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Mr. and Mrs.President

See How They Ran

A Guide to Abbreviations in Notes:

Sources Consulted

Collections Cited

Oral Histories Cited

Synopsis

Excerpt

Reviews

Photo Gallery

19 "REQUEST IMMEDIATE...": Adam Clayton Powell to HST, 1 Oct.1945, HST OF 93.

19 "if you...": Powell to BWT, 11 Oct. 1945,p. 2, HST OF 93.

20 "decided she...": MMT, Bess W. Truman (New York, 1986), p. 279.

20 "lengthy discussion....": Diary, 12 Oct. 1945, Box 16, Eben Ayers MSS, HST Lib.

20 "racial discrimination": HST to Powell, 12 Oct. 1945, Box 43, HST Soc.

20 "That the invitation...": BWT to Powell, 12 Oct. 1945, Box 43, HST Soc.

20 "Why not?": ChiT, 13 Oct. 1945, pp. 24, 8.

20 "MRS. TRUMAN...": Denver Post, 13 Oct. 1945, p. 1.

20 "gives sanction...": WDN, 13 Oct. 1945, p. 5.

20 "a public institution....": NYT, 13 Oct. 1945, p. 17.

21 "that damned...": Robert J. Donovan, Conflict and Crisis (New York, 1977), p. 148. See also Charles V. Hamilton, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (New York, 1991), p. 165.

21 Junior Jaycees: Birmingham News, 11 Oct. 1945, p. 2.

21 "TRUMAN ASSAILS...": WasS, 12 Oct. 1945, p. 1.

21 "American....": KCS, 13 Oct. 1945, p. 10.

21 "the Hitler philosophy...": U.S. Congress, Senate, 79th Cong. 1st sess., 24 Oct. 1945, CR, 92:10026.

21 "communistic attacks...": 16 Oct. 1945, CR, 91:9675

21 "policy of...": 18 Oct. 1945, CR, 91:9791.

21 "patriotic and...": U.S. Congress, Senate, 79th Cong. 1st sess., 26 Oct. 1945, CR, 92:10074.

22 "this recent controversy": KCS, 15 Oct. 1945, p. 1.

22 "because of its...": WasP, 18 Oct. 1945, B1.

22 "the war hasn't...": NYP, 15 Oct. 1945, p. 20.

22 "condone[d]": Edward Rosenhahn to BWT, 15 Oct. 1945, Box 125, HST Soc.

22 "stand on...": Frances E. Nease to BWT, 13 Oct. 1945, Box 125, HST Soc.

22 "The American public...": Mrs. Edwin S. Schweig to BWT, 13 Oct. 1945, Box 125, HST Soc.

22 "Thank God...": Mrs. Boell to BWT, 18 Oct. 1945, Box 125, HST Soc.

22 "All this horror...": Mrs. Charlotte Rosenthal to BWT, 12 Oct. 1945, Box 125, HST Soc.

22 Tea with...: A.R. Smith to BWT, 17 Oct. 1945, Box 125, HST Soc.

23 "At last...": C.C. Brown, telegram, 15 Oct. 1945, HST OF 93.

23 "One has to...": Susie M. Baird to BWT, 22 Oct. 1945, p. 3, Box 125, HST Soc.

23 "cheap....": E.A. Roberts to BWT, 22 Oct. 1945, Box 125, HST Soc.

23 "that you stay...": Lillian A. Chambers to BWT, 22 Oct. 1945, Box 125, HST Soc.

23 "I agree...": MMT, BWT, p. 279.

23 "Much damage...": Ibid.

23 "the battle...": Miami Herald, 9 Sept. 1945, D1.

23 "profoundly...": WDN, 25 Nov. 1946, p. 39.

24 "For Heaven's...": Evelyn Peyton Gordon, "Some Advice to Debutantes," WDN, c. Spring, 1946, BWT VF.

24 twenty army trucks: David McCullough, Truman (New York, 1992), p. 382.

24 "Well, what...": NYTM, 10 Apr. 1949, 6:8-9.

24 "After a diet...": Alonzo L. Hamby, Man of the People (New York, 1995), p. 298.

24 "the lobbyists": CBS "Person to Person," 27 May 1955, HST AV.

24 "their pencils...": Helen Brown in Carl Sferrazza Anthony, First Ladies, 2 vols. (New York, 1990), 1:517.

24 former teacher: See, for example, WasS, 15 Apr. 1945, B1.

24 "her preferred...": ChiT, 13 Apr. 1945, p. 2.

24 "maidless": WasS, 13 Apr. 1945, A6

24 "new and....": ChiDN, 13 Apr. 1945, p. 17.

24 "model wife": Providence Evening Bulletin, 13 Apr. 1945, p. 8.

24 "trim": Ibid.

25 "plump": ChiDN, 13 Apr. 1945, p. 17.

25 "A career....": Ibid.

25 "helped...": WasS, 13 Apr. 1945, A6

25 "She is...": ChiDN, 13 Apr. 1945, p. 17.

25 "NEW FIRST...": ChiDN, 13 Apr. 1945, p. 17.

25 "childhood": WasS, 13 Apr. 1945, A6.

25 "I cannot": ChiT, 13 Apr. 1945, p. 2.

25 "four eyes": Mize Peters OH, p. 11. See also Mary Ethel Noland OH, p. 58.

25 "sissy": McCullough, Truman, p. 45.

25 "town schooling": William Hillman, Mr. President (New York, 1952), p. 159.

25 "a little...": HST in NYT, 7 Nov. 1950, p. 17.

25 "She never...": Richard Lawrence Miller, Truman (New York, 1986), p. 40.

25 "top-drawer": See Mary Paxton Keeley OH, p. 23.

25 "the queenliest woman...": Alfred Steinberg, The Man from Missouri (New York, 1962), p. 35.

25 "tomboy": Henry Chiles OH, p. 19.

26 "your grandfather....": MMT, BWT, p. 234.

26 "Well, I saw...": Ibid., p. 32.

26 "clodhopper ": HST to BWT, 19 Nov. 1913 in Robert H. Ferrell, ed., Dear Bess (New York, 1983), p. 143.

26 "empty head[ed]": HST to BWT, [18] July 1912, p. 1, Box 1, HST Fam.

26 frontier tradition: See David Donald, "The Folklore Lincoln," Lincoln Reconsidered, rev. ed. (New York, 1961), p. 154.

27 "I really...": HST to BWT, 5 Sept. 1911 in Ferrell, Bess, p. 45.

27 "become engaged...": HST to BWT, 28 Apr. 1915 in Ferrell, Bess, p. 182.

27 "a guy....": HST to BWT, 19 Nov. 1913 in Ferrell, Bess, p. 145.

27 "that I was...": Robert H. Ferrell, ed. The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman (Boulder, CO, 1980), p. 41.

27 "It really....": HST to BWT, 20 Oct. 1918, pp. 3, 4, Box 4, HST Fam.

28 "companionate marriage": Steven Mintz and Susan Kellogg, Domestic Revolutions (New York, 1988), p. xvi.

28 democratic love story: See Richard L. Bushman, The Refinement of America (New York, 1992), p. 423.

28 "silly": BWT to Mary Ethel Noland, 23 Nov. 1944, p. 4, Box 1, Mary Ethel Noland MSS, HST Lib.

29 "my girl": HST to BWT and MMT, 18 July 1930, Box 5, HST Fam.

29 "Don't spank...": HST to BWT, 4 May 1933, Box 5, HST Fam.

29 "sentimental": HST to BWT, 19 Nov. 1913 in Ferrell, Bess, p.145.

29 "never": Tom Evans OH, 3:599.

29 "warmth and hopitality,": KCS, 9 June 1935, A2.

29 "cooped up": MMT with Margaret Cousins, Souvenir (New York, 1956), p. 37.

29 "like a...": HST to BWT, 18 June 1935 in Ferrell, Bess, p. 363.

29 "I am so...": BWT to Mary Ethel Noland, undated, Box 1, Noland MSS.

30 job holders: HST to BWT, 17 June 1936 in Ferrell, Bess, p. 387.

30 "genius": HST to BWT, 23 July 1935 in Ibid., p. 373.

30 "He never": Reathel Odum OH, pp. 134-135.

30 "untold and yeoman...": HST to BWT, 17 June 1940 in Ferrell, Bess, p. 437.

30 "Seeing the senator...": "Mrs. Truman Spurns Active Campaign Role," Kansas City Journal, c. 1940, clipping, BWT VF.

30 "But, Mommy...": HST to BWT, 1 May 1942 in Ferrell, Bess, p.475.

30 "When a man...": HST to BWT, 28 June 1942 in Ibid., p. 480.

30 Truman understood...: See Edward D. McKim OH, p. 99; Lewis B. Schwellenbach to HST, 13 Apr. 1945, Box 307, HST PSF.

31 "that I had...": HST to BWT, 12 July 1943 in Ferrell, Bess, p. 495.

31 "I've talked...": MMT, Souvenir, p. 64.

31 could not afford: Jonathan Daniels, The Man of Independence (Philadelphia, 1950), p. 231.

31 too minor: Ibid.

31 "I've had...": Evans OH, 2:335.

31 "a dozen senators...": Ibid., 2:335a.

31 "every effort": Ferrell, Autobiography, p. 87.

31 "Are we going...": MMT, Souvenir, p. 68.

31 "gloomy Victorian": Life, 21 Aug. 1944, p. 77.

31 "Certainly my wife...": Frank McNaughton and Walter Hehmeyer, This Man Truman (New York, 1945), p. 183.

31 "Marg has gone...": BWT to Noland, 30 Mar. 1945,p. 2, Box 1, Noland MSS.

32 "It is a...": HST to Emmy Southern, 13 May 1945 in Robert H. Ferrell, ed., Off the Record (New York, 1980), p. 23.

32 "President Truman...": NYTM, 30 Nov. 1952, 6:14.

32 "Harry, if you...": NYT, 23 May 1945, p. 21.

32 "a valet...": HST to Ethel Noland, 24 Sept. 1950, Noland MSS.

33 "sobsister": HST to Ethel Noland, 1 Nov. 1918, in Monte M. Poen, Letters Home by Harry Truman (New York, 1984), p. 47.

33 Knowing that...: Maureen H. Beasely, Eleanor Roosevelt and the Media (Urbana, IL, 1987), p. 57.

33 "I don't know...": Frances Perkins in Jhan Robbins, Bess & Harry (New York, 1980), pp. 80-81.

34 "began her...": NYT, 16 May, 1945, p. 17.

34 "Mrs. Truman.": Robbins, Bess & Harry, p. 82.

34 "All questions...": Eben A. Ayers, memorandum, 18 May 1945, Box 3, Reathel Odum MSS, HST Lib.

34 "in the long run....": HST in Hillman, Mr. President, p. 11.

34 "any use...": BWT to Reathel Odum, 22 Oct. 1969, Box 3, Odum MSS.

34 "Am hoping for...": BWT to Bess Furman, 16 Apr. 1948, Box 5, Odum MSS.

34 "leading hostess": WasS, 15 Apr. 1945, B1.

34 "Woman's real...": McCall's, Jan. 1951, pp. 26, 52.

35 "nobody....": MMT, ed., Where the Buck Stops (New York, 1989), pp. 257, 256.

35 BWT sponsored: See "List of Organizations..." in Box 5, Odum MSS.

35 "one of these": BWT to HST, 12 Nov. 1946, in MMT, Letters from Father (New York, 1981), p. 185.

35 "Bess was....": HST to Mary Truman, 1 Nov. 1947 in Poen, Letters, p. 214.

35 "dinner hour...": WasS, 16 Nov. 1945, B6.

35 "America's most ornate...": NYTM, 20 Feb. 1949, 6:12.

35 "We have watched...": Mary L. Johnson to HST, 2 Feb. 1950, Box 325, HST PSF Personal.

35 "an item...": SatEP, 30 Nov. 1946, p. 22.

36 "I have a..": HST to MMT, 22 Dec. 1946 in MMT, Letters from Father, p. 87.

36 the ritual: HST to BWT, 3 Oct. 1947, Box 8, HST Fam.

36 that he had...": NYT, 1 Aug. 1949, p. 20.

36 "demonstrative": HST to BWT, 18 Nov. 1913 in Ferrell, Bess, p. 144.

36 "wasn't happy...": HST Diary, 7 July 1945 in Ferrell, Off the Record, p. 49.

36 "I'm sorry....": HST to BWT, 6 July 1945 in Ferrell, Bess, p.517.

37 "I spent the..": HST to BWT, 29 July 1945 in Ibid., p. 522.

37 "It isn't polls...": HST, "Polls...," pp. 1-2, Box 334, Long Hand Notes, HST PSF.

37 "relapsed into...": MMT, Souvenir, p. 109.

37 "None of this...": Collier's, 9 Feb. 1952, p. 60.

37 "Imagine a President's...": Ibid.

37 "President Truman forever!...": Robbins, Bess & Harry, p. 110.

37 "What was Eddie...": Odum OH, p. 72.

37 "was scared...": Roberta Barrows OH, pp. 92-93.

38 "One of the...": NYT, 26 Dec. 1945, p. 1.

38 "It's a very...": MMT, BWT, p. 281.

38 "I had never...": MMT, First Ladies (New York, 1995), pp.77-78.

38 "You can never...": HST to BWT, 28 Dec. 1945 in Ferrell, Bess, p. 524.

38 "one of the...": MMT, First Ladies, p. 78. See also, Hamby, Man, p. 344.

38 "babying the Soviets,": Daniels, The Man, p. 310.

39 "the real riot...": Ibid.

39 "cordial meeting": James Byrne, All in One Lifetime (New York, 1958), p. 343.

39 "such a letter...": Ibid., p. 402.

39 "vastly exaggerate": Dean Acheson, Present at the Creation (New York, 1969), p. 136; Hamby, Man, p. 345.

39 turbulent Christmas: Ibid. See also, HST, Memoirs, 2 vols. (Garden City, NY, 1955-1956) 1:549-552; Donovan, Conflict pp. 159-161.

39 Typically, Bess awoke....: Hamby, Man, pp. 467-468.

39 "Three Musketeers": Lillian Rogers Park, My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House (New York, 1961), p. 275

39 "If I expressed....": MMT, Letters from Father, p. 26.

39 "Mrs. T.....": Form Letter, "This will acknowledge...", Box 3, Odum MSS.

40 "relieve[s]....": Memorandum to Reathel Odum, 4 Apr. 1946, Box 4, Odum MSS.

40 "small-townish...": Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 16. Apr. 1946, p. 6.

40 "got out...": Life, 22 Apr. 1946. p. 45.

40 "Pledge...": NYT, 7 June 1946, p. 22.

40 "set a good example": Robbins, Harry & Bess, p. 98.

40 "It was nice...": HST to BWT, 16 Sept. 1946, p. 3, Box 8, HST Fam.

40 "Even when...": HST to BWT, 18 Nov. 1946 in Ferrell, Bess, p.540.

40 "get awfully...": BWT to Mary Paxton Keeley, 8 Jan. 1946, Box 1, Mary Paxton Keeley MSS, HST Lib.

40 "but my conscience...": BWT to Helen [Souter], 17 Sept. 1946, # 572, Miscellaneous Historical Documents Collection, HST Lib.

41 175 days: Hamby, Man, p. 483.

41 "press boys": HST to BWT, 2 Mar. 1948 in Poen, Letters, p.233.

41 "more fun...": Evelyn Peyton Gordon, "If President Isn't Entitled to Vacation, Who Is?" WDN, clipping, BWT VF.

41 "absolute privacy": HST to BWT, 22 Aug. 1946 in Ferrell, Bess, p. 533.

41 "I go swimmin'...": Ken Hechler, Working with Truman (New York, 1982), p. 114.

41 "crackpots...": HST to BWT, 19 Sept. 1946 in Ferrell, Bess, p. 538.

41 "greatest ambition...": Clifford in Irwin Ross, The Loneliest Campaign (New York, 1968), p. 9.

41 "I'd be much...": HST to BWT, 24 Sept. 1947, p. 2. Box 8, HST Fam.

41 "that he did...": Robert H. Ferrell, ed. Truman in the White House: The Diary of Eben A. Ayers (Columbia, MO, 1991), p.242.

41 "the welfare...": HST, Memoirs, 2:17.

42 "Better tell...": BWT to Odum, c. 11 Oct. 1946, Box 5, Odum MSS.

42 "terse, tart...": Time, 10 Nov. 1947, p. 24. See also, Nwswk, 10 Nov. 1947, p. 16.

42 Wallgren introduced: MMT, BWT, p. 320.

42 "to run...": Robbins, Bess & Harry, p. 123.

42 "people's crusade": HST Remarks, 28 Oct. 1948, Box 7, Speech File, HST PSF.

42 "And now...": NYer, 9 Oct. 1948, pp. 63-64.

43 "Mrs. Truman...": "Recollections of the 1948 Campaign," p. 4, Box 23, Clark Clifford MSS, HST Lib.

43 "Truman ladies...": Nwswk, 8 Nov. 1948, p. 13.

43 "It never occurred...": MMT, Souvenir, p. 215.

43 "It put....": Nwswk, 8 Nov. 1948, p. 13.

43 "children of the sturdy....": John M. Crane, The Pictorial Biography of HST (Philadelphia, 1948), pp. 12, 3 in Box 298, Biographical, HST PSF.

43 "'her husband's...": Ibid., p. 12.

43 "Mrs. Average...": Smithfield (NC) Herald, 22 Oct. 1948, p.12.

43 "Our job...": MMT, Souvenir, p. 235.

43 "Good Morning...": NYT, 27 Sept. 1948, p. 15.

43 "I don't seem...": BWT to Mary [Paxton Keeley], 2 Aug. 1948, Box 1, Keeley MSS. See also, Hamby, Man, p. 476.

44 "more noises...": HST to MMT, 11 Aug. 1948 in Poen, Letters, p. 223.

44 "Dignity, reserve...": Collier's, 12 Feb. 1949, p. 63.

44 "self-effacing...": Look, 1 Mar. 1949, p. 56; McCall's, Apr.1949, p. 18.

44 "She doesn't try...": Look, 1 Mar. 1949, p. 55.

45 "demure housewife...": Collier's, 12 Feb. 1949, p. 65.

45 "simple American...": McCall's, Apr. 1949, p. 98.

45 "in-depth": Life, 11 July 1949, p. 89.

45 "comparative wealth,": McCall's, Apr. 1949, pp. 96-97.

45 "finest things...": NYT, 16 Aug. 1949, p. 1.

45 "does not...": SatEP, 30 Nov. 1946, p. 23.

45 "wishes to...": Statement, 6 Mar. 1947, Box 43, HST Soc.

45 "so they...": HST to Judge F. Ryan Duffy, 1 Dec. 1947, Box 325, Personal, HST PSF.

45 "Would she...": Life, 8 Sept. 1947, p. 42.

45 "a career in which...": NYTM, 19 June 1949, 6:12.

46 "is really interested...": BWT to Mary Paxton Keeley, 14 Apr. 1947, Box 1, Keeley MSS.

46 "the womanly ideal": HST to Thomas E.H. Black, 15 Mar. 1951, Box 325, Personal, HST PSF.

46 "business failure...": HST to BWT, 29 June 1949, Ferrell, Off the Record, p. 158.

46 "Remember... The Blackstone...": Ibid., p. 159.

46 "eight years...": HST, Diary, 16 Apr. 1950, in Ferrell, Off the Record, p. 177.

46 "sure that...": MMT, BWT, p. 353.

47 "had something...": HST to Ethel Noland, 13 Sept. 1950, in Ferrell, Off the Record, pp. 199, 198.

47 "name....": HST to Ethel Noland, 17 Nov. 1950, in Ibid., pp.190-191.

47 "I've worked...": HST Diary, 9 Dec. 1950, in Ibid., p. 204.

47 "To err...": See, for example, Robert H. Ferrell, Harry S. Truman, A Life (Columbia, MO, 1994), p. 218.

47 "averageness": Life, 10 Dec. 1951, p. 36.

47 "cannot sing...": Time, 18 Dec. 1950, p. 17.

48 "was the varnish": HST Diary, 9 Dec. 1950, in Ferrell, Off the Record, p. 204.

48 "I've made...": HST to Nellie and Ethel Noland, 8 Sept. 1949, in Ibid., p. 164.

48 "paid mental...": Monte M. Poen, Strictly Personal and Confidential (Boston, 1982), p. 9.

48 "guttersnipe...": HST to Paul Hume, 6 Dec. 1950 in Hamby, Man, p. 478.

48 "It was Harry...": MMT, BWT, p. 366.

48 "Well, I've had...": HST Diary, 9 Dec. 1950 in Ferrell, Off the Record, p. 204.

48 "stuffed": HST to Barbara Heggie, 20 Dec. 1950, in Ibid., p.205.

48 "The President's...": New York Enquirer, 11 Dec. 1950, clipping, Box 325, Personal, HST PSF.

49 "the trouble...": MMT, Harry S. Truman (New York, 1973), p.503.

49 "Mrs. Wallace always...": Arthur Prettyman in Robbins, Bess & Harry, pp. 136-137.

49 "It is lovely...": Madge G. Wallace to Mary Paxton Keeley, 29 Apr. 1946, Box 1, Keeley MSS.

49 "treated her...": Wallace H. Graham OH, p. 61.

49 "the grandmother": See, for example, 29 Feb. 1952 and 4 Mar.1952, Box 333, Long Hand Notes, HST PSF.

49 "piled high...": BWT to Madeline Mahoney c. 1951, #600, Miscellaneous Historical Documents Collection.

49 "My wife...": Meeting with Stevenson, 4 Mar. 1952, Box 333, Long Hand Notes, HST PSF.

50 "would like...": NYT, 24 Mar. 1952, p. 1.

50 "Nothing could...": DetFP, 25 Mar. 1952, p. 6.

50 "Suddenly her step...": Robbins, Bess & Harry, p. 153.

50 "made one...": KCS, 29 June 1952, A17.

50 "No one, but...": Ibid.

50 "take those invisible...." Dorothy McCardle, WasP, c. 1952, BWT VF.

50 "one of the...": Chicago Sun Times, 7 Dec. 1952, p. 41.

51 "form it's manners": Benjamin Rush in Linda Kerber, Women of the Republic (Chapel Hill, NC, 1980), p. 230.

51 "the nicest thing...": Robert Ruark, LouCJ, 11 Jan. 1951, p.7.

51 "the contrast between..." SLPD, c. 5 Dec. 1952, clipping, Box 299, Biographical, HST PSF.

51 "I don't care...": Raymond Lonergan, "Millions Listen to Truman's Final Talk," clipping, c. Jan. 1953, BWT VF.

51 "humanness": Forbes, 15 June 1952, p. 15.

51 "He's the only...": Henry McLemore, "Applauds President After Talking to Him," c. 4 Apr. 1947, in Box 307, Personal, HST PSF.

51 "That home town..." Ferrell, Autobiography, p. 109.

51 "If this is...": HST, Mr. Citizen (New York, 1960), p. 24.

52 "No kibbitzing...": CBS, "Person to Person," 27 May 1955.

52 "She was...": Ibid.

52 all interactions: Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (New York, 1959), pp. 15-17, 30, 233