The United States Longest Serving President Died In April 1945

Franklin Roosevelt was the only President millions of kids had ever known.  If you were not yet 13 years old, he was the president, period.

Elected in 1932, the man affectionately known as 'FDR' led the nation as it suffered through what became known as 'The Great Depression'.  I've been told when FDR gave one of his now legendary 'Fireside Chats', you could literally walk down the street of a major American city and listen the whole way...every house had it on their radio and his voiced resounded through the streets.  FDR was the 'Great Communicator' before that phrase was coined.

Then of course, World War II.

FDR didn't live to see the formal end to the world's greatest and most awful conflict.  Hitler would die in May of 1945.  Japan would surrender in August of 1945.

But Franklin Delano Roosevelt would die in office In April of that year.  The news saddened not only a nation, but free people around the globe.