"The Roosevelt Funeral Train" program at Dover Public Library

On Tuesday evening April 17 at 7pm, the Friends of the Dover Public Library will present an intriguing historical program by Carl E. Lindblade. “The Roosevelt Funeral Train”, carrying the body of the just deceased president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, took four days, in April 1945, to travel from FDR’s vacation spot in Warm Springs, Georgia to Hyde Park, New York where he was buried.

The journey of FDR’s funeral train was a thousand-mile odyssey, and tens of thousands of Americans waited by the side of the train tracks to pay their respects to Roosevelt (whose body lay in a flag-draped casket visible through the windows of the funeral train’s rear Pullman). The train carried pretty much the entire U.S. government aboard, including one dead president and one live one, both of their families, the Cabinet and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the diplomatic corps, leaders of both houses of Congress and the nine Justices of the Supreme Court.

Plus, the journey was fraught with heartbreak and scandal. As the train passed through the night, few of the grieving onlookers knew what was happening behind the Pullman shades, where women whispered and men tossed back highballs. Inside was a Soviet spy, a newly widowed Eleanor Roosevelt, who had just discovered that her husband’s mistress was in the room with him when he died, all the Supreme Court justices, and incoming president Harry S. Truman who was scrambling to learn atomic secrets FDR had never shared with him. These many deceptions and betrayals will all be explained and uncovered by our guest speaker, Carl Lindblade.

Carl began his career at the Balsams Resort in Dixville Notch and for the past 40+ years has operated 3 and 4 diamond hotels and resorts. He was a delegate to the 1995 White House Conference on Travel and Tourism, Interim Director of the NH Office of Travel and Tourism Development, Innkeeper of the Year, Travel Person of the Year, Past President of the NH Lodging and Restaurant Association and American Hotel and Lodging Association Volunteer of the Year. He is currently a lecturer in the hospitality management department at the University of New Hampshire. As a volunteer, Carl coached the Conway’s Kennett High School Lodging Class to a national championship in a competition sponsored by the American Hotel and Lodging Association. He enjoys history and presenting on interesting NH and US topics.

Friends of the Library programs are always free and open to all. Refreshments will be served following the lecture. For more information, please call the Dover Public Library: 516-6050.