Commemorative ceremony planned for Roosevelt's Little White House

WARM SPRINGS, Ga. - Seventy-eight years ago this week, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passed away at his beloved Little White House. And this Wednesday, guests are invited to spend some time at the National Historic Site, learning more about President Roosevelt’s finals days in Warm Springs, Georgia.

Roosevelt's Little White House State Historic Site will host its annual commemorative ceremony for President Franklin D. Roosevelt this Wednesday, April 12 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., featuring a commencement speaker, military band, and color guard. Admission to the site will be free until the end of the program, at which point it returns to $12 for adults and $7 for youth (ages 6 to 17). Later in the day, interpretive ranger Ashley Aultman will host a 90-minute guided tour called "FDR’s Final Battle, April 12, 1945," focused on President Roosevelt’s final afternoon at his Georgia home. Admission for the tour is $20.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt built the Little White House in 1932, the year before he was inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States. Born in New York, Roosevelt first traveled to Warm Springs in 1924, hoping that spending time in the area’s 88-degree spring waters might provide a cure for the paralytic illness (polio) which he’d contracted in 1921. The Little White House became increasingly important to President Roosevelt, who made his final trip to the retreat in late March 1945. On April 12, while sitting for a portrait, he passed away.

That unfinished portrait hangs today at the site’s museum, which also houses Roosevelt’s 1938 Ford convertible, his stagecoach, and his cane collection. Roosevelt's Little White House State Historic Site is located at 401 Little White House Road in Warm Springs; regular hours are 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. daily. For more information on visiting the site, click here.