The 'Informer'
"The Secret Service reported that, try as they might to keep the President's trips secret, two things invariably gave away his presence. The first was the construction of the ramps that his wheelchair required. The second was his Scotty dog, Fala, who often traveled with him. Fala, like any other dog, would insist upon being taken for a walk when the train came to a stop. The sight of a closed train standing at a siding, heavily guarded by military sentries, as a Secret Service agent walked a little Scotty dog was a dead giveaway to any American of the 1940s. Fala was as much a celebrity and as well known as any other member of the President's circle. It is no wonder that the Secret Service code name for him was 'The Informer.' They could eliminate the ramp with an on-board elevator, but they could do nothing about Fala."--From "FDR's Splendid Deception" (1985) by Hugh Gregory Gallagher

D-Day
Claudine "Scottie" Lingelbach, a Navy women's auxiliary, or WAVE, attended a White House press conference June 6, 1944, D-Day. "She remembers it was in the Oval Office and President Roosevelt's little Scottish terrier, Fala, was running free through the small crowd assembled there."--From Tom Brokaw's, "The Greatest Generation" (1998)

Feeding Fala
Fred D. Fair was the president's porter on the Ferdinand Magellan, the presidential Pullman rail car. "I served him his meals, made his bed. We would serve the president highballs before dinner. Before the meal, I would fix Fala's food. He would never go into the dining room until you called him. We'd serve him in there. But you couldn't serve Fala yourself, oh no. You had to hand it to the president, and he'd feed Fala out of his hand. Many times, I remember dignitaries and other important folks waiting for their supper until Mr. Roosevelt finished feeding Fala."--From the Washington Post's Remembering Franklin Delano Roosevelt

(FDR Library photo, 1943)

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