15 Last Words That Sound Made Up But Aren't

James K. Polk, the 11th President of the United States, fell ill and passed away only three months after leaving office in 1849.

Polk's wife Sarah was at his bedside, and his extremely romantic last words have come down to us.

In the final moments of Betty White's life, the actress, animal advocate, and social activist said just one word - "Allen."

Allen was the name of her husband, Allen Ludden, who passed away from cancer in 1981. White's marriage to the Password game show host was her third and, according to White, 

I made two mistakes before Allen, but the love of your life doesn’t come along in every life, so I am very grateful that I found him.

White's assistant relayed her final words to White's former co-stars, Carol Burnett and Vicki Lawrence, but it was White's friend and agent, Jeff Witjas who offered these thoughts about her passing:

I don't think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again.

Yugoslavian partisan Lepa Radic was all of 17 years old when Germans hanged her for insurrectionist activities in WWII. Moments before the hanging, she was offered a chance for survival if she would reveal the identities of her comrades.

She refused, saying that her comrades would reveal themselves when they came to avenge her. Then, as the noose was placed around her neck, she defiantly shouted:

Long live the Communist Party, and partisans! Fight, people, for your freedom! Do not surrender to the evildoers! I will be killed, but there are those who will avenge me!

Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was injured in his left arm by friendly fire while riding back from a scouting expedition in the dusk toward the end of the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863.

The arm was amputated, but Jackson contracted pneumonia and passed a few days later. Jackson's wife Mary Anna was with him at the end, as was his doctor, Dr. Hunter McGuire, who left this description of the final moments:

A few moments before he [passed] he cried out in his delirium, "Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks—" then stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished. Presently a smile of ineffable sweetness spread itself over his pale face, and he said quietly, and with an expression, as if of relief, "Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees."

The last words of British actor Edmund Gwenn, best remembered for playing Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street, have been condensed over time into "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard."

However, the longer original form does appear to be reasonably well-attested:

One day [Miracle director George] Seaton, coming into the room and looking down at his game old friend, felt a sudden surge of compassion.

“All this must be terribly difficult for you, Teddy,” he said sympathetically.

Gwenn didn’t buy that sympathy. A smile touched his lips.

“Not nearly as difficult as playing comedy,” he answered cheerfully.

They were his words of exit. His head turned on the pillow. He was dead. Up to his last breath and in spite of great physical suffering, Gwenn had actually lived the gentle whimsicality on which his career was based.

As with John F. Kennedy, King's life ended suddenly, so his final words - a simple request to musician Ben Branch - did not reflect any conscious awareness that the end was imminent. (King, however, was well aware of the persistent danger his career put him in, and expressed that awareness in his final public speech.) 

Nonetheless, King's last words seem to transcend the circumstances that made him utter them.