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unison, “The President is dead.”

I'll never forget it. They both said it. It was the most shocking kind of an experience. I remember that I turned away. It was that kind of thing--you couldn't stand it to look at any other human creature, you know. I turned away. I turned my back on them and found myself looking at the other door for a few minutes to digest the idea and get hold of myself. A very strange kind of disturbance came over you. Then I turned to the men. I remember that I made the sign of the cross--because I do when I'm disturbed--and I remember that I thought that Vinson looked at me in an odd way, but I had been utterly unconscious of making the sign of the cross until he looked at me. Then I realized that that wasn't probably customary in his circles. But I always do, and so I didn't think anything of it.

I turned and said, “When did this happen and what is it?”

Then they told me the story, which they did not know in full at that time. They only knew that Mrs. Roosevelt had received the message that the President had had a stroke, and that she had put in a telephone call for Warm Springs, had had some difficulty getting a connection and so forth. At any rate, all Vinson and Mr. Truman know was that some time about half past four or five o'clock, Mrs. Roosevelt had telephoned to Mr. Truman and asked him to come to the White House at