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Young Bess Wallace, Young Harry Truman, handwriting background.

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The Dear Bess and Dear Harry Podcast, from Harry S Truman National Historic Site

Harry S Truman

From Harry S Truman National Historic Site; a chance to share some of the stories associated with Harry Truman, Bess W. Truman and their times. We will share letters written between Harry Truman, Bess Wallace Truman, Margaret Truman, and others. We will link to digital versions of the letters in case you'd like to see them. You may need to refresh the page for the latest episode.

Episodes

Dear Bess: March 29, 1944

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for March 29, 2024, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service, coming to you from Independence, Missouri, a place that Harry S Truman called the center of the world.

We’d like to share with you today a brief Dear Bess letter written on this date in 1944 by United States Senator Harry S Truman. Please be sure to see the link to see a digital copy of the original letter, preserved by the Truman Library. This letter was written on special Senate letterhead. The Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program had a more common nickname in 1944…the Truman Committee. Via a series of hearings, meetings, visits around the country, Senator Truman, the Committee and its staff were able to investigate expenditures made in the name of defense, expenditures that seemed odd for whatever reason. The Truman Committee, although Truman didn’t care for that name, was able to save the American taxpayers billions of dollars. An initial budget of $15,000 expanded to $360,000 and saved an estimated $10-15 billion. It also made Truman a national figure.

Also in this brief letter Truman refers to an in-law, his wife’s cousin Gates Wells. Bess Wallace Truman’s mother’s maiden name was Gates. Also, please note the kind regards the Senator sends to his mother in law.

Regarding the Truman Committee, we recommend checking out a new book on it by Steve Drummond called The Watchdog that came out last year. There are some important lessons we can learn from that committee.

Here’s the letter:

Southern Pacific March 29, 1944

Dear Bess:

We are progressing down the Southern Pacific at a pace which would land us in Washington in about two weeks if we were east bound instead of southbound. Left Seattle at 4:30 yesterday and now we are approaching Sacramento at about the same time today. I was supposed to fly to Los Angeles yesterday morning so I could make a speech to 1200 Democrats who had paid $2500 a plate for the privilege of being present. I felt I couldn't leave a committee hearing to make a political speech after the furor that resulted in my statement released Monday morning. But I'm going to address the same sort of a meeting in San Francisco tomorrow night. I don't care whether they like it or not. I'm not going to be completely muzzled just because the Special Committee has made good. We had a very fine hearing in Seattle. As I told you yesterday Magnusson and Wallgren had talked too much as the parrot did. The Liberty Ship program has been a success and that, I think, is what history will say. But when demagogues can get up and say that soldiers and wounded are being put into them as troop ships we had to look into it. Naturally we are bound to displease some people. Kaiser made a good witness and most of the papers seem to be happy. The Portland Oregonian said last night we were playing politics. That will be the cry from now on no matter what we do. Think I'll shut down after this trip until fall.

Will mail this in San Francisco as soon as we arrive. Your cousin Walter Gates came to see me yesterday at the Court House. He is selling insurance in Seattle. Said his family were in Portland. He couldn't get a house to live in. Kiss my baby. Love to you. My best to your mother.

Harry

In this brief letter, Senator Harry Truman talks to his wife a bit about the famed select committee he is leading investigating waste and fraud in defense spending. The committee was bearing much fruit already, saving taxpayers money.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-truman-1921-1959/march-29-1944

Dear Mamma and Mary (Truman) : April 12, 1945

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess, Dear Harry podcast for April 12, 2024, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service. We come to you from 219 North Delaware Street, Independence, Missouri, which from 1945 to 1953 was the second most famous address in the United States.

Today we would like to share with you a different type of letter written by Harry S Truman, one written by him as Vice President of the United States, and written to his mother and sister, Mrs. Martha Ellen Truman and Miss Mary Jane Truman, back home in Grandview, Missouri.

Just a note---we are grateful to have photocopies of the letters that Harry Truman wrote to his mother and sister. As former President Truman was writing his memoirs, he borrowed these letters from his sister, and had copies made. Mary Jane Truman for reasons unknown destroyed the originals.

Vice President Truman had been in that office for just over 80 days. Constitutionally, the Vice President serves as the presiding officer of the Senate, and Truman dearly loved the Senate, and had good working relationships with many of its members. Sometimes we live our lives not knowing what fate has in store for us. As Harry Truman wrote this letter to his mother and sister, he had no way of knowing that just a few hours later he would be President of the United States, and the radio address he mentions would never happen. His life would change forever, as would the lives of his family. We’d like to share this letter with you today.

April 12 1945

United States Senate Washington, D.C.

Dear Mamma & Mary: I am trying to write to you a letter today from the desk of the President of the Senate while a windy Senator from Wisconsin is making a speech on a subject with which he is in no way familiar. The Jr. Sen. From Arizona made a speech on the subject and he knew what he was talking about. The Wisconsin Senator is Wiley and the Arizona Senator is McFarland.

We are considering the Mexican Treaty on water in the Colorado River and the Rio Grande. It is of vital importance to South Western U.S. and northern Mexico. Hope we get it over some day soon. The Senators from California and one from Utah and a very disagreeable one from Nevada (McCarran) are fighting the ratification. I have to sit up here and make parliamentary rulings-some of which are common sense and some of which are not. Hope you are having a nice spell of weather. We’ve had a week of beautiful weather but it is raining and wintery today. I don’t think it’s going to last long. Hope not for I must fly to Providence R.I. Sunday morning.

Turn on your radio tomorrow night at 9:30 your time and you’ll hear Harry make a Jefferson Day address to the nation. I think I’ll be on all the networks so it ought not to be hard to get me. It will be followed by the President whom I’ll introduce.

Hope you are both well and stay that way.

Love to you both.

Write when you can.

Harry

On April 12, 1945, Vice President Harry S Truman was presiding over the United States Senate and decided to write his mother and sister back home in Grandview, Missouri...even encouraging them to tune into a radio broadcast where Truman was going to introduce President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Fate had other plans. A few hours later America would be mourning one president and learning about their new one. And the war was still raging on two fronts.

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/165042140

Dear Bess: April 29, 1912

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for April 29, 2024, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site. It was just about 40 years ago that the Truman Home opened to the public, and, since then, millions of visitors from around the world have come here to learn about Harry S Truman, his family, and his legacy. We are honored that visitors continue to do so.

Today’s letter was written on this date in 1912. Some interesting family gossip in this letter. When Harry Truman writes about his ornery cousins he is writing about Ethel and Nellie Noland, daughters of Joseph and Ella Noland, who lived at 216 North Delaware Street in Independence…this recording is being made from their home right now! Ella Noland was Harry Truman’s father’s sister, his father being John Anderson Truman. Now Truman was close to the Nolands, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t get frustrated with them once in a while!

These letters from Harry Truman to Bess Wallace remain a tremendous document of Truman’s life on the farm and how some of his family relations were.

Here’s the letter.

Grandview, Mo. April 29, 1912

Dear Bess:

Your letter came yesterday but I was so all fired lazy I didn't answer it. Do you know those ornery cousins of mine came out Saturday morning and went back Saturday evening, after I'd already made arrangements with the hired man so I couldn't leave Sunday. Wasn't that the height of pure cussedness? I guess they had a good excuse though. Aunt Ella was sick. We had a barbecue and land auction at Grandview Saturday and I had to stay home and work. Doesn't that sound unusual? So I didn't get to see the girls at all. I was just about to finish sowing clover seed and as all indications pointed to rain I couldn't stop. I finished at five-o'clock-115 acres, which means that I probably rode 120 miles on the drill. If you'd only prayed a little harder Thursday, I'd have got off but as it was it only stopped me an hour. Now I'm done and will have to go to plowing. It takes a deluge to stop a plow so I guess I'll have to wait until Sunday. This time Mr. hired man stays if all the relations in the county choose to come. There were about a thousand people at Grandview Saturday. Everybody and his brother was present. If he didn't happen to have a brother, he brought his mother-in-law. That what mine did. (My brother.) Mr. Davidson's feed was the most scrumptious affair you ever saw. He had roast cow and several roast hogs with salad and pie and all the trimmings for the whole bunch. He paid $10,000 for ten acres and got $16,500 for it. Probably made $3,000 clear in a month. Wish I could coin money at that rate. You know he made $3,000 on Jost's election.

This letter is a sort of "continued in our next." I started it at noon, then went and plowed a half day, and now I hope to finish it if Mary doesn't announce supper too quickly. I raked all the hide off the end of my left thumb this afternoon while trying to punch a hole in a strap. It wasn't my Sunday knife, so you needn't be afraid to use the one I carry on holidays. You have no idea how very inconvenient it is to try to wash your face with one hand, especially if that one is the wrong one. I did mine as Tom Sawyer did his-gave it a lick and promised it a better one Sunday maybe. Won't I be pretty by then? I'll come down and let you see how I look if you will be at home. I'll stop at a barber shop on the way though and except for an immense amount of sunburn I'll be as usual. I got axle grease all over my nose this morning. That was before I scratched my thumb and also before dinner so I got it washed off. You've no notion how big my nose is until you see it blacked. I was greasing a plow and got a gob of grease on my glove and for some unknown reason immediately smeared it on the side of my nose. I guess I was trying brush off a freckle. I 'm trying to erase it from the side I did a good job and plastered the whole thing. You'd think that would take a whole bucket of grease but just the little bit I had on my glove was entirely sufficient.

This stationary is a box Mary bought me Saturday so you see I don't have to use a tablet. Though I have one I use on my cousins and my aunts.

I hope you and Mary had a good time on the chaperon job. I suppose the reason they take you two is because they don't need any, isn't it?

"The Jingo" is a story with a brazen moral I guess, and like The Squirrel Cage, won't be fit to read in a few numbers. Did you read the article on Getting up Pinafore in Everybody's? It's a killer. Please send me a letter for this, and may I come Sunday and also May 19 to hear the Bishop and a few other times if I get a chance?

Sincerely, Harry

A fascinating letter to Miss Wallace from the Spring of 1912. We've done this letter before, but it's just that fascinating!

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/157638962

Dear Bess: May 32, 1911 (misdated)

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for May 17, 2024, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service.

This podcast series has been sharing letters written by Harry S Truman to Bess Wallace Truman between 1910 and 1959, while also spotlighting letters from Bess Truman to Harry Truman, and letters to others in their family. These letters are an outstanding example of primary documents, and are key to understanding the interpersonal dynamic of Harry Truman’s relationships.

Today’s letter is a good example. It was written by Harry S Truman in the spring of 1911, within the first six months of his courtship with Bess Wallace. He initially misdates it May 32, 1911, but humorously explains why he kept that date.

A little context…when Truman wrote this letter, he was recovering from a broken leg. That’s difficult for a farmer, one whose livelihood relies on being able to be mobile. We wish we had the corresponding letter from Bess Wallace, but Mrs. Truman destroyed most of her share of the correspondence, unfortunately.

This letter is a great example of documenting life on the Truman Farm in the spring of 1911, and we would love to share it with you!

Grandview, Mo. May 32, 1911

Dear Bessie,

You'll notice that I have dated this May 32. If I scratch May right at the beginning, it won't look well and it is easier anyway just to give the month another day. Julius Caesar or Augustus you know could add or subtract days from any month they chose and I guess I can do the same to the one that holds my birthday.

I am dying of curiosity. What on earth is the job I'll have? Of course I'll have to sit tight and wait I guess, but it's mighty disagreeable to burn up slowly with a strictly feminine prerogative. I have really got anxious to work since I can't. I once thought if I could only lay off I could sleep at least two days at a stretch but I simply can't do over five hours now to save me, and I believe I'd really pitch hay with pleasure. So come on with your job. I am getting to be something of an organ-grinding pianist myself now and I can't appreciate your torture at the neighbor's hands at all, because if we had any neighbors close enough to listen I'd be doing them the same way. I can play "Happy Heinie" and "Yankee Doodle" to a fare you well. I suppose it is sometimes good for the neighbors when you have to use an opera glass to see the front gate.

Don't you think Dr. Cyrus Townsend Brady is a fine fellow? I do. When a man has the ability and courage to tell old Bill Nelson what he is, he sure is all right with me. He'll make a success in K.C. too. The Star never did win a political or any other kind of fight of any importance. You know they made a special fight on Jim Reed & W. P. Borland. The Journal said the Star had won an old time victory when Borland was elected. When a man wants to win in this end of the state he wants the Star against him. I hope they don't disrupt the Church in K.C. but I hope they make Grace Church take their pastor back.

Mamma came in just now and gave me a job. Picking stems off strawberries. She had nearly three gallons. It was some job too. I like strawberry jam so well though I ought not to kick about getting the berries ready. They are not very good this year. It has been too dry. We have patch enough for a wagon load but if we get ten gallons we'll do well. I guess blackberries will be fine though. Our patch is white with bloom. Rain Rain. That's what we need and badly too. Do you like to hear how farm crops do? That is all a farmer thinks of this time of year. I hope we have good ones this year anyway. I won't mind my enforced vacation then.

Say, when I am able to walk like a gentleman again will you go to a ball game with me? I mean a real professional game at Assination Park. I am so crazy to walk I don't know what to do. I have been buggy riding a time or two and can go around on three legs. I am like the mathematical dog. I put down three and carry one. That infernal calf is veal now.

Vivian and Mr. McBroom are plowing corn just north of the house and their language is forceful to say the least when they go to turn here at the house. A horse when he is hitched to a cultivator can make a religious crank use profanity. It is not possible to reach him as your hands are fully holding the play, so you have to take it out in strong talk. I have found on investigation that Vivian was entirely responsible for your book going astray. He put it under the buggy seat when they started for Dodson, and Ethel and Aunt Ella had to run for a car and he never mentioned the book. He took both the book and Life to his girl that evening and never said a word until yesterday when he brought the book home. I'll bring it myself next time. Well I hope you'll consider this worth an answer. Don't keep me waiting long or I'll die of curiosity.

Sincerely, Harry

This fascinating letter from Harry Truman to Bess Wallace is from the first few months of their courtship. Truman was recuperating from a broken leg, and he passes some time writing to his one true love.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/june-1-1911-misdated-may

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