Charles Jeffrey Calman, in his book The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, sheds light on an important performance by the Choir in 1945:
The Choir’s finest hour as a broadcast institution under Cornwall’s direction came on April 12, 1945, the day Franklin Delano Roosevelt died. A half-hour after his death, executives of the Columbia network called and asked the Choir to perform a memorial broadcast that evening, though they were very concerned that the Choir might not be ready in time.