Bess Truman

Name	Bess Truman
Birth date	February 13, 1885
Birth place	Independence, Missouri, USA
Death date	October 18, 1982
Death place	Independence, Missouri, USA
Occupation	First Lady of the United States
Order	First Lady of the United States
Term start	April 12, 1945
Term end	January 20, 1953
Party	Democratic
Predecessor	Eleanor Roosevelt
Successor	Mamie Eisenhower
Order2	Second Lady of the United States
Term start2	January 20, 1945
Term end2	April 12, 1945
Predecessor2	Ilo Wallace
Successor2	Jane Barkley
Spouse	Harry S. Truman
Children	Margaret (1924-2008)
Parents	David Wallace and Margaret Gates
Signature	Bess Truman Signature.svg

Elizabeth Virginia Wallace Truman (February 13, 1885 – October 18, 1982), widely known as Bess Truman, was the wife of Harry S. Truman and First Lady of the United States from 1945 to 1953.

Early life

Elizabeth Virginia Wallace was born to David Willock Wallace (1860-1903) and his wife the former Margaret Elizabeth Gates Wallace (1862-1952) in Independence, Missouri, and was known as Bessie during her childhood. She was the eldest of four; three brothers: Frank Gates Wallace, (4 March 1887 - 12 August 1960), George Porterfield Wallace, (1 May 1892 - 24 May 1963), David Frederick Wallace, (7 January 1900 - 30 September 1957).

Harry Truman, whose family moved to town in 1890, always kept his first impression of when he saw her at Sunday school: "Golden curls" and "the most beautiful blue eyes." A relative said, "there never was but one girl in the world" for him. They attended the same schools from fifth grade through high school.

After graduating from William Chrisman High School (then known as Independence High School) she studied at Miss Barstow's Finishing School for Girls in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1903 her father committed suicide and she returned to Independence to be with her mother.

Marriage and family

The First World War altered the Trumans' steady courtship. Lieutenant Truman proposed and they were engaged before he left for France in 1918. They were married on June 28, 1919 and lived in her mother's home. They had one daughter, Margaret Truman (February 17, 1924 — January 29, 2008) at a relatively late age (the Trumans were 39 and 40 when she was born)

As Harry Truman became active in politics Bess Truman traveled with him, sharing his platform appearances as the public had come to expect of a candidate's wife. His election to the Senate in 1934 took the family to Washington, D.C. He was elected Vice President in 1944. Upon F.D.R.'s death on April 12, 1945, Harry Truman took the presidential oath of office and Bess Truman became the new First Lady.

First Lady of the United States

Bess found the White House's lack of privacy distasteful. As her husband put it later, she was "not especially interested" in the "formalities and pomp or the artificiality which, as we had learned..., inevitably surround the family of the President Harry Truman." Though she steadfastly fulfilled the social obligations of her position, she did only what she thought was necessary. When the White House was rebuilt during Truman's second term, the family lived in Blair House and kept their social life to a minimum. In most years of her husband's presidency Mrs. Truman did not live in Washington other than during the social season when her presence was expected.

The contrast with Bess's politically and socially outspoken predecessor Eleanor Roosevelt was marked. Unlike her, Bess held only one press conference after many requests from the mostly female press corps assigned to her. The press conference consisted of written questions in advance and the written replies were mostly monosyllabic along with many no comments. Bess's response to whether she wanted her daughter Margaret to become President was "most definitely not." Her reply to what she wanted to do after her husband left office was "return to Independence" although she had briefly entertained the thought of living in Washington after 1953.

Death and Longevity

In 1953 the Trumans went back to Independence and the family home at 219 North Delaware Street, where the former president worked on building his library and writing his memoirs. Following a 1959 mastectomy Bess thought she was going to die (her husband was quoted as saying the tumor was the size of a basketball, but it was benign).

When President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law in 1965, the Trumans were the first to be given its benefits.

At the time of her husband's death in 1972 at age 88, she was 87 making them the oldest couple having occupied the White House at that time. Bess agreed to be the honorary chairman for the reelection campaign of Sen. Thomas Eagleton (D-Missouri).

Bess continued to live quietly in Independence for the last decade of her life, being visited by her daughter and grandchildren. She died October 18, 1982, from congestive heart failure at the age of 97; a private funeral service was held October 21, afterwards she was buried beside her husband in the courtyard of the Harry S. Truman Library.

Aged 97 years at her death she remains the longest lived First Lady in United States history. The only close relative of a US president to live longer than Bess Truman was John F. Kennedy's mother, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, who died aged 104 in 1995.

References

Original text based on the White House biography

Category:1885 births Category:1982 deaths Category:American Episcopalians Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in Missouri Category:Converts to Anglicanism Category:American Anglicans Category:First Ladies of the United States Category:Harry S. Truman Category:People from Independence, Missouri Category:Second Ladies of the United States Category:Spouses of United States Senators Category:William Chrisman High School alumni Category:Missouri Democrats