Less
than a hour before Franklin D. Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945,
he reportedly talked with his second Postmaster General, Frank C. Walker,
on the telephone and promised to participate in the first day of
issuance ceremonies for the United Nations stamp in San Francisco.  The
President had been sitting for a portrait that Elizabeth Shoumatoff was
painting when Walker called. When the president ended his call she praised
the recently-issued Florida Statehood stamp, and asked if he had anything
to do with it. "I certainly did," he is reported to have responded. Minutes
later he complained of a severe headache and collapsed from a cerebral
hemorrhage. |
