1945 I N ATLANTA, in the nation, and around the world 1945 was a memorable year. On April 12 Franklin Roosevelt died at the Little White House at Warm Springs. At the very moment when Madame Elizabeth Shoumatoff, a famous portrait artist, was reading his life story in his face and putting in color on canvas what she saw there, he reached a shaking hand to his forehead and slumped in his chair, stricken by a massive cerebral hemorrhage . Complete in all but its final details, the painting still rests on the artist 's easel in the room where Roosevelt was posing. Atlantans, however, remember equally vividly another picture, not of FDR but of his friend and favorite minstrel, Graham Jackson of Atlanta. It shows Jackson, tears streaming down his face, playing "Going Home" on his accordion as Roosevelt's funeral train left Warm Springs en route to Washington by way ofAtlanta. In Atlanta the eleven-car train pulled into Terminal Station at 1:30 P.M. for a forty-minute halt. Steel-helmeted soldiers stood at attention at the station, and thousands of Atlantans filled every inch of open space around the terminal as the train, pulled by two engines with their bells clanging mournfully, passed slowly by. As the train stopped, Mayor Hartsfield , Maj. Gen. Frederick E. Uhl, commanding officer of the 4th Service Command, and newspaper and radio men gathered at the last car in which lay the flag-draped casket of the late president. Stephen Early, White House Secretary, stepped from the train to greet the Atlanta group, and Mayor Hartsfield, expressing Atlanta's deep sorrow, presented Early a basket of white gladioli and red roses. The flowers were placed at the head of the casket, which was guarded by two sailors, a soldier, and a marine. There were no other flowers in the car. In the adjoining Pullman car, which was blacked out, the Mayor and General Uhl expressed their sorrow to Mrs. Roosevelt, who was there with Grace Tully, the president's secretary, and Mrs. Early. "There are no words which can express our deep sorrow today," the Mayor said. "I understand," said Mrs. Roosevelt. Only the presence of the president's little dog Fala broke the mood of mourning. Walking up and down the platform on a leash held by a black serviceman traveling with the funeral train, Fala wagged his tail politely at all the bystanders who had greeted him. Throughout the city flags were flown at half-mast, and all stores, except grocery and drug stores, were closed throughout the day. In school auditoriums , in schoolrooms, on playgrounds, and in churches, more than 50,000 Atlanta children bowed in silent prayer in tribute to the man who had died. And as his train pulled slowly out ofAtlanta in mid-afternoon thousands of people of all ages lined the tracks to bid him a last farewell. As Roosevelt's train moved north for funeral services in Washington and 112 ATLANTA AND ENVIRONS, 1945 final interment services at Hyde Park, the papers carried glowing headlines telling of the great victories of the Allies over the by now obviously beaten Germans. By mid-April the American armies driving from the west were within forty miles of Berlin. On the east the Soviets were only thirty miles away, and soon the two armies joined south of the city. For two weeks the siege went on, a great aerial bombardment. And then on April 20 the Associated Press released a story, based on an interview with a "high official," that said that the Germans had made an unconditional surrender. In Atlanta, New York, and all over the nation, thousands took to the streets. Bars, liquor stores, theaters, restaurants closed, afraid to keep open in the face of what might turn out to be a host of rampaging revelers. But the report was premature. After two hours of nervous waiting, President Truman announced that he had talked to General Eisenhower at his headquarters in France. The report ofa German surrender was "unfounded." The city took up the normal pace of life again. Bars, theaters, restaurants opened, and the three hundred policemen Chief Marion Hornsby had called in to take to the streets if needed were sent home before midnight. For a week the tension continued. And then at 8:00 A.M. Atlanta time on Tuesday morning, May 8, President Truman in Washington and Prime Minister Churchill in London went on the air simultaneously to announce that...