FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944

22: Death in October

255 There occurred within the space of five days early in the month of Oc­ tober the deaths of two American political icons. Whether this brace of departures,bothtakingplaceinNewYorkCity,wouldaffectthepresi­ dential race quickly became a matter of speculation. Most likely one death would have no effect but the other probably would. At 6:28 a.m. on October 4, Alfred Emanuel Smith passed away at Rockefeller Institute Hospital. Al Smith, the “Happy Warrior,” four times elected governor of New York and the 1928 Democratic candi­ date for president, was 70 years old when he died. Smith’s wife had died of cancer on May 4, 1944, and her widower seemed to be in fail­ ing health thereafter. He entered St. Vincent’s Hospital on August 10, suffering from heat exhaustion. On September 22, his physician had Smith transferred to Rockefeller, but he had continued to fail. On Sep­ tember 30, he had been deemed in critical condition and last rites were given him by a Roman Catholic priest. He rallied slightly but his pulse weakened seriously at about 2 a.m. on the 4th, and he expired later that morning. Al Smith, from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a man who ran for president without the benefit of a high school or college education, a product of Tammany Hall and a foe of Prohibition, was one of the most singular political leaders the Democratic party ever brought forth. The first Roman Catholic to run for president, Smith had been presented to 2 2 Death in October 256 FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944 the Democratic conventions of 1924 and 1928 by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Running against Herbert Hoover in 1928, Smith was an unapologetic “wet” who made no excuses for his religion, all of which led to an in­ surrection in the Solid South and a substantial defeat in the electoral college. In 1932, Smith once again sought the nomination of his party, which went instead to his former protégé Roosevelt. Although a bitter Smith ultimatelysupportedFDRinthatyear’scampaign,hebecameestranged fromRooseveltandbackedLandonin1936andWillkiein1940.Heurged the nation to unite behind President Roosevelt when war came, but he was never again close to the President. Al Smith was no longer a factor in electoral politics at the time he died, but his death turned a lot of memo­ ries back to his glory days in Albany. With Al Smith’s funeral on October 7, the candidates paid appro­ priate respects and the “Happy Warrior” was sent on his way. The next day they were confronted with the death of a man who was very much a factor in the politics of 1944. At 2:20 a.m. on October 8, Wendell Willkie died at Lenox Hill Hos­ pital, his death brought about by a coronary thrombosis. Willkie had been suffering from ill health for about a month, but no one really ex­ pected this big, shambling, tousled, vital man of 52 to die. Apparently a picture of robust health, Willkie was still the star of Republican interna­ tionalism, and the leaders of both parties had been nervously awaiting his endorsement of one or the other of the two major candidates, with the expected swing of several million Willkie enthusiasts behind the designated contender.1 After his meeting with Dulles in August, Willkie had journeyed to his old home in Rushville, Indiana, to check on his farms and while there suffered a heart attack. His doctors in Indiana were able to curtail his pain, and Willkie took a train back to New York, possibly suffering another seizure on the way. His wife met him at Penn Station to take a cab to their apartment. As he sat back in the taxi, he said to her wearily, “Billie, I am afraid this is something I can’t lick.”2 On September 6, Willkie entered Lenox Hill Hospital for a rest and for treatment of colitis, a stomach disorder, but once he was there tests Death in October 257 not surprisingly revealed his heart condition. He was to have been dis­ charged from the hospital on October 3 but was then stricken with a streptococcic throat infection followed by lung congestion, with high fever. On October 5, when Willkie’s temperature reached 104, his doc­ tors felt that he was gone, but they gave him penicillin and brought his fever down. Then, however, came a series of three heart attacks, the last of which...