Death
Wendell Willkie chose to travel from Indianapolis to New York City by train. While crossing Ohio, he experienced the first of an estimated 20+ heart attacks. Other passengers implored him to get off the train at Pittsburgh and go to a hospital, he refused. He wanted to reach home and see his own doctor. He arrived safely at New York, but he died after two days in a hospital, on October 8, 1944, aged 52.
Willkie's 1940 running mate, Charles L. McNary, had died six months earlier. This is the only time that both members of a major party Presidential ticket have died during the term they sought election for.
Eleanor Roosevelt, in her My Day column for October 12, 1944, eulogized Willkie as a "man of courage... outspoken opinions on race relations were among his great contributions to the thinking of the world... Americans tend to forget the names of the men who lost their bid for the presidency. Willkie proved the exception to this rule."
Wendell Willkie is buried in East Hill Cemetery, Rushville, Indiana. In his honor, the Bar of the Summit County Courthouse erected a brass bas relief which is prominently displayed in its main hall.
Read more about this topic: Wendell Willkie
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“We like the chase better than the quarry.... And those who philosophize on the matter, and who think men unreasonable for spending a whole day in chasing a hare which they would not have bought, scarce know our nature. The hare in itself would not screen us from the sight of death and calamities; but the chase, which turns away our attention from these, does screen us.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“Bruno Antony: Tell me, Judge, after you’ve sentenced a man to the chair, isn’t it difficult to go out and eat your dinner after that?
Judge Dolan: When a murderer is caught he must be tried, when he is convicted he must be sentenced, when he is sentenced to death he must be executed.
Bruno Antony: Quite impersonal, isn’t it?
Judge Dolan: So it is. Besides, it doesn’t happen every day.
Bruno Antony: So, few murderers are caught?”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
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—Philip K. Howard, U.S. lawyer. The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America, pp. 186-87, Random House (1994)