Found in the Archives

FDR’s Last Official Act, April 12, 1945

Each year around the anniversary of FDR’s death on April 12, 1945, we are often asked if we know the last official action taken by Roosevelt as president. Thanks to presidential secretary William D. Hassett, who often traveled with FDR and was in Warm Springs on that fateful trip, we know the answer to this question.

Because of President Roosevelt’s love of stamps and stamp collecting, he was always very involved in the design and issuance of new and commemorative postage stamps. With the first United Nations Conference scheduled to begin on April 25 in San Francisco, Postmaster General Frank Walker sent a memo to FDR on April 9th asking him to select his preferred design for the UN Conference commemorative stamp. A typed notation made at the top of this memo shows that on April 11, the day before the President died, he selected Design No. 1 to be issued as a five cent stamp and printed in blue.

But this was not the last official act. As William Hassett wrote in a memorandum to Postmaster General Walker on April 16th, FDR’s last official directive–given just a half hour before he was stricken–was to agree to the Postmaster’s request that the President purchase the first issue of the UN Conference commemorative. FDR also instructed that gift albums of the new stamps should be presented to all of the Conference delegates by the Secretary of State.

As we look back on the life of Franklin Roosevelt, it is fitting that his last official act involved the intertwining of two things he loved so deeply: stamp collecting and the United Nations.

Block of U.S. United Nations stamps, part of the United Nations Conference Issue. Four "Toward United Nations, April 25, 1945" ultramarine 5¢ stamps (Scott 928), number printed at the left "23267," first day of issue April 25, 1945.

From the Museum

Franklin D. Roosevelt Commemorative Stamp Cover (MO 1950.101.7)

In the early afternoon of April 12, 1945, just 83 days into his fourth term of office, President Roosevelt died suddenly from a massive cerebral hemorrhage in his cottage at the presidential retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia. The President’s casket was placed on a funeral train that carried him to Washington D.C. Thousands lined the tracks in silent tribute as the train passed through towns and cities on its journey. After a solemn procession through Washington and a White House funeral, the President’s train continued north to his home in Hyde Park where FDR was buried near his beloved Hudson River on April 15, 1945.

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This U.S. stamp cover was created by one of FDR’s admirers on April 12, 1945 to commemorate the President’s death. It features a hand-drawn watercolor cachet by artist Sturgill. The illustration depicts the Hudson River and a snuffed-out candle bearing Roosevelt’s date of death, an American flag, and a book symbolizing the end of FDR’s life. The book includes part of a famous FDR quotation from 1944: ”All that is within me cries out to go back to my home on the Hudson”.

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The stamp cover bears a bright red violet 3¢ Florida Centennial Statehood Issue stamp. The envelope is not addressed and has no return address, but it is postmarked, “Victory, Vermont, April 12, 1945.”