It's nice to see the good news from Houston that former President George HW Bush has been released from the hospital. Here's hoping he continues to recover and I'd love to see another cool parachute jump when he turns 95.
At age 90 Mr. Bush is our oldest living former president; Jimmy Carter is also 90, about 3 1/2 months younger than Bush. I hope I don't sound morbid, because it's not my intent, but Mr. Bush's recent hospitalization did get me thinking. I'm interested in presidential history, and the death of any president is a milestone in our country; a time for grief and reflection, and it doesn't happen that often.
In the last 70 years, two presidents have died in office: FDR on April 12, 1945, followed by JFK on November 22, 1963. Prior to 1945, the last president to die was Calvin Coolidge, in January, 1933. After Roosevelt and Kennedy, there have been seven additional presidential deaths:
October 20, 1964: Herbert Hoover
March 28, 1969: Dwight Eisenhower
December 26, 1972: Harry Truman
January 22, 1973: Lyndon Johnson
April 22, 1994: Richard Nixon
June 5, 2004: Ronald Reagan
December 26, 2006: Gerald Ford
Presidential history geeks know that eight presidents have died in office, four by assassination and four due to natural causes. In addition to John Kennedy, presidents Abraham Lincoln (1865,) James Garfield (1881) and William McKinley (1901) were assassinated; in addition to Roosevelt presidents William Henry Harrison (1841,) Zachary Taylor (1850) and Warren G. Harding (1923) died of various illnesses.
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