单词：

1. Simultaneously：与此同时，同时的
   例：It’s not easy to listen to the class and to take notes simultaneously, so I suggest you take some time to review the class and sort out the notes. 一边听讲一边记笔记不容易的，我建议你课后抽些时间复习整理笔记。
2. Slump：（肩或者脑袋）耷拉着
3. Seamed：有缝的；有皱纹的
   例：A gentle smile spreads over her seamed face. 她布满皱纹的脸上露出慈祥的笑容。
4. Tackle：处理
   例：It’s not easy to tackle such an urgent issue. 处理这样紧急的事件并不容易。
5. Be grounded by : 因为….而停飞
6. In view of ：鉴于….

Doctors Called In.

“We worked for about 20 minutes on an unusually heavy budget of paper work,” Hasset said, “and then left him some material to read stacked up in front of him.”

After the President fainted and Prettyman carried him to the bedroom, Miss Delano summoned Dr. Bruenn. He and Comdr. Fox, an assistant to McIntyre, took off Roosevelt’s dark blue suit and pulled on his pajamas.

Bruenn saw the President about 9:30 this morning and found him in “excellent spirits.” He did not see Roosevelt again until summoned in the emergency.

The artist who was sketching the President was N. Robbins of 520 W. 139th St., New York. He left the Little White House soon after the President fainted and departed from Warm Springs in his auto before reporters could talk to him.

There had been one portent, had anyone been able to interpret it, that not everything was well with the President. He had not once gone swimming in his warm water pool, as had been his custom in all previous visits and where in 1924 he began his long battle to overcome the withering effects of infantile paralysis.

Dr. Bruenn gave this explanation of the disinclination to swim:

“He just did not want to — he did not feel like it.”

On April 5, the President conferred for a day with President Sergio Osmena of the Philippine Commonwealth. He told Osmena that he hoped Philippine independence would be restored far in advance of the Congressional statutory date of July 4, 1946.

单词：

1. Faint：（adj）不清楚的，模糊的 （v）晕倒，昏厥 （n）昏厥
   例：a faint smile淡淡一笑 / a faint hope微弱的希望 I nearly/almost fainted when they told me the price.他们告诉我价格的时候，我差点昏过去。
2. Portent：征兆，迹象
3. Wither：（使）枯萎，（使）疲弱（每况愈下）
   例：When he went into retirement, he visibly withered. 到了退休的年龄时，他明显变得虚弱了。
4. Disinclination：不情愿，厌恶
5. Confer：商议，讨论
   例：I must confer with my lawyer before I can make the decision. 我必须先和我的律师商量下才能做决定。

Then He Was Bubbling.

The occasion of his meeting with Osmena on April 5 was the last time the three wire service reporters accompanying the President saw him to talk to for any length of time. He was in gay spirits then and chatted lightly as he sat behind a paper-laden card table, waving his long cigarette holder jauntily and wisecracking with the reporters.

At the time the President had a good suntan, but his face was usually drawn and there was evidence of a slight cough.

But he did not look or act like a man who was going to die in a week.

After today’s attack Bruenn quickly called Admiral McIntire in Washington and McIntire in turn called Dr. James P. Paulin of Atlanta, an internal medical specialist and honorary consultant to the surgeon general.

The tiny community that makes up Warm Springs was plunged into gloom by the death of its patron saint.

The President had planned at 4:30 o’clock to go to the mountainside cottage of Frank Allcorn, the Major of Warm Springs, for an old fashioned late afternoon barbecue.

As the President died, country fiddlers were on the mountainside by Allcorn’s cottage testing out their violins and planning what they were going to play for him.

At dusk the President was to have gone to the small playhouse on the small playhouse on the Warm Springs Foundation for a minstrel show put on by the patients who live in wheel chairs and braces — just as the President had since he suffered an infantile paralysis attack in 1920.

Since last Spring it had been increasingly evident that the President had lost a great deal of his old-time vitality and ability to recover from minor ailments. He spent a month last Spring fighting a secluded battle with bronchitis at the South Carolina coastal estate of Bernard M. Baruch. And in the months leading to his precedent — breaking fourth term campaign the Chief Executive spent as much time as possible at his home in Hyde Park.

单词：

1. Jauntily: 洋洋得意的，活泼的
2. Wisecrack：说俏皮话（谈笑风仍）
   例：Someone was wisecracking with the journalist Wallace from CBS during the interview. 某人在采访中与CBS的记者华莱士谈笑风扔。
3. Patron：赞助人；顾客，主顾 Facilities for disabled patrons 供残障顾客使用的设施
4. Fiddler：小提琴手；骗子
5. A minstrel show: 白人模仿黑人的滑稽演出
6. Vitality：经历；活力
7. Ailment：小病，不适
8. Secluded：僻静的，清净的
   例：He is 80 years old now and lives a very secluded life. 他现在80岁了，过着远离尘嚣清静的生活。
9. Bronchitis：支气管炎
10. Precedent：先例

Visit in South a Secret.

Because of wartime security silence on his movements the public had little knowledge of just how much time the President was spending outside of Washington. As a matter of fact, his presence in Warm Springs had not been disclosed.

The President went through a fourth term campaign that was tough for a man of his condition and age. Although early this year he made the grueling trip to Yalta, he showed signs of increasing weariness. His voice at press conferences was weak, and loose folds of skin under his chin were a sign of the weight he had lost.

During the last election campaign some of the President’s critics, including some within his own his party, said he would not live out his fourth term. His death today bore them out.

Unpredictable Seizure.

Doctors say that a cerebral hemorrhage is not something that can be foretold. And the President’s death took his entire staff, people who lived with him 24 hours a day, by complete surprise.

The President had planned to make a brief radio address tomorrow night to Jefferson Day dinners of the Democratic Party over the nation. He had planned to leave Warm Springs on April 18, arriving back in Washington on April 19 and staying there one day before leaving for the United Nations conference in San Francisco.

单词：

1. Disclose：透露，公开
   例：Ethan refuses to disclose his real name. Ethan拒绝透露他的真实姓名。
2. Grueling：累垮人的，折磨人的
3. Weariness：疲倦，厌倦
4. Live out：实践，实现
5. Bear out：支持，证实
   例：The fact bears out the claim that English for All is a place where you can really learn how to use your English. 事实证明了（这个说法）天天用英语才是一个你真正能够学到如何用英语的地方。
6. Unpredictable：不可预测的
   例：It’s universally acknowledged that earthquakes are actually unpredictable. 地震其实是不可以去测的，这无可争议。
7. Seizure：突然发作
8. Take sb by complete surprise：使…..大吃一惊

重点长难句：

1. He was 63, and died as armies he helped to muster drove momentarily closer to final victory over Nazi Germany. He died on the eve of what he had hoped would be the inauguration of an era of peace in a world free from want and fear.
   （富兰克林罗斯福）他享年63岁，就在他亲自帮助召集的军队马上将取得与德国纳粹战斗的胜利时，他去世了。就在一个和平/没有贫穷/没有恐惧的时代到来的前夕，他去世了。

2. So far from death were the President’s thoughts when he began his last day that he had planned an unusually busy afternoon and evening, even to attending a minstrel show at night.
   当他开始他任务繁重的一天，也是最后一天时——在他的计划里，下午和旁晚都会很忙，晚上甚至还要去参加一个演出，彼时，他想都没想过死神会离他这么近。

3. Roosevelt would have tackled his paper work much earlier in the day had not the plane bringing his official pouch from Washington been grounded by weather.
   如果不是载着从白宫过来的文件袋的飞机因为天气原因停飞了，罗斯福本可以在今天更早一些时候处理工作。

4. There had been one portent, had anyone been able to interpret it, that not everything was well with the President.
   如果真有人能够去解读它的话，确实有一个征兆：总统并不是一切都正常的。

5. Since last Spring it had been increasingly evident that the President had lost a great deal of his old-time vitality and ability to recover from minor ailments. He spent a month last Spring fighting a secluded battle with bronchitis at the South Carolina coastal estate of Bernard M. Baruch. And in the months leading to his precedent — breaking fourth term campaign the Chief Executive spent as much time as possible at his home in Hyde Park.
   从上个春天开始，就已经可以看的越来越明显了：总统已经失去了往日的活力，并且不能在抵御一些小病了。他上个春天里，用了一个月的时间在南卡罗来纳州的一个海边城市的地方，与支气管炎做着斗争。就在他即将创造先例——第四次竞选的时候，总统几乎所有的时间都是在海德公园的家里待着的。

6. The President went through a fourth term campaign that was tough for a man of his condition and age. Although early this year he made the grueling trip to Yalta, he showed signs of increasing weariness. His voice at press conferences was weak, and loose folds of skin under his chin were a sign of the weight he had lost.
   总统经历了第四任期的竞选，这对于他这年纪和身体状况的人来说，太难了。尽管今年早些时候，他踏上了快要把人累垮的雅尔塔会议之旅，但他已经表现出了种种憔悴的迹象。记者会上的声音那么虚弱，下巴出松散的皮肤，这都是他体重大减的迹象啊。

7. Doctors say that a cerebral hemorrhage is not something that can be foretold. And the President’s death took his entire staff, people who lived with him 24 hours a day, by complete surprise.
   医生说，脑溢血这种病是没有任何征兆的。而且，总统的去世，确实让整天24小时陪在他身边的人大吃了一惊。