Bess Truman
First Lady of the United States
In office April 12, 1945 – January 20, 1953
Preceded by	Eleanor Roosevelt
Succeeded by	Mamie Eisenhower
Second Lady of the United States
In office January 20, 1945 – April 12, 1945
Preceded by	Ilo Wallace
Succeeded by	Jane Barkley
Personal details
Born	(1885-02-13)February 13, 1885 Independence, Missouri, USA
Died	October 18, 1982(1982-10-18) (aged 97) Independence, Missouri, USA
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Harry S. Truman
Children	Margaret (1924-2008)
Occupation	First Lady of the United States
Religion	Episcopalian
Signature

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

She had known her future husband since they attended the same school in Independence, Missouri. As First Lady, she did not enjoy big social events, and was relieved to quit Washington. Dying at 97, she remains the longest-lived First Lady.

Early life[link]

Elizabeth Virginia Wallace was born to David Willock Wallace (1860–1903) and his wife, the former Margaret Elizabeth Gates (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[link]

Bess and Harry's wedding day.

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 Franklin D. Roosevelt'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[link]

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[link]

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. There were only three close relatives of a US president to live longer than Bess Truman. They were James Madison's mother, Nelly Conway Madison, who died in 1829 at the age of 98, and John F. Kennedy's mother, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, who died aged 104 in 1995, and grandmother, Mary Josephine Hannon Fitzgerald, who died aged 98 in 1964.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bess Truman

References[link]

• Original text based on the White House biography

External links[link]

• D C McJonathan-Swarm (Jan 21, 2001). "Bess Truman". First Lady. Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=19671. Retrieved Aug 18, 2011. 

v t e First Ladies of the United States Martha Washington Abigail Adams Martha Jefferson Randolph Dolley Madison Elizabeth Monroe Louisa Adams Emily Donelson Sarah Jackson Angelica Van Buren Anna Harrison Jane Harrison Letitia Tyler Priscilla Tyler Julia Tyler Sarah Polk Margaret Taylor Abigail Fillmore Jane Pierce Harriet Lane Mary Lincoln Eliza Johnson Julia Grant Lucy Hayes Lucretia Garfield Mary McElroy Rose Cleveland Frances Cleveland Caroline Harrison Mary Harrison Frances Cleveland Ida McKinley Edith Roosevelt Helen Taft Ellen Wilson Edith Wilson Florence Harding Grace Coolidge Lou Hoover Eleanor Roosevelt Bess Truman Mamie Eisenhower Jacqueline Kennedy Lady Bird Johnson Pat Nixon Betty Ford Rosalynn Carter Nancy Reagan Barbara Bush Hillary Clinton Laura Bush Michelle Obama

v t e Second Ladies of the United States Abigail Adams Ann Gerry Hannah Minthorne Tompkins Floride Calhoun Letitia Christian Tyler Sophia Dallas Abigail Fillmore Mary Cyrene Burch Breckinridge Ellen Vesta Emery Hamlin Eliza Johnson Ellen Maria Colfax Eliza Hendricks Anna Morton Letitia Stevenson Jennie Tuttle Hobart Edith Roosevelt Cornelia Cole Fairbanks Carrie Babcock Sherman Lois Irene Marshall Grace Coolidge Caro Dawes Mariette Rheiner Garner Ilo Wallace Bess Truman Jane Hadley Barkley Pat Nixon Lady Bird Johnson Muriel Humphrey Judy Agnew Betty Ford Happy Rockefeller Joan Mondale Barbara Bush Marilyn Quayle Tipper Gore Lynne Cheney Jill Biden

Margaret Truman
Portrait by Greta Kempton
Born	(1924-02-17)February 17, 1924 Independence, Missouri
Died	January 29, 2008(2008-01-29) (aged 83) Chicago, Illinois
Occupation	Writer Historian
Alma mater	George Washington University
Genres	Mystery fiction Biography Autobiography
Spouse(s)	Clifton Daniel
Children	Clifton, William, Harrison, Thomas

Mary Margaret Truman Daniel (February 17, 1924 – January 29, 2008), also known as Margaret Truman or Margaret Daniel, was an American singer who later became a successful writer. The only child of US President Harry S. Truman, she was "a witty, hard-working Midwestern girl with singing talent who was neither particularly pretty nor terribly plain."^[1]

Biography[link]

Born in Independence, Missouri, she was christened Mary Margaret Truman (for her aunt Mary Jane Truman and maternal grandmother Margaret Gates Wallace) but was called Margaret from early childhood.

She attended school in Independence until her father's 1934 election to the U.S. Senate, after which her education was split between schools in Washington, D.C. and Independence.^[2] In 1942, she matriculated at George Washington University, where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi^[3] and earned a B.A. in History in 1946.^[2] In June 1944, she christened the battleship USS Missouri at Brooklyn Navy Yard; in 1986 she spoke at the ship's recommissioning.

Margaret Truman

On April 21, 1956, Truman married New York Times reporter (and later editor) Clifton Daniel in Independence; he died in 2000. They had four sons:

• Clifton Truman Daniel (born 1957), Director of Public Relations for Harry S Truman College.^[4]

• William Wallace Daniel (1959–2000), a psychiatric social worker and researcher at Columbia University who died after being struck by a New York City taxicab.^[5]

• Harrison Gates Daniel (born 1963)

• Thomas Washington Daniel (born 1966)

In later life, Truman lived in her Park Avenue home. She died on January 29, 2008, in Chicago (to which she was relocating to be nearer her son Clifton). She was said to have been suffering from "a simple infection" and had been breathing with the assistance of a respirator.^[6] Her ashes, and those of her husband, were interred in Independence, in her parents' burial plot on the grounds of the Truman Library.^[7]

Career[link]

After operatic vocal training, Truman's singing career began with a debut radio recital in March 1947. Reviewers were not always kind, but her father was fiercely protective: when in 1950 Washington Post music critic Paul Hume wrote that Truman was “extremely attractive on the stage... [but] cannot sing very well. She is flat a good deal of the time. And still cannot sing with anything approaching professional finish,” President Truman wrote to Hume, "Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!"^[8] A 1951 Time Magazine cover^[9] featured Truman with a single musical note floating by her head. She performed on stage, radio, and television until the mid-1950s.

Truman also performed on the NBC Radio program The Big Show. It was here where she met writer Goodman Ace who gave her advice and pointers; Ace became a lifelong friend, advising Truman even after The Big Show.^[10][11] She became part of the team of NBC Radio's Weekday show that premiered in 1955, shortly after its Monitor program made its debut.^[12] Paired with Mike Wallace, she presented news and interviews aimed at a female listening audience.^[11][13]

She appeared several times as a panelist (and once as a mystery guest) on the game show What's My Line? and guest-starred more than once on NBC's The Martha Raye Show. In 1957, she sang and played piano The Gisele MacKenzie Show^[14]

Truman's full-length biography of her father, published shortly before his death, was critically acclaimed. She also wrote a personal biography of her mother, histories of the White House and its inhabitants (including first ladies and pets), and a series of murder mysteries set in and around Washington, D.C. (though there have been denied allegations these mysteries were ghostwritten, perhaps by Donald Bain or William Harrington).^[15]

Truman published regularly into her eighties. She also served on the Board of Directors for the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum and the Board of Governors of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.

Bibliography[link]

Fiction[link]

Non-fiction[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• trumanlibrary.org
• Margaret Truman at Find a Grave
• Works by or about Margaret Truman in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for biographies. Please help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the topic. If notability cannot be established, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. (August 2008)

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (August 2008)

Harry Love is a British hip hop record producer and dj from Laylow Ladbroke Grove, London. He has produced joints for artists including Jehst, Verb T, and Klashnekoff.^[1]

Love has an atmospheric production style featuring dark "soundscapes" and idiosyncratic instrumentation. Love is currently working on a concept album.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Harry Love Interview @ britishhiphop.co.uk