THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 12, 1995 TAG: 9504120554
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Ira Dye, Virginia Beach:
``Well, when the news came over the radio I was in a barber chair out on University Avenue in Seattle . . . and it was just a shocker. Everybody just stopped everything, and it was just the end of an era.
For those of us who grew up as children in the Great Depression, we didn't really know any president but Roosevelt. . . . And all during the war he had these inspirational messages, and all during the Depression, too. And to have him then die was a tremendous shock to I think almost everybody of that generation at that time.''
Margaret Aycock, Norfolk:
``I heard it on the radio, and I said, `Oh, my god.' . . . I thought an awful lot of him he was the best president that I think we've ever had. . . .
``I cried. 'Cause I loved him, thought an awful lot of him.
``If he hadn't done Social Security there'd be some people, really, in the soup lines. People wouldn't have a dime to call their own or a place to go or a place to live. He started that, Social Security, and I just think he was a good president all the way around.
George Tucker, Norfolk
``Well, I was stationed (in the Navy) at a place called Traverse City, Michigan. . . . I was sitting at my desk and the news came in over the radio, so everybody agreed that the best thing to do was have a memorial service in the best bar in Traverse City, which was 10 miles away. . . and of course everything was in utter confusion, people were walking in the streets crying, and hysterical and what have you. . . . I don't remember getting back to the base.
``We all felt very badly about it. It hit all of us fairly well. Almost to the man, in the group that I was with, were people who came along during the Depression years, and we all looked back and we realized what a great friend Roosevelt had been, not only to us but to our parents, too.
``A lot of us were just out of high school with no idea of being able to go to college because most of our fathers, our parents, had lost all their money. So it was a case of root-hog or die, daddy, you had to go to work. . . .
``Roosevelt was such a dynamic person that even when he was ill, he dominated the scene. . . . It was such a pity that a man who had gone through so much did not live to see the end of the war.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos by Bill Tiernan
A framed portrait of FDR hangs amid other collectibles at Carriage
House antiques in Norfolk.
Ira Dye, Virginia Beach
Margaret Aycock, Norfolk
George Tucker, Norfolk
by CNB