Wendell Willkie - Legacies

Legacies

Willkie's name was prominently mentioned by keynote speaker and Democratic Senator Zell Miller at the 2004 Republican National Convention. Miller praised Willkie as a politician who embodied a non-partisan spirit of co-operation during wartime and praised his support of President Roosevelt's creation of a military draft. Miller spoke of Willkie saying,

"Shortly before Willkie died, he told a friend, that if he could write his own epitaph and had to choose between 'here lies a president' or 'here lies one who contributed to saving freedom,' he would prefer the latter."

Miller compared John Kerry negatively and blasted the senator for being critical of President George W. Bush's foreign policy by claiming Willkie refused to criticize FDR on foreign policy during a time of war.

State of the Union, a 1945 play by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse, about a fictional Republican presidential candidate, was reportedly loosely inspired by Willkie and his alleged mistress Irita Van Doren. (It was made into a movie in 1948.)

Willkie was also featured as a character in Philip Roth's counterfactual history novel, The Plot Against America, in which Willkie opposes Charles Lindbergh in the 1940 presidential election.

A large dorm complex at Indiana University Bloomington is named after him, and for several decades was home to the Willkie Co-op, an experimental housing cooperative that emphasized student operation of dormitory service.

In a humorous reference in the Bugs Bunny animated cartoon Falling Hare, Bugs is pestered by a gremlin while trying to fly a World War II bomber. When Bugs realizes what the gremlin is, he timidly asks, "Could that have been a gremlin?" In a Yiddish accent, the gremlin shouts in Bugs' ear, "It ain't Vendell Villkie!" This recalls an incident at the 1940 Republican National Convention when the head of a state delegation from the Midwest announced "two votes for Villkie" in a Scandinavian accent. This sound bite, broadcast on nationwide radio, enjoyed a brief vogue as a humorous catchphrase.

In an alternative history novel by S. M. Stirling, Marching Through Georgia, it is mentioned that Roosevelt retired after his second term and Willkie became his successor as President. The short story 'Trips' by Robert Silverberg is another alternative history example of the same scenario.

The Liberty ship SS Wendell L. Willkie was named for him. It was laid down November 8, 1944, just one month after his death, commissioned December 9, and served with the United States Maritime Commission until scrapped in 1970.

Willkie was honored by the United States Postal Service with a 75¢ Great Americans series postage stamp.