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EDITORIAL: Farewell to presidents and the funeral trains PDF Print E-mail
Written by DeadGirl   
Thursday, 17 June 2004
June 16, 2004
By Betty E. Stein

LIKE MILLIONS OF others, I watched former President Reagan’s casket being loaded on a plane, then a few hours later, being removed so it could be transported to the Capitol. And once again I began remembering. . . The awfulness of John F. Kennedy’s death left us in shock. This was America. Things like this didn’t happen. But we watched Lyndon Johnson and Jackie Kennedy and the casket board a plane to go from Dallas to Washington.

The first president whose death I recall is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Although one could tell by his pictures that his health was failing, the suddenness of his death was a shock.

We loved this man. He had become our president during the Great Depression, and we had believed in him. He had led us to what we now knew would be total victory in this Good War. He was the only president many young people had really known.

Now he was dead, and his body was going to Washington on a special train. All along the railroad tracks from Warm Springs, Ga., to Washington, mourners lined up to watch the cars go by and to say a last goodbye. We saw pictures of the faces of these people, white, black, young, middle-aged, old — people quietly paying homage.

And I thought how times had changed. Now a plane disposes of time; the trip from California to Washington takes a few hours.

The death of Abraham Lincoln stunned the nation; an outing to a theater ended in assassination! I remembered reading how his body was transported by rail to Illinois for burial and that all along that 1,651-mile trip, throngs of people waited alongside the tracks to watch as the funeral train passed slowly along. Sometimes, entire populations of small towns were there to mourn. True, the dark-trimmed cars made many stops along the way — Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Buffalo, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and in each city, thousands and thousands of viewers passed by the displayed casket.

I also learned that President William McKinley’s body was returned by train for burial. He had been assassinated in Buffalo. Perhaps the longest train trip for a deceased president was Warren Harding’s. He died while on a trip out West. He became ill in Seattle but continued to San Francisco, where he died.. His funeral train was delayed by millions of people who lined the train tracks on the trip east to the capital, and the crowds could see the flag-draped coffin and black crepe and flowers and the uniformed men who accompanied the body.

Harding and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were the two 20th century presidents for whom funeral trains were used. Harding’s body lay in state in the White House, then was moved to the Capitol; after the service there, his coffin was taken by train to Marion, Ohio, for burial. President Roosevelt’s body, after the ceremonies in Washington, traveled by train to Hyde Park, N.Y. for interment.

Just recalling a piece of history. I think funeral trains have become a part of the past.

Betty E. Stein is a retired teacher and writes By The Way for The News-Sentinel.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/8938348.htm
 
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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries

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“We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.”

John McRae 1915From In Flan

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