The younger Calvin is on the left, John is on the right. The photo was taken on June 30, 1924, the same day that the brothers played tennis on the White house court.
On June 30, 1924, the day that the above photograph was taken, Calvin Coolidge, Jr. and his older brother John played tennis on the White House court. Calvin Jr. wore tennis shoes, but not socks. Afterwards, he developed a blister on his right foot. The blister turned into blood poisoning. Drugs to combat the infection were not yet available.
Calvin Jr. died on July 7, 1924 at the age of 16. His death took place three days after his father’s birthday. When his Presidency ended, Calvin Coolidge wrote his autobiography. Of the death of his youngest son he wrote, “When he died, the power and the glory of the Presidency went with him.”
The Coolidge boys were students at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania. When his father became President of the United States after Warren Harding’s death, Calvin Jr. was working in a Massachusetts tobacco field. Another young worker remarked to him, “If my father was President, I would not work in a tobacco field.” Calvin Jr. replied, “If my father were your father, you would.”
In a July, 1932 letter to her son John, now in the collections of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, Grace Coolidge described the dreadful day, “I leaned over his bed knowing that he was fast slipping beyond the reach of my voice, perhaps even then would not hear, and I said, ‘You’re alright, Calvin,’ as I said so many time in the days when he was in trouble about some little matter. Without opening his eyes, he nodded his head, ever so little and the flicker of his old smile came and was gone. Then, they began giving him oxygen and kept his heart beating but his spirit had slipped away. All that afternoon, dark, awe-inspiring clouds had rolled across the sky, the lightening was almost constant and thunder followed it in mighty roars of majestic power. Calvin’s delirium seemed to be a part of it all and, for a long time, he seemed to be on a horse leading a cavalry charge in battle. He called out, ‘Come on, come on, help, help!’ And, for a time, he thought he was sitting backwards on his horse and asked us to turn him around. Father put his arms under him and tried to persuade him that he had turned him but he thought he was still wrong side around. Finally he relaxed and called out, ‘We surrender, we surrender!’ Dr. Boone said, ‘Never surrender, Calvin.’ He answered only, ‘Yes.’ And some how I was glad that he had gone down still fighting. After it was all over, Dr. Coupal broke down and cried. I found him at the window and I put my arms around him and told him that everything was alright that he and the other doctors had done everything within their power and we must comfort ourselves with the thought that courage such as Calvin had shown us all must now be our example.”
His casket was taken by train from Washington to Northampton, Massachusetts for services at Edwards Congregational Church. From there, the train continued to Ludlow, Vermont. The last 12 miles were in a car with a cavalry escort to Plymouth and the Coolidge homestead. Boy Scouts holding roses stood at the last third of a mile. After the service, they placed the roses on the grave.
It is said that when Calvin, Jr. died, his father suffered deeply and sorrowfully. Grace Coolidge, her heart broken, carried on almost as if she thought it was her duty.
Grace, a charter member of Pi Beta Phi’s Vermont Beta Chapter at the University of Vermont, had a group of Pi Phi friends with whom she kept in contact utilizing a Round Robin letter. After her son’s death, she wrote her Round Robin friends addressing them as “Dear Robins on the Wing.” She followed with, “I thus address you feelingly and enviously because you all can come and go as you will. When I wrote the word I was looking out the window and wishing I could steal away without being seen and have one day unaccompanied just to go about unrecognized all by myself. The poor Prince! Someday I will again be a humble citizen while he can never be just himself….I want to say a word in appreciation of all your kind words of sympathy. I did not try to reply except by the little card but knew you would understand. I knew that the Robin would come along before a great while and that I could then tell you how deeply I felt your loving sympathy. No longer can we see and touch Calvin but in a very real sense he is with us and has his place in our family circle. Two years ago this year he taught me how to swim – not because I wanted to learn but just because he wanted to teach me. He put his hand under my chin and I just had to do my best to please him. I’ll never forget how happy he was when I took a few strokes, and I hear his encouraging voice and I am not going to disappoint him.”
Calvin Coolidge was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta chapter at Amherst College. When John Coolidge entered Amherst in the fall of 1924, he too, became a FIJI. The President and his son are founding members of FIJI Sires and Sons. I’d like to believe that if Calvin Jr had lived, he would have shared a FIJI bond with his father and brother.
(c) Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.
