30 APRIL 18, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
When Ridgewood mourned loss of FDR
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
World War II was just
weeks from finally being
won when, on April 12,
1945, the United States was shocked
and saddened by an
incomprehensible loss.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
died of a brain hemorrhage while on
retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia.
He was in just the first few months
of his fourth term in office (no
other president served that long),
having led the nation out of the
Great Depression and into World
War II, where the Allied Powers
were driving the forces of fascism
and Nazism toward defeat across the
globe. (Nazi Germany surrendered
on May 8, and the Japanese empire
was defeated in August.)
FDR, who was formerly governor
of New York state, suffered from
the ravages of polio and heart
disease. Nonetheless, his death
stunned the entire country and led
to an outpouring of grief from coast
to coast.
Memorial services were quickly
scheduled in communities across
the United States, including in
Ridgewood, where a special tribute
was held at Grover Cleveland High
School on April 13, 1945.
The cover of the April 20, 1945
Ridgewood Times
includes a picture
of the late President
Roosevelt and the full
transcript of remarks
by Dr. Charles Tonsor,
then-principal of
Grover Cleveland High
School, who said of FDR,
“The value of the life and
achievements of a great
man are determined
not by ourselves but
by posterity.”
As the Ridgewood
Times reported...
“The entire student
body and faculty
gathered gathered for
the service, conducted
in the rear of the school.
The school band played
appropriate music while
the several thousand
boys and girls filed
quietly and on the tennis
courts area.
S c r i p t u r a l
passages were red by
representatives of the
Protestant, Hebrew and
Roman Catholic faiths,
Christine Antoni for the Luther Club,
Felice Feller for the Menorah Club,
Robert Mayer for the Newman Club
and Santi Buscemi representing the
school at large. The school chorus,
directed by Miss Mary Brown, sang
The front cover of the April 20, 1945 issue of the Ridgewood Times featured a memorial
to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a story about a tribute to the 32nd commanderin
chief. Ridgewood Times archives
“God of Our Fathers,” “There is No
Death” and “Faith of Our Fathers.”
On the platform were representatives
of community organizations including
Dr. Charles F. Rank, president, and
Carl E. Clemens, executive secretary, of
the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce;
Albert G. Baerenklau, president, and
Louis Frisse and George Hirn of the
Ridgewood Kiwanis Club; Henry Rauh,
president, and Sol Kamin, secretary
of the Ridgewood Lions Club; Herman
Then-Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt (standing, fourth from left, holding cane) is pictured in this 1930 photo outside the State Legislature in Albany
after inspecting a Queens County LIbrary book bus to serve the borough’s people. Ridgewood Times archives
link
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
