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set his heart on. So I sent to the Chaplain of the ship, who was a Roman Catholic, and told him the story of what Pa's problems were, and so forth, and would he receive Pa? So he said, ‘Yes, sure he would.' So he did. And I was thinking partly of Francis--his wife. He received him, and then he died very shortly thereafter, so I always felt I did the right thing. I was sure it was what Pa wanted.”

I learned from others that the President did everything for Pa--I mean, he sat with him, and went into his cabin and stayed with him, you know, when he was ill. He was ill, I think, only a brief time, a little over a day. That must have taken something out of the President, that whole episode with Pa, you know--his being stricken, his dying, his being received into the Church, the President's message to Francis to inform her of this, which was sent wireless by Naval communications, you know--it was all an awfull strain on him. To say nothing of the paperwork he had to do.

Well, he arrived home that morning, and he drove directly from the airport, or wherever they landed--I don't remember whether they came in by air, or whether they came in by train, but anyhow he drove directly--there was no advance notice given out of what time (end of February, 1945) he was coming, and they drove directly out to Arlington with Pa's body. There they met Francis who had been informed. They buried Pa that morning--which was a strain on Roosevelt.

And I remember saying to Steve Early, “My God, why did