From the Archives: FDR started fourth term 75 years ago - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Seventy-five years ago Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, was inaugurated for a fourth and final term in a simple ceremony on the back porch of the White House on January 20, 1945.

“In the days that are to come,” Roosevelt said to a war-weary public, “we shall wok for a just and durable peace as today we work and fight for total victory in war.”

In declining health, Roosevelt died on April 12, 82 days into this term, at the age of 63. Germany surrendered the following month.

Thousand See Inaugural Rites

Roosevelt Starts Fourth Term After Brief, Simple Ceremony

By Robert W. Richards, the Union’s Washington correspondent

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (Special) — Franklin Roosevelt today at three minutes past noon began his fourth term as president of the United States in a homey little ceremony on the back porch of the White House.

Amid the grim reminders of the greatest war in all history — a group of one-legged veterans clustered with the fashionable diplomatic set beneath the microphones set up on the south portico — Mr. Roosevelt with accustomed bravado shrugged off a navy cape he wore in the rain in the campaign of last fall and swore to defend the constitution against all enemies.

Sans pomp or parade, the inaugural drew about 3000 of the 7000 invited within the gates of Presidential Square for the oath taking. Outside the fence, and 300 yards away, the public thronged in droves in a more or less vain effort to get a peep at the show. Thousands more pressed rows deep against the iron gratings to glimpse the backs of the chosen few sent cards for the semi-private ritual. Because the semi-circular porch – it used to be the front entrance to the White House – is not large, only the families of the president and of Vice President Truman, members of the supreme court, the cabinet and the chief of staff, Gen. Marshall and Adm. Kin in addition to a coterie of close Roosevelt advisers were allowed to cluster between the great pillars.

CANVAS COVERS SNOW

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Below on the gravel drive were members of the diplomatic corps, while behind them on a canvas stretched over newly fallen snow were gathered members of congress and their wives along with various department and bureau chiefs as well as a sprinkling of brass and gold braid.

Farther back a rope had been stretched across the lawn for other invited guests, including members of the $1000 club, governors, Democratic electors and other party big wigs who had contributed both their cash and effort to make the fourth term possible.

They stood, 2500 strong, in a couple of inches of soft slush on the lawn. They were flanked to their right by the Marine band which blared forth with “Hail to the Chief” as the president was wheeled to the rostrum.

GRANDCHILDREN ATTEND

Grandchildren of the president were shepherded onto an iron-railed stairway leading from the porch in custody of Negro family retainers, snug against the cold in red and blue snow suits. Tiny Nina, in a flame outfit, occupied a near bottom step, sitting down with a splash in a puddle. She is the daughter of Franklin jr.

The president’s favorite, Anna Boettiger, swathed in silver fox, and her daughter, “Sisty” Dahl, now an attractive deb, with a lilac bandeau wound in her blonde bob, came down briefly to tell the children to mind their manners.

FIRST LADY APPEARS

The first lady also appeared briefly with the tots, wearing a short box coat of Eleanor blue over a dark blue frock, with a hat which was beyond our powers of description...

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From the Archives: FDR started fourth term 75 years ago - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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