Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Rerun from a year ago.

April 12, 1945. The picture of Graham Jackson is the image of that event that I always think of.



The caption of the original photograph starts out:

On the afternoon of the day he died President Roosevelt was scheduled to attend a barbecue at Warm Springs. That afternoon he would have heard Chief Petty Officer Graham Jackson, a Georgia Negro, play his accordion. The President had enjoyed Jackson's songs many times in the past. The next day when the President's body was borne slowly past the main dormitory at Warm Springs, where often he used to wave at the patients convalescing in the sun's rays, Jackson stepped out of the watching circle, sadly fingered the strains of Going Home. As he played, C.P.O Jackson wept open-eyed to the mournful phrases of his own lament.

Graham Jackson, from the wonderful Atlanta Time Machine.

Please go to Google Books to see the coverage in the April 23, 1945 issue of Life magazine. You will be amazed.

Roosevelt's Death

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Thank you for this.

I'm weeping too. We should all weep at the loss of FDR Democrats, Democrats that worked hard to do the right thing.

[asjr]

2. My grandfather and I went to the

train station in our small town in TN to pay our respects as the train slowly rolled through town. There were many others there and the only sound was of the wheels slowly moving. I was 11 years old and I can still see that image. FDR was truly loved by many.