William Howard Taft: Gets the Flu

Doctor Zebra > Presidential health > List of Presidents > William Taft > More


	The Health and Medical History of President
	William Howard Taft: Gets the Flu

cold

May 1, 1909: Taft caught a bad cold that lasted several days [9d]. It was the first event in a terrible month for him.

More...

Taft's illness lasted several days. Butt's entries begin on May 1, 1909 [9e]:

The President is quite unwell. When I reported at his office this morning he looked up very languidly and said:
"I am afraid I am not fit to play this afternoon, Archie. I never felt so sick before. There is some work I must do, but I am going to bed as soon after as I can and will remain there until I am better."
He really looked all tuckered out and as pale as a ghost. When he started for Alexandria yesterday he was feeling done up and asked me to feel his pulse. He did not seem to have any fever and he thought possibly he had only taken cold. But to-day he is decidedly sick.

The next day, May 2, Butt wrote [9e]:

The President is still sick. I think he is quite knocked out. I went to the White House this morning to see him and found him in the study, sitting before a big blazing fire, looking thoroughly worn and tuckered out. When he gets sick he looks it. I felt very much alarmed, seeing his great form utterly relaxed, his eyes heavy, and his skin very white. He could hardly articulate, his throat is so swollen. When I asked him if he felt well enough to go out, he said he did not.
"Take a holiday, Archie, and enjoy yourself," he said with a wan smile.
This is the first time he has ever intimated to me that he realized he was keeping me pretty well on the go.

On May 3rd, Butt wrote [9f]:

The President is slightly better this morning. He came over to the office for awhile, but returned early to the house to bury himself in his study. He balked at the last moment last night and did not go to the [Admiral] Cowles' to dinner, and Mrs. Taft had to go without him.

On the morning of May 4 the day's plan included [9g]:

We ride this afternoon for a half hour. The physician will not permit him to do more, and he must go at a jog.

But in the evening Butt wrote [9h]:

The President tried to pose [for the portrait-painter] for a little while, but he was very tired and very weak. He fell asleep twice while standing up, and sat in a chair for a minute and was sound asleep.
While Mrs. Taft seems to be growing younger, he seems to be growing so much older. I looked at his face in repose and saw lines there, deep, deep lines, which I had never noticed before.
Of course we did not go riding. He soon went upstairs to rest and I remained with the artist, helping her clean the mess she made.

Resources

[Top]

Disclosure: Doctor Zebra gets a few pennies if you click & buy from Amazon.

Abbott, Lawrence F. (ed.). The Letters of Archie Butt: Personal Aide to President Roosevelt. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1924. [a] p. 165
Anderson, Judith Icke. William Howard Taft: An Intimate History. New York: W. W. Norton, 1981. ISBN 0-393-01462-2 @ Amazon [a] p. ??? [b] p. 28 [c] p. 68
Arnebeck, Bob. White House Workout: William Howard Taft's good fight against the 54-inch waistline. Washington Post Magazine. September 15, 1985: 17, 19.
Barker, Charles E. With President Taft in the White House. Chicago: A. Kroch and Son, 1947. [a] pp. 50-51
Boller, Paul F. Jr. Presidential Anecdotes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. ISBN 0-19-502915-1 @ Amazon
Bromley, Michael L. William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland, 2003. ISBN 0-7864-1475-8 @ Amazon [a] p. 76
Bromley, Michael. Personal communication. Email to Dr. Zebra Sept. 15, 2005.
Bromley wrote: "Taft never drove. He always had a driver. His driver in Washington in the Twenties was named Tom Ford." It is not clear, however, when Ford was hired or if he was behind the wheel when this incident occurred.
Bumgarner, John R. The Health of the Presidents: The 41 United States Presidents Through 1993 from a Physician's Point of View. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland & Company, 1994. ISBN 0-89950-956-8 @ Amazon [a] p. 172 [b] p. 167 [c] p. 168
Devotes one chapter to each President, through Clinton. Written for the layperson, well-referenced, with areas of speculation clearly identified, Dr. Zebra depends heavily on this book. Dr. Bumgarner survived the Bataan Death March and has written an unforgettable book casting a physician's eye on that experience.
Butt, Archibald W. Taft and Roosevelt: The Intimate Letters of Archie Butt, Military Aide. Garden City, NY: Doubleday (1930). Volume 1: pages 1-432. Volume 2: pages 433-862. [a] p. 326 [b] p. 760 [c] p. 172 [d] pp. 70,75, 76 [e] p. 70 [f] p. 73 [g] p. 75 [h] p. 76
Butt, an Army officer, was military aide first to President Theodore Roosevelt and then to President William Taft. On April 14, 1912, Butt was at sea aboard the Titanic returning from a European vacation that Taft had insisted he take. President Taft later said: "When I heard that part of the ship's company had gone down, I gave up hope for the rescue of Major Butt, unless by accident. I knew that he would certainly remain on the ship's deck until every duty had been performed and every sacrifice made that properly fell on one charged, as he would feel himself charged, with responsibility for the rescue of others." Taft was correct. Butt did not survive the sinking.
Coletta, Paolo E. The Presidency of William Howard Taft. Lawrence, KS: The University Press of Kansas, 1973. ISBN 7006-0096-5 @ Amazon [a] p. 9
Dole, RJ. Great Presidential Wit. NY: Scribner, 2001. ISBN 0-7432-0392-5 @ Amazon [a] p. 134
Hicks, F. C. William Howard Taft, Yale Professor of Law & New Haven Citizen. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1945. [a] pp. 111-112 [b] pp. 113-114
Manners, William. TR and Will: A Friendship that Split the Republican Party. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1969.
Marx, Rudolph. The Health of the Presidents. New York: GP Putnam's Sons, 1960. [a] p. 301 [b] p. 300
Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (ed). Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of American. 2nd ed. London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 1981. ISBN 0-85011-033-5 @ Amazon
Enumerates the ancestors and descendants of American presidents up through Ronald Reagan.
Pringle, Henry F. The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1939. [a] p. 24 [b] p. 3 [c] p. 1072 [d] p. 21 [e] p. 35 [f] p. 287 [g] p. 334 [h] p. 39 [i] p. 375 [j] pp. 208-209 [k] p. 214 [l] p. 215 [m] p. 219 [n] p. 226 [o] p. 235 [p] p. 253 [q] p. 377
Braisted, William C.; Bell, William Hemphill; Rixey, Presley Marion. The Life Story of Presley Marion Rixey: Surgeon General, U. S. Navy 1902-1910: Biography and Autobiography. Strasburg, VA: Shenandoah Publishing House, Inc., 1930. [a] p. 265
Rixey was the White House physician for both William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.
Ross, Ishbel. An American Family: The Tafts - 1678 to 1964. Cleveland, OH: World Publishing Co., 1964. [a] p. 143
Sargent, Shirley. Yosemite's Famous Guests. Yosemite, CA: Flying Spur Press, 1970.
Smith, Ira R. T.; Morris, Joe Alex. "Dear Mr. President:" The Story of Fifty Years in the White House Mail Room. New York: Julian Messner, 1949. [a] pp. 66-69
Ira Smith was a peppery fellow who ran the White House mail room from 1897 to 1948. He started working during the administration of William McKinley and was the only mail room staffer until the volume of mail made it necessary to hire help during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt.
Sotos, JG. Taft and Pickwick: sleep apnea in the White House. Chest. 2003;124:1133-1142.
Sullivan, Mark. Our Times: 1900-1925 (Six volumes). New York: Charles Scribners' Sons, 1926-1940. [a] p. III-14 [b] p. III-14 quoting Arthur Brisbane [c] pp. III-15-16 quoting Frederick Palmer [d] pp. III-14-15 [e] p. III-15 [f] p. IV-408
Taft, Horace Dutton. Memories and Opinions. New York: Macmillan, 1947. [a] p. 7
Taft, Mrs. William Howard (Helen Herron Taft). Recollections of Full Years. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1914. [a] p. 57 [b] pp. 57-58
Taft, William Howard. Papers of William Howard Taft. On file in the Library of Congress and selected other research libraries. [a] WHT to Charles P. Taft, August 31, 1908 [b] WHT to Helen Herron Taft, September 24, 1905 [c] WHT to Helen Herron Taft, June 15, 1907 [d] WHT to N. E. Yorke-Davies, Dec. 9, 1905 [e] WHT to Helen Herron Taft, May 7, 1908 [f] WHT to Helen Herron Taft, Sep. 23, 1908
Watson, James. As I Knew Them: Memoirs of James E. Watson. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1936. [a] p. 133
The William Taft web page at the White House.
(1 match when checked in November 2003)

[Top]

<== Theodore Roosevelt	Return to William Taft	Woodrow Wilson ==>
George Washington · John Adams · Thomas Jefferson · James Madison · James Monroe · John Q. Adams · Andrew Jackson · Martin van Buren · William Harrison · John Tyler · James Polk · Zachary Taylor · Millard Fillmore · Franklin Pierce · James Buchanan · Abraham Lincoln · Andrew Johnson · Ulysses Grant · Rutherford Hayes · James Garfield · Chester Arthur · Grover Cleveland · Benjamin Harrison · William McKinley · Theodore Roosevelt · William Taft · Woodrow Wilson · Warren Harding · Calvin Coolidge · Herbert Hoover · Franklin Roosevelt · Harry Truman · Dwight Eisenhower · John Kennedy · Lyndon Johnson · Richard Nixon · Gerald Ford · James Carter · Ronald Reagan · George Bush · William Clinton · George W. Bush · Barack Obama Others: Cheney · McCain