US Presidential Deaths Trivia Quiz

Answer: James Polk

At the age of fifty-three, former President James K. Polk died from cholera he contracted while visiting New Orleans during an epidemic in 1849. Due to the nature of his death, he was initially put in a mass grave in Nashville, Tennessee. At the behest of his wife, Sarah, he was moved to Polk Place in 1850.

He and his wife Sarah were relocated when Polk Place was demolished. In 1893, former President Polk and his wife, Sarah, were re-buried at the state Capital in Nashville.

Answer: Grover Cleveland

On June 24, 1908, Grover Cleveland died at the age of seventy-one from heart failure complicated by other health factors. He was in Princeton, New Jersey with his wife and doctors when he died. His children were not allowed to be there, instead, they stayed with their grandmother.

At the time of his death, Venezuela flew their flag at half-mast because former President Cleveland helped Venezuela during the country's border dispute with Great Britain.

Answer: Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson died of a stroke while visiting his daughter in Elizabethtown, Tennessee in the early morning hours of July 31, 1875 at the age of sixty-six. Shortly before his death, former President Johnson had won back his Senate seat after his impeachment as president. Former President Andrew Johnson had a Masonic funeral under a willow tree that he planted from a clipping of a willow tree near Napoleon's grave. His body was wrapped in a silk American flag and a copy of the Constitution was his pillow.

Answer: Ulysses Grant

On July 23, 1885, former President Ulysses Grant passed away from esophageal cancer at the age of sixty-three in Mt. McGregor, New York. Because his death took place in the heat of summer, he was embalmed quickly and placed in a glass coffin. Former President Grant wanted to be buried at West Point, but when he realized that his wife would not be able to be buried next to him after her death he changed his mind.

Former President Grant's wife chose New York City as the place for their burial. Twelve years after former President Grant was buried, his remains were moved to a designated burial space provided by New York City Mayor William Grace. Five years later, Mrs. Grant was buried in a matching coffin next to her husband in the mausoleum.

Answer: Lyndon Johnson

Lyndon Johnson once told a group of people that no men in his family live past the age of sixty-five. Former President Lyndon Baines Johnson died at the age of sixty-four from a heart attack in the afternoon of January 22, 1973 while at his ranch in Johnson City, Texas. Former President Johnson was an avid smoker and had several heart attacks; his first being in 1955. Neither his wife nor children were with him when he died.

Former President Johnson was buried at his ranch in the family cemetery. Anita Bryant sang "Battle Hymn of the Republic" at the funeral.

Answer: William Taft

Former President William Taft was seventy-two when he died in Washington, D.C on the evening of March 8, 1930. His cause of death was written down as cerebro-arteriosclerosis, a disease defined by blood being unable to get to the brain because of hardened arteries.

President Hoover offered the White House as a funeral spot, but former President Taft had already made arrangements at All Souls Unitarian Church. Because of his work as the Secretary of War and President of the United States, Taft qualified for burial at Arlington National Cemetery. His was the first Presidential funeral to be broadcasted on radio.

Answer: Benjamin Harrison

Former President Benjamin Harrison died March 13, 1901 of complications from pneumonia at the age of sixty-five. He was living at his home in Indianapolis, Indiana and his second wife was with him at the time of his death. Ironically, Benjamin Harrison's grandfather, William Henry Harrison, died of pneumonia while in office.

Answer: Martin Van Buren

Former President Martin Van Buren suffered from malignant catarrh (now known as asthma). At the age of seventy-nine, in the early morning hours of July 24, 1862, former President Martin Van Buren died from asthma. His first diagnosis of the respiratory disease was at the age of forty.

At the time of his death, former President Van Buren was at his home in Kinderhook, New York known as Lindenwald.

Answer: Chester Arthur

Former President Chester Arthur died from complications of Bright's disease at the age of fifty-seven while living in Albany, New York on November 18, 1886. He was formally diagnosed with the kidney disease while in office in 1882. On November 17, 1886, he suffered a stroke caused by renal failure and went into a coma. He died the next day with his sister and children present.

Answer: Theodore Roosevelt

Former President Theodore Roosevelt died in the early morning hours of January 6, 1919 at his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. At the age of sixty, he died in his sleep of what doctors said was a pulmonary embolism. His wife was home at the time of his death. He is buried in the Youngs Cemetery.