He died of cirrhosis of the liver, so there may be some truth to the bad liquor story as well, and like today, mental and physical health contributes to to the survivability rate of the flu.
The Dodge brothers were known as the bad boys of early US car manufacturing at that time and known for their drinking, carousing and even some bar fights. Cirrhosis comes as the result of long term alcohol use. If you go to a browser and look up Dodge brothers you can find quite a lot about the history of our "founding fathers", including their extensive philanthropy. As the 1918 pandemic continued to rage the surviving brother gave enormous sums to local hospitals. All of the folks who prospered at the time were far from saints, but they had lots of good qualities... they were ,after all human...
