Today, through the Johnson County Parks & Recreation Department, and with hostess Kim Phillips, I took a tour to Independence, Missouri to learn about its most famous citizen, Harry S. Truman.
The first site related to Mr. Truman was his presidential library and museum. Here our group met with a museum docent who led us through the library telling stories and sharing anecdotes about our 33rd President.
Truman was born in May of 1884 and named after his uncle, Harrison Young. "S" was chosen as his middle name to please both of his grandfathers - Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young. The initial did not stand for anything. Truman was born in Lamar, and then moved to Harrisonville, Beltville, and Grandview. Truman moved to Independence when he was six and didn't attend a traditional school until he was eight. Truman entered the Missouri Army National Guard in 1906 and served until 1911, seeing action in France.
After the war, Truman married Bess Wallace, who he met again (they had attended high school together) while returning a cake plate from his relatives' house across the street. They had one daughter, Mary Margaret. Mr. Truman and a friend opened a haberdashery but it failed a few years later. He was then elected as a judge of the County Court of Jackson County. We toured the courthouse where Mr. Truman presided and saw his judge's chair and courtroom.
In 1934 Harry Truman was elected to the United States Senate and then became Franklin Roosevelt's third Vice-President. Truman became President 82 days later when Roosevelt died in 1945. Mr. Truman was immediately faced with the issue of using the atomic bomb (of which he had no knowledge whatsoever, as did no one else except the scientists involved) against Japan. Other major issues facing Truman during his Presidency were the recognition of Israel, McCarthyism, the Korean War, and Civil Rights.
In 1951 the U.S. ratified the 22nd Amendment, making a President ineligible to run for a third time, but Truman would have been "grandfathered in" as he was the current President. However, he chose not to run and instead retired to his home at 219 N. Delaware in Independence, Missouri. He died of pneumonia in 1972 at age 88. The clock in his Presidential Library is stopped at 7:50, the time of his death.
