Cancer and Death
In mid-1939, Hopkins was told that he had stomach cancer, and doctors performed an extensive operation that removed 75% of his stomach. What remained of Hopkins' stomach struggled to absorb proteins and fat, and a few months after the operation, doctors stated that he had only four weeks to live. At this point, Roosevelt brought in experts who transfused Hopkins with blood plasma that halted his deterioration. When the "Phony War" phase of World War II ended in May 1940, the situation galvanised Hopkins; as Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote, "the curative impact of Hopkins' increasingly crucial role in the war effort was to postpone the sentence of death the doctors had given him for five more years".
Hopkins died in New York City in January 1946. His body was cremated and the ashes interred in his old hometown of Grinnell, Iowa. There is a house on the Grinnell College campus named after him.
Read more about this topic: Harry Hopkins
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