Dead POTUS Society
I’m thrilled to be joined by award-winning author and presidential expert Louis Picone for this post. He’s sharing his ten favorite presidential death facts. Given that three presidents (in a row!) died on July 4,* the timing for this topic is particularly apropos. Keep reading to learn more.
PS If you get a sec, check out the doodles inspired by Picone’s fascinating book Grant’s Tomb.
*It was on July 4, 1850 that President Zachary Taylor ate those cherries and milk that led to his death five days later. 🍒🥛⚰️ If you’re a former president, be careful out there on July 4!
Top 10 weird facts about Presidential Deaths, Final Days, Burials, and Beyond
Please don’t steal our presidents
There has been at least four planned or attempted presidential grave robbings including a foiled plan to steal Benjamin Harrison’s remains. This really spooked his family because years earlier grave-robbers actually did steal Benjamin Harrison’s father’s body!
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Independence Coincidence
You probably heard Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826 – the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But amazingly the next president to go also died on July 4th when James Monroe died exactly five years later. Wondering the odds of three consecutive presidents all dying on Independence Day? One in 48,627,125!
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Not all presidents have rested in peace
Over the years, sixteen have been reinterred, some more than once. While James K. Polk was buried in 3 different locations, Abraham Lincoln holds the record. His remains were moved so many times it’s kind of tough to keep track of, but trust me, it’s a lot!
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JFK’s Missing Brain
When John F. Kennedy was buried three days after his tragic assassination, something was missing from his coffin – his brain! After the funeral, doctors continued to examine the grey matter and then stored it in a jar in a file cabinet. But several years later it disappeared! To this day, its whereabouts remain a mystery.
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Nothing to see here
James Madison’s final resting place was left unmarked for 22 years. But the record goes to John Tyler who lie beneath nothing but a mound of dirt for a staggering 37 years! As a further insult, when a tombstone was finally erected it was inscribed with the wrong date of death.
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Grant the Rockstar
When Ulysses S. Grant died he was the most beloved and popular man in the country. How beloved and popular you ask? For starters, his funeral and tomb were the largest ever in American history, but to really understand how beloved and popular he was, when a custom casket was built and put on display, 85,000 people waited hours in line to see Ulysses S. Grant’s empty coffin! Now that’s popular and beloved!
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Planning ahead
After the two consecutive unexpected deaths of FDR and JFK left planners scrambling, presidents began to take an active role in their own funerals. Harry Truman thought so much of his final send-off he called it, “A damn fine show,” but lamented, “I just hate that I’m not going to be around to see it.”
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Andrew Jackson is dead.. or is he?
With family and slaves on death watch, Andrew Jackson’s weakened body finally went limp. His doctor solemnly pronounced the seventh president was dead. But suddenly, to their amazement, Jackson opened his eyes! He looked at the shocked faces and said, “My dear children, do not grieve me; it is true, I am going to leave you” … but just not yet!
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Zombie George Washington
Several hours after George Washington died, a prominent doctor arrived at Mount Vernon. While it may seem he was too late, Doctor Thornton did not think so. He proposed to thaw the body in cold water, administer artificial respiration, and perform a transfusion using lamb’s blood in an attempt to resurrect George Washington from the dead! (Fortunately, the other doctors convinced him that raising a Zombie Washington was probably not a good idea.)
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LBJ did what??
To put it mildly, LBJ was a character. When visitors came to his ranch, he liked to show off the family cemetery where he planned to be buried. One day he did something really weird at his future resting place. So weird, in fact, I decided not to include it on this list. But if you really must know, check out page 305 of The President Is Dead! The Extraordinary Stories of Presidential Deaths, Final Days, Burials, and Beyond. But remember I warned you, it is weird!
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Louis L. Picone is the award-winning author of Grant's Tomb: The Epic Death of Ulysses S. Grant and the Making of an American Pantheon, The President Is Dead! The Extraordinary Stories of the Presidential Deaths, Final Days, Burials, and Beyond and Where the Presidents Were Born: The History & Preservation of the Presidential Birthplaces.
Louis is a member of the Authors Guild, the American Historical Association, the Ulysses S. Grant Monument Association, and is also a trustee on the board of the Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association in Caldwell, NJ. He holds a Masters in History and teaches at William Paterson University.
Louis has spoken widely on the topic of the presidents and the places we commemorate them, including the White House Historical Association Presidential Sites Summit in Dallas; James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Ohio; and the international conference “U.S. Presidents and Russian Rulers” at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He has appeared on various media outlets to discuss the history of presidential funerals including C-Span, the BBC, NPR, Washington Post, and New York Times to. Louis was also featured on the television program “American Mystery” on the Travel Channel to discuss the mystery of JFK's missing brain.
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