Fala – The Most Famous Four-Footed White House Resident

WW II

President Roosevelt

He arrived at the White House just one year before the U.S. would wage war on Japan and officially enter World War Two.  With a master who was under the scrutiny of the entire world, Fala had his job cut out for him as companion, confident, and best friend to the president.

Fala, the Scottish Terrier

Born April 7, 1940, Fala was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s favorite dog. Given to the president by a friend and cousin, the little black Scottish Terrier was originally named Big Boy. Roosevelt renamed him Murray the Outlaw of Falahill after his famous 15^th century Scottish ancestor, John Murray, but his name was quickly shortened to Fala.

FDR and Fala

Fala's Collar

Fala arrived at the White House well trained. Besides the usual house training, he could also roll over, sit up, jump, and curl his lip into a smile upon command. The American public and dignitaries from around the world were enamored with the little Scotty. Always in style, he sported a leather collar with a silver nameplate that read, “Fala, The White House.”

Fala Traveling with FDR

Walking Fala

Fala immediately became the constant companion of the president, traveling with him around the world via chauffeured car, presidential airplane, custom-made train car, and ship. But his presence often alerted others where the president was traveling since he would require regular walking on a trip. Because of this, he was given the code name, “The Informer” by the Secret Service.

FDR in Aleutians

In fact, his inclusion to the president’s travels sparked a trumped up controversy in 1944 when a Republican in the House of Representatives alleged that FDR had accidently left the dog on Adak Island in the Aleutians during a trip. The representative claimed that the president sent a destroyer back to get Fala.

FDR Speaking

Fala Listens in

Roosevelt denied the charges in what is now the famous “Fala Speech” where he told listeners that the Republicans were not content to attack him and his family, “now they attack my little dog. I don’t resent the attacks and my family doesn’t resent the attacks, but Fala does resent them … He hasn’t been the same dog since.”

Fala's Movie

Fala's Fan Mail

The public loved stories about the little dog and Fala had his share of the limelight. He attended a conference in Quebec where the media held a photo op for him. In 1942, a movie was made about him, and a book was written about his life at the White House called The True Story of Fala. He was also the star of several cartoons. The little dog received so much mail that he required a secretary to respond to all of his correspondence.

Faithful Companions

FDR's Funeral

When FDR died in April 1945, Fala was devastated. His life-long companion was gone. He accompanied the president on the presidential funeral train from Warm Springs, New York back to Washington D.C. and then attended the president's funeral.

Eleanor and Fala

Fala with Portrait of FDR

Fala lived the rest of his life with Eleanor Roosevelt in her home at Val-Kill. Although well-loved and with plenty of room to play, Fala never seemed to get over the loss of his best friend.

Fala at FDR's Grave

Fala's Grave

Fala died on April 5, 1952, just two days short of his 12^th birthday. His death made national media and he was buried in the rose garden at Hyde Park, close to his beloved master.

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial

Fala

In 1997, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial was dedicated in Washington D.C. There, a life-sized statue of FDR sits draped in a cape with Fala ever watchful at his feet. Fala is the only pet to ever be represented in a presidential memorial - That is how inseparable the two are remembered.

~ Joy

Humor in the Cemetery

Tuesday is April 1^st - April Fools’ Day.  A day celebrated around the world with jokes, hoaxes and pranks.  Also known as All Fools’ Day, the tradition is believed to have begun in France in the 1500’s.   

Although wit is not something you expect to find in a cemetery, our ancestors did have a sense of humor about life … and death. Epitaphs - those tributes and verses engraved on tombstones, can provide a bit more insight into the deceased’s character, all the while offering it with a wink and a nod.  With that in mind, here's a look at a bit of  ‘grave humor’.

In Hillside Cemetery at Eastport, Maine, Lorenzo Sabine was buried in 1877.  On his stone is one simple word,             Transplanted

Boot Hill Cemetery

Tombstone, Arizona started in 1879 as a mining boomtown that grew up quick and grew up mean.  It briefly became part of the ‘Wild West,” where cattle ranchers, cowboys and carpet baggers all held sway with a gun. It was during 1881 that Marshall Wyatt Earp and his brothers fought the cowboys at what became known as the shootout at O.K. Corral.  In the infamous Boot Hill Cemetery in Tombstone, almost 300 of these former citizens are buried and remembered with some interesting epitaphs.

Here lies Butch.

We planted him raw.

He was quick on the trigger

But slow on the draw.

Wells Fargo Agent, Lester Moore was also buried in Boot Hill with the following epitaph:

Here Lies

Lester Moore

Four slugs from a 44

No Les

No more

England is also the home of many cheeky inscriptions –

On the stone of Anna Wallace in a cemetery in Ribbesford, England is this supposed inscription:

The children of Israel wanted bread

And the Lord sent them manna

Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife

And the Devil sent him Anna

From a London cemetery comes this,

Owen Moore

Gone away

Owin’ more

Than he could pay

Even the barristers appear to have had a sense of humor.

Sir John Strange

Here lies an honest lawyer

And that is Strange

Rebecca Freeland was buried in an Edwalton, England cemetery in 1741 with this rejoinder – 

She drank good ale

Good punch and wine

And lived to the age of 99

Some cleaver epitaphs may be a bit too clever.  When I researched to locate these, I found that the cemetery locations continued to change from one state to another, from one mention to another.  But, regardless of existence, they are humorous.

Here lies the body

Of Jonathan Blake

Stepped on the gas

Instead of the brake

Here lies the body of our Anna
Done to death by a banana.

It wasn’t the fruit that laid her low

But the skin of the thing that made her go.

This inscription has been reported in a cemetery in Hartscombe, England and also in New Jersey.  Same name, different days of death – in England on June 22, in New Jersey on June 30 but no year of death is given.

On June __,

Jonathan Fiddle

Went out of tune.

In Elkhart, Indiana the stone for S.B. McCracken, a teacher reads –

School is out.

Teacher has gone home.

The famous also have some epitaphs that produce chuckles –

 

Mel Blanc, the man behind hundreds of character voices for Warner Brothers Studios, went out with the tagline of every Warner Brother’s cartoon ...

That’s All Folks

American singer, actor and 50’s Rat Pack member, Frank Sinatra closed out with a line from one of his songs,

The best is yet to come

Television host and media mogul, Merv Griffin ended his life segment with –

I will not be right back

After this message.

For Spike Milligan, an Irish comedian, writer and actor,

"Duirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite"

English translation:  “I told you I was ill.”

 It is also rumored that a similar epitaph exists in an unnamed cemetery in Georgia for a B.P. Roberts with the words -

I told you I was sick.

The sudden passing of John Belushi left us with a smile –

I may be gone but

Rock and Roll lives on.

Then there are the anonymous epitaphs:

Again, from England – 

This spot is the sweetest I’ve seen in my life,

For it rises my flowers and covers my wife.

 ~

Beneath this silent stone is laid

A noisy antiquated maid

Who from her cradle talked to death

And ne’er before was out of breath.

This epitaph is seen in nineteenth century cemeteries throughout the U.S.

Behold and see as you pass by

For as you are, so once was I 


As I am now, so will you be

Prepare unto death and follow me

But someone supposedly felt a reply was needed to this plea and carved, somewhere - 

To follow you, I’ll not consent

For I don’t know which way you went.

And to close out with my favorite:

Here lies an Atheist.

All dressed up and no place to go.

Have a Happy April First, and remember in those immortal Main Ingredient song lyrics…

“Everybody plays the fool, sometimes……”

~ Joy

A Dying Art: Stone Carvers of the Cemetery

Cave Petroglyphs

Art has always been a part of our society; a part of what makes us human, and stone carvers are the oldest artists in the world. Their petroglyphs and carvings can be found on cave walls and stones around the globe.

Venus of Berekhat Ram

What is thought to be the oldest carved stone is known as the Venus of Berekhat Ram. Shaped like a female figure, this prehistoric stone is at least 230,000 years old and may have been carved by Homo erectus.

Carborundum

Early stone carvings were made using a harder stone to “carve” on a softer stone. The Ancient Greeks developed a technique where granules of carborundum (Silicon carbide - SiC) were formed into an abrasive file, which could then be used to scrape forms or designs on stone.

Indiana Limestone Quarry

Chisel Carving Tools

With the development of iron, carving tools were created and tempered so that stone could be shaped and cut without damaging the tools or destroying the stone. Gravestones could be crafted from granite, limestone, marble, slate, even metal.

The halcyon days of gravestone carving in the U.S. began during the 19^th century and continued into the 1920s. It was during this period that gravestone sculptors chiseled, rasped and carved with such proficiency that “cemetery stone carver” became a well-respected profession in America.  Carving grave markers gave these men a way to express their artistic talents, and earn a living. Many monument and gravestone sculptors were proud of their designs, and signed their works. 

The size of the mausoleums, grave sculpture, or stone mattered in the cemetery because it indicated a person’s wealth and status in that community. But well carved cemetery markers were not just for the rich – some of the most poignant examples were carved by local craftsmen as can be seen in the abundance of tree stones, statues and monuments carved around the country.

Indiana Stone Carvers

Stone carvers arrived in the U.S. and gravitated to certain areas of the country where quarries and work were plentiful – mainly in New England – in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Numerous stone carvers from Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany and Italy made their way to the U.S. during the 1800s, intent to settle here and carve stories in stone.

Limestone Quarry

Another destination for stone carvers was in Lawrence County, Indiana, and the town of Bedford, located in the heart of limestone country; the “Limestone Capital of the World.”

A Favorite Hat

A Stone Carver's Table on the Day He Died

The work of numerous stone carvers can be seen at Green Hill Cemetery in Bedford.  Hundreds of carvings, statues, sculptures and engravings exist in minute detail, thanks to the limestone’s ability to weather well.

Many of those stone carvers are now buried here near the Stone Cutters Monument, erected by the Bedford Stone Cutters Association in 1894.

Bedford Stone Carvers Monument

The monument shows a late 19^th century stonecutter, holding a mallet in his hand.  Clasped hands are shown on the front of the monument, beneath it’s gabled roof.  The other three sides bear the carved images of a hand with a mallet, a sexton and square, and a grouping of stonecutting tools.

Water Jet

Oxy-acetylene Torch

Today, “carving” on gravestones is done using water erosion and diamond saw cutting techniques, lasers, oxy-acetylene torches or jet heat torches.

Karin Sprague Stone Carvers

John Stevens Shop

Unfortunately, the art of stone carving by hand is vanishing from American cemeteries. Only a handful of stone carvers remain, most located in New England. Among them are The John Stevens Shop http://www.johnstevensshop.com, Karin Sprague Stone Carvers http://www.karinsprague.com, Custom Memorials (Michael Fannin, Stone Carver) http://www.custommemorials.com, Words Too Big To Read (Allison Blake Schofield, Stone Carver) http://www.wordstoobigtoread.com, and Anderson Memorials (Jeff Anderson, Stone Carver) http://www.andersonmemorialsinc.com.

Although a monument or marker cut with laser and die does a satisfactory job, a hand-carved stone has a more intimate feel, and offers a very personal way to remember a loved one. Hand carved stones give us a way to bridge the past and future - as stone carvers cut and shape each individual grave marker, one small chip at a time …

~ Joy