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Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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the country. Where the train didn't stop, it was lined with people. And in the villages where it slowed down, you see, going through, there were great crowds in the railroad stations everywhere. Very, very shocked and horrified people.

Of course there are the stories you've heard of what happened in New York, of taxicab drivers telling their fares, “Did you hear the President is dead?” Very deeply shocked people, they were.

I was interested in the number of people who came to Washington. There was not going to be a public funeral. Mrs. Roosevelt had settled that, apparently. It was a private funeral in the White House. There was a procession from the station to the White House. Mrs. Roosevelt declared that she had had some agreement with the President, that if he should die, he didn't want a public funeral. I think he said he wanted a funeral about like his mother's, you know, which he had arranged.

At any rate, it would have been appropriate and it would have been quite important, in a way, to have had a public funeral in the Cathedral, which is large enough to accommodate it. It would have been proper and dignified and suitable. And it would have been immensely relieving to a great many people, you know, to have had a funeral in which they could have joined, at least in the hymns and in the prayers.





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