Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 2, Number 25, DeMotte, Jasper County, 12 January 1933 — 1872 Calbin Coolidge 1933 [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

1872 Calbin Coolidge 1933

SIMPLE RITES AT COOLIDGE'S BIER

Remains Laid to Rest in the Family Plot as Nation Mourns Ex-President. Plymouth, Vt. —Without a display! of pomp or ostentatious ceremony, but with simple dignity such as characterized his life former President (Mlvin Coolidge was on Saturday. Jan uary 7, laid to rest in the little ceinbtery in this Vermont village bestyle the grates of his parents, his son a^d his ancestors of several generations. The body of the former President was brought from his home at Nortjh ampton, Mass., following funeral services that were marked by the same simplicity that attended his buriaT In keeping with the unpretentiousness of Mr. Coolidge’s nature and hlk life, Mts. Coolidge decided that be| would have preferred, if he had been-! able to express his opinion, funeral services of the utmost simplicity, arid such was their nature. Instead of having the body taken to Washington or to Boston, to lie in state in the places where he ex] ercised the power of government a^ President of the United States and previously a^ governor of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, Mrs. Cool! idge ordered that her husband’s body! remain in his home in this city, where he lived before arid after his presiidential career. Funeral services were held at 10:3vj o’clock on Saturday morning in the Edwards Congregational church on I Main street in this city, a historic] edifice named after Jonathan EcN wards, the great divine, who lived here. This is the church which the Coolidge family attends and where the former President worshiped only the previous Sunday. The services were attended by Pres Ident and Mrs.-Hoover, representatives of the senate and house, and a very large number of distinguished people from many sections of the’ United States.

The funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Albert .1. Penner, pastor of the church, and there was an organist and a choir. Died oh Thursday, January 5. The death of Calvin Coolidge, thirtieth President of the United States, occurred about noon on January 5, of a sudden heart attack in his dressing room in his modest estate, The Beeches. He was sixty years old. His wife, Mrs. Grace Goodhue Coolidge, who had just returned from shopping, found the body when she went upstairs to call Mr. Coolidge for luncheon. He was lying on his back with a calm expression on his face as If he had died without pain or suffering. His coat and vest were off. Mr. Coolidge had been complaining for several days of what he regarded as slight attacks of indigestion, but it was not known that he was suffering from heart disease. He underwent a periodic physical examination recently and no organic trouble was found at that time. Circumstances of Death. The circumstances of Mr. Coolidge’s death were related by his secretary, Mr. Ross, who was the last person to see the former President alive. “Mr. Coolidge got up about the usual time, 7 o’clock,” said Mr. Ross. “After he had breakfast his chauffeur, Joseph Bukosky, drove him down here to the office. He arrived as usual about 8:30 o’clock, and I met him here. f “He seemed to be all right during the morning and did not complain of anything at all today, although for some days past he had been complain

ing of slight attacks of indigestion. “About 10 o’clock he said to me: ‘Well. I guess we’ll go up to the house.’ “We drove out to The Beeches and went into his study on ’the ground floor. Mrs. Coolidge was getting ready to go downtown for her regular morning shopping. She came into the study and chatted with us a while. As she got up to go out the door with out calling the car, Mr. Coolidge said: ‘Don’t you want to take the car?’ “ ‘No,’ she replied, ‘it’s such a nice day, Td rather walk than ride.’ “These were their last words together. “After Mrs. Coolidge left, Mr. j Coolidge and I continued to chat. We ! did not talk about anything in particu lar, nothing at all about public questions. Left for Upstairs. “About 11:30 o’clock he got up and went upstairs. I did not see or hear him again. Between 11:30 and 12 o’clock, however, he went down into the cellar, and the chauffeur and the gardener, Robert S. Smith, saw him there. “He stopped and talked for a mo ment with Smith, who was stoking the furnace, and Smith fixes the time at 10 minutes to 12. “Mrs. Coolidge returned home from her shopping at about 12:25 o’clock She went right upstairs without tak ing off her hat or coat. She was- ' going to call Mr. Coolidge for lunch eon. First, she looked in his bed room and then across a little corri dor, in his combination dressing roon and bathroom. There she saw him lying on the floor. She immediately ran downstairs and called me from the study and I ran upstairs with her “Mr. Coolidge was lying on his back on the floor, with his arms out stretched, and with a calm look upon his face. “I sensed at once that he was dead; there was no sign that he had suf sered any pain. His death must have come immediately and painlessly, judg ing by his appearance.”