Stella E. and George B. Earnshaw Oral History Interview

Stella E. and George B. Earnshaw

NPS

ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW
WITH
STELLA AND GEORGE EARNSHAW

JULY 22, 1991

INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI
INTERVIEWED BY JIM WILLIAMS
ORAL HISTORY #1991-10
This transcript corresponds to audiotape DAV-AR #4341

HARRY S TRUMAN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

EDITORIAL NOTICE

This is a transcript of a tape-recorded interview conducted for Harry S Truman National Historic Site. After a draft of this transcript was made, the park provided a copy to the interviewee and requested that he or she return the transcript with any corrections or modifications that he or she wished to be included in the final transcript. The interviewer, or in some cases another qualified staff member, also reviewed the draft and compared it to the tape recordings. The corrections and other changes suggested by the interviewee and interviewer have been incorporated into this final transcript. The transcript follows as closely as possible the recorded interview, including the usual starts, stops, and other rough spots in typical conversation. The reader should remember that this is essentially a transcript of the spoken, rather than the written, word. Stylistic matters, such as punctuation and capitalization, follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition. The transcript includes bracketed notices at the end of one tape and the beginning of the next so that, if desired, the reader can find a section of tape more easily by using this transcript.

George and Stella Earnshaw and Jim Williams reviewed the draft of this transcript. Their corrections were incorporated into this final transcript by Perky Beisel in summer 2000. A grant from Eastern National Park and Monument Association funded the transcription and final editing of this interview.

RESTRICTION

Researchers may read, quote from, cite, and photocopy this transcript without permission for purposes of research only. Publication is prohibited, however, without permission from the Superintendent, Harry S Truman National Historic Site

ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW WITH
STELLA AND GEORGE EARNSHAW

HSTR INTERVIEW #1991-10
JIM WILLIAMS: This is an oral history interview with George and Stella Earnshaw. We’re at their home in Independence, Missouri, on the morning of July 22, 1991. The interviewer is Jim Williams from the National Park Service, and Scott Stone is running the recording equipment.
Well, I don’t know much about you, so I’d like first of all to find out how long you’ve lived in Independence.
STELLA EARNSHAW: I came to Independence in 1931, from Platte City, Missouri. I came here for nurse’s training at the old, old [hospital], which is now Regional, Independence Regional. I graduated from nurse’s training there in 1934, and I immediately went to work there in the operating room after graduation, and I worked in the operating room and emergency room for a while. Then I went to work for Dr. Allen.
WILLIAMS: So that was the old . . . what they called the sanitarium?
S. EARNSHAW: Yes, it was the sanitarium.
WILLIAMS: Were you married at that time?
GEORGE EARNSHAW: No.
S. EARNSHAW: No. [chuckling]
G. EARNSHAW: You was when you went to work for Dr. Allen.
S. EARNSHAW: Yes. We were married in 1942, and . . . Let’s see, I was trying to
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think of the year I left the operating room. In ’46 I went to work for Dr. Allen, and worked for him until he had to retire.
WILLIAMS: And about what time was that?
S. EARNSHAW: What year that he retired? There’s a slip of paper right over there underneath that glass dish. I think I looked that up. Is it on there? Nineteen forty-six, June 7th, I went to work for Dr. Allen. And then it was in ’63.
WILLIAMS: That he retired?
S. EARNSHAW: Yes.
WILLIAMS: Did you go to work somewhere else then?
S. EARNSHAW: I went back over to the hospital to the emergency room. I had a short stint with the Jackson County Health Department doing public health nursing.
WILLIAMS: Where was Dr. Allen’s office?
S. EARNSHAW: The First National Bank Building, up on the Independence square.
G. EARNSHAW: Where the Boatman’s [bank] is now. Yeah, right there.
WILLIAMS: Just a few blocks from here.
S. EARNSHAW: Mm-hmm, and we lived right down here at . . . we had an apartment at 513 West Lexington, walked back and forth to work.
WILLIAMS: I understand Dr. Allen wasn’t the Truman’s doctor.
S. EARNSHAW: He was not their doctor.
WILLIAMS: But he was their neighbor.
S. EARNSHAW: That’s right, a neighbor.
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WILLIAMS: How close were the Allens and the Trumans, as neighbors?
S. EARNSHAW: Through their children was all. Margaret and Harriet and Marie were pretty close, Mona and Barbie were younger, but most of their association was just through the children.
WILLIAMS: And how well did you know the Truman family?
S. EARNSHAW: Well, I never did know Mr. Truman too well. Mrs. Truman, her family were all from Platte City, and the Gates-Wells family up there were her folks. And she always called it “Platte.” When she’d call me or talk to me, she’d say, “Well, how’s everything in Platte?” Well, we always called it Platte City.
Louise Wells, her niece, you know, she was my Sunday school teacher, and they had a lovely, beautiful home, and they had a tennis court, and we kids used to play tennis there. Louise used to do so many nice things. In fact, I have a hat that belonged to Louise Wells. I wear it for occasions now.
I remember as a very young person that when the Trumans would come to Platte City it would cause quite a stir. We’d all come out and gaze and gawk, you know, at the family. [chuckling]
WILLIAMS: Why would they create a stir more than other folks?
S. EARNSHAW: Well, we knew that they were . . . I guess because they were in politics and he was senator. And the Wellses were a well-thought-of family there in Independence. I guess they had more money than anybody else.
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WILLIAMS: So did you grow up in Platte City?
S. EARNSHAW: Yes.
WILLIAMS: We don’t know too much about the Wells family.
S. EARNSHAW: Oh, don’t you?
WILLIAMS: I hope to interview some of that family later on this summer.
S. EARNSHAW: Oh, did you?
WILLIAMS: I hope to.
S. EARNSHAW: It was Gates and Louise. Of course they’re dead, I guess. And their children, you know, I don’t remember their names. Louise married real late in life, and she married a very prominent attorney. I can’t remember his name.
WILLIAMS: You said you were in the same church? What church was that?
S. EARNSHAW: Well, that was the Christian Church of Platte City then.
WILLIAMS: So they weren’t Presbyterians or Episcopalians like Mrs. Truman was?
S. EARNSHAW: No. No. No.
WILLIAMS: You had quite a bit of contact with that family?
S. EARNSHAW: With the Wells family, yes.
WILLIAMS: Did you keep that up when you were down here in Independence?
S. EARNSHAW: No. No. No, because when we were in training, when we came here you were on duty twenty-four hours a day. It isn’t like nurses today, you know. We lived in a nursing home—in a nurses’ home, not a nursing home—and that was our whole life, our whole experience. We weren’t even allowed to date, so we didn’t have . . .
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WILLIAMS: Really?
S. EARNSHAW: Uh-huh. We didn’t have much activity going on. But our bank, the bank at Platte City was the Wells Banking, uh-huh.
WILLIAMS: So they were a prominent family.
S. EARNSHAW: Yes, they were a prominent family, very well-liked.
WILLIAMS: You said you talked to Bess Truman and she would ask you about Platte City. Why would you be talking to her on the phone?
S. EARNSHAW: Oh, I don’t know. We had several contacts. During the war I taught the Nurse Cadet Corps, you know. Did you ever hear of that?
WILLIAMS: Not really.
S. EARNSHAW: Well, that was a program that the government put the student nurses through, you know, while the war was on, World War II. And Mrs. Truman . . . here are some pictures that . . . she’s over there at the hospital. It’s on the back: “Mrs. Truman in her Chevy.” [see appendix, item 1A] She came over. We had some entertainment and we always invited her over, and I would call her for that and she’d come over. Very lovely about it. This is a Nurse Cadet Corps birthday party when Mrs. Truman was a guest. [see appendix, item 1B] And there’s a Mrs. Taylor and Schick. They were news reporters from Washington, D.C. It’s written on the back there. [see appendix, item 1C]
WILLIAMS: This first one is dated July 1, 1945, so she was the first lady.
S. EARNSHAW: Yes. Yes, she was first lady then.
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WILLIAMS: And are you in this picture?
S. EARNSHAW: No. No, I took them. [chuckling]
WILLIAMS: So she may have been in Independence for the summer or on a visit when she came over?
S. EARNSHAW: Yes. Well, she loved to come back home. Whenever she’d get a good excuse, she’d come home. Now, this is Dr. Allen. [see appendix, item 2] That was taken with him. He was making a house call. He loved to make house calls. [chuckling]
WILLIAMS: Really?
S. EARNSHAW: Yeah. And he always wore that hat and carried that satchel. Now, this is some of the cadet corps. I was their sponsor and they had a maypole dance, and Dr. Allen was their king. See, there’s king and queen, and we elected Dr. Allen the king. [see appendix, item 3] That had to be the same year. We got out old boxes of pictures and went through them here this morning.
WILLIAMS: So is that really when you first got to know Bess Truman?
S. EARNSHAW: Yes. When I knew her at Platte City, I was just a young girl and had no connections with her. My sister and father did, and mother. They knew them closer, you know. I don’t remember much about her until she was first lady.
WILLIAMS: Were you ever in the Truman home?
S. EARNSHAW: Yes, I’ve been in the Truman home. Mrs. Truman’s mother was ill a lot and she used to call me for help for nurses, you know. I couldn’t, I
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was employed, but . . . and I would find nurses for her mother. And she was always so appreciative of anything like that, you know. I think she felt closer to me because I was from Platte City and she knew my family. She knew my parents.
And she was always . . . every time I’d do anything, she’d give me a little gift for it. And she’d send the FBI man up to the office, you know, with a gift, and I’d be in there and the girls would come and say, “The Truman man’s out there waiting for you.” You know, at first it scared me to death. I thought, “What have I done?” But she always had a little gift for appreciation.
WILLIAMS: So you would find nurses for her. You were never a nurse yourself?
S. EARNSHAW: No. No, I was employed for Dr. Allen.
WILLIAMS: You mentioned your parents. What were their names, and your maiden name?
S. EARNSHAW: Eskridge, George and Eleanor Eskridge. My father was a blacksmith in Platte City, and he loved politics. And my sister, Elsie Eskridge Johnson, is deceased, and she was very close to Harry Truman in politics during his senator days.
WILLIAMS: What do you remember about your visits to the Truman home? Was this in the ’40s?
S. EARNSHAW: I was just in and I ate a meal in the dining room. I wasn’t in there very long, but I did have a meal in there. Let’s see, I don’t even know what year that was, but he was there. I don’t know whether he was senator
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or president then.
WILLIAMS: So you were invited for a dinner of some kind?
S. EARNSHAW: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: Was that her way of getting to know you, or thanking you?
S. EARNSHAW: Well, it was her way of thanking me.
WILLIAMS: What kind of gifts would she send up to you?
S. EARNSHAW: Perfume bottles. And I don’t have any. I had a black girl that cleaned for me for over twenty-five years, and they all got broken.
G. EARNSHAW: She carried a bottle of glue with her. If she’d break something, she’d glue it back together. [chuckling]
WILLIAMS: She was prepared, huh?
G. EARNSHAW: Yes. [chuckling]
WILLIAMS: Well, I suppose then that you met Madge Wallace, Mrs. Truman’s mother.
S. EARNSHAW: Oh, yes.
WILLIAMS: What was she like?
S. EARNSHAW: Well, most of the time I knew her she was quite ill, you know, whenever I had any contact with her. I don’t know anything about her personality or anything, but Mrs. Truman needed help for her caring.
WILLIAMS: Where was Mrs. Wallace staying in the house? Do you remember?
S. EARNSHAW: No, I don’t know.
WILLIAMS: And I’ve heard that she had a hip problem or pain in her hip.
S. EARNSHAW: Yeah.
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WILLIAMS: Was that the illness that—
S. EARNSHAW: Well, yeah, all the old people did. They didn’t do hip replacements then, you know.
WILLIAMS: Did she need a full-time nurse?
S. EARNSHAW: No, no. No, not then she wouldn’t. You know, I don’t . . . oh, her mother, I can’t remember how old she was when she died.
WILLIAMS: She was in her nineties.
S. EARNSHAW: Yeah, I know she had to be close, in the nineties someplace.
WILLIAMS: So what kind of work would these nurses do for . . .
S. EARNSHAW: Mostly bedside nursing, you know, and giving baths and getting medicines adjusted.
WILLIAMS: So Mrs. Wallace was mostly bedfast, or . . . ?
S. EARNSHAW: Yeah, off and on. She didn’t have to have nursing care all the time. Mrs. Truman did a lot of it herself, and the colored woman that stayed there with the Trumans. They all helped in it, you know.
WILLIAMS: Do you remember any of the nurses that you recommended, their names?
S. EARNSHAW: No. No, I sure don’t. [chuckling] I would get them from the directory, from Kansas City most of them.
WILLIAMS: So they weren’t necessarily nurses that you knew ahead of time.
S. EARNSHAW: No, no. I knew the director over there that run that, and she always knew that they had to be top quality to go there.
WILLIAMS: Did you have any other kind of contacts with the Trumans when they
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came back to retire?
S. EARNSHAW: No.
WILLIAMS: Through Dr. Allen or . . . ?
S. EARNSHAW: No, not through Dr. Allen.
WILLIAMS: Would you see Mr. Truman or any of the Trumans around town?
S. EARNSHAW: Oh, yeah. Yeah, we’d see them. George would see Mr. Truman a lot walking, because they’re both walkers.
WILLIAMS: Oh. Working for the city, did you have any contact with Mr. Truman?
G. EARNSHAW: Well, more or less. For instance, I remember we lived at 513 West Lexington, and the apartment was right on the sidewalk, the door. I come out of there going to work one time, coming out in a hurry, a little late, and run right into him, just damn near knocked him down. And of course the [Secret] Service man was right there, you know. There was, I don’t know, a couple, three. I don’t know how many was with him, but that’s . . . [chuckling]
And I used to talk to him. I’d see him on the street, even after he retired, Mike Westwood and him, you know. Mike Westwood was his bodyguard or whatever you want to call it, companion. And I’d see him with his cane coming out of a doctor’s office or, you know, see him on the street and say hi to him. Mr. Truman was very outspoken.
WILLIAMS: What do you mean?
G. EARNSHAW: Oh, he’d call you a so-and-so right off the bat. [chuckling] You
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know, he didn’t hold anything back. Well, I guess you’ve read that about him. He was really outspoken. But I don’t remember too much other than that little instance there and talking to him on the streets, you know, when he was walking. When he had a political thing, why, I’d go . . . go up.
S. EARNSHAW: He was a good friend of Governor Park. Do you know about Governor Park when he was governor of Missouri? In fact, he dedicated the old courthouse up here, and Mr. Truman was there for that. I think that was in 1934. And they let me get off duty to come up to it because Governor Park was from Platte City.
WILLIAMS: Oh, okay, so you—
S. EARNSHAW: Platte City was full of good Democrats, you know. [chuckling]
G. EARNSHAW: They were all Democrats. [chuckling]
S. EARNSHAW: I don’t think there was a Republican in town.
WILLIAMS: So you went up and watched the ceremonies.
S. EARNSHAW: Uh-huh, I went up.
WILLIAMS: Mr. Truman did that when he was judge, I guess, in the courthouse.
S. EARNSHAW: Uh-huh, he was judge. And Governor Park and . . . I used to take piano lessons in Governor Park’s home. His aunt taught piano lessons. And I was glad to see him because we all loved Governor Park. Of course, Mr. Truman didn’t know me then, but Governor Park came down off of the stage to speak to me and shook my hand. I was real thrilled.
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WILLIAMS: What was it like being associated with the Trumans, as neighbors or helping them out with Mrs. Wallace?
S. EARNSHAW: Well, they were just another citizen in Independence. I thought no more of helping her than I would anybody else that we . . . you know, that we had to have help for. She was just always a very gracious lady. You was always glad to help her.
WILLIAMS: Did your friends or family think that it was anything special to work . . .
S. EARNSHAW: No. We never thought . . . You know, really, I didn’t realize how important they really were, I guess.
G. EARNSHAW: You know, you just knew them and that’s it. Just like any other ordinary citizen.
S. EARNSHAW: Because they still seemed to stay on the same level with the rest of us, you know. They never did . . .
G. EARNSHAW: Oh, he wasn’t one of them high and mighty kind of guys.
S. EARNSHAW: I never did know Margaret. I never did know her at all.
WILLIAMS: Did you know the Allen girls pretty well?
S. EARNSHAW: Oh, yeah, I knew the Allen girls.
WILLIAMS: Could you describe what they were like?
S. EARNSHAW: Well, Marie, the oldest one, of course she has deceased, and Mona, and I was closer to Mona and Marie. They both worked in the office off and on, especially during their summer months from school. Marie was . . . she was more interested in Junior Service League than she was
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working for us. [chuckling] Mona loved working for us, and she was a wonderful worker and a wonderful person. Everybody loved Mona.
WILLIAMS: What would they do in the office?
S. EARNSHAW: Office work. Yeah, they’d do secretarial work and receptionist. Marie wasn’t as dedicated to it as Mona. Mona, she stayed dedicated to her work. Harriet never did work up there, and Barbie didn’t work there. Barbie’d come up, but she was a little play girl. She was too young, you know. A cute little girl.
WILLIAMS: Have you been in the Truman home since it opened to the public?
S. EARNSHAW: No, I haven’t. I surely haven’t. Isn’t that awful?
WILLIAMS: Well, I was going to ask you if it seemed the same, but if you haven’t been in it, I guess . . .
S. EARNSHAW: No, I haven’t been in it since then.
WILLIAMS: You said you would see the Trumans around town, like Mr. Truman walking. Would you see Mrs. Truman?
S. EARNSHAW: No, I never did see her very much.
G. EARNSHAW: I never noticed her or ever remember her ever walking with him.
S. EARNSHAW: No, she never did walk with him. Of course, we’d see him around the square on different things, because I worked up on the square, you know, all those seventeen years.
G. EARNSHAW: Mr. Truman, Harry Truman, he bought gas at this station where I traded, and I’d see him up there filling that old Chrysler up every so often. We both traded at the same station.
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WILLIAMS: Which station was that?
G. EARNSHAW: The Skelly station right up here. I don’t know if it’s a Skelly anymore or not.
S. EARNSHAW: It’s at Maple and Spring, isn’t it?
G. EARNSHAW: Maple and Spring, filling station.
WILLIAMS: Right, I know the one. Were you invited or did you go to Mrs. Wallace’s funeral when she died?
S. EARNSHAW: I didn’t go. I was working. No, you know, in fact, I didn’t even get to some of my uncles’ and aunts’ funerals. Because you worked there for Dr. Allen, we’d go in about 7:30 in the morning, and many a time it would be ten o’clock at night when I’d get home.
WILLIAMS: Really?
S. EARNSHAW: Oh, yeah.
G. EARNSHAW: I used to get so mad at him I could kill him. [chuckling] I’d have to cook and . . .
WILLIAMS: Well, the nurses in my father’s office don’t work that hard.
S. EARNSHAW: No, I’ll tell you they don’t. But we did. See, I took care of the patients until about two o’clock. He didn’t come in the office till about 2:00. And if he could make one more house call, he would. He loved making those house calls. And here we’d have . . . You know, nobody made an appointment. You’d just come and take your turn. And we had some little old ladies from down at Napoleon that would bring their lunch so they could be number one. And then if somebody
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of importance, some political friend or something come in, they got to be number one, no matter who was there. [chuckling] But we’d have them lined up—no fooling. We’d have to set chairs out in the hall clear to the elevator. We was on the third floor.
WILLIAMS: So he was a popular doctor.
S. EARNSHAW: Yes, he was a popular doctor. Everybody loved that man. And no matter how long, [how] many hours they had to wait for him, it was just fine.
WILLIAMS: That’s unusual these days.
G. EARNSHAW: He was on a house call and he fell and broke his back. Isn’t that right?
S. EARNSHAW: I don’t remember that. What are you talking about?
G. EARNSHAW: Well, he broke his back and he kept on practicing. He got a brace and kept on practicing.
S. EARNSHAW: Well, yeah, he did. I guess that’s right. [chuckling]
WILLIAMS: Why did he like house calls so much?
S. EARNSHAW: I don’t know.
G. EARNSHAW: He just liked people, I guess.
S. EARNSHAW: Yeah, but he did. He went all over eastern Jackson County. It wasn’t only here. But if he could get a call to Lexington, he’d go. It was time to be in the office, and here we’d be in there cooling our heels and be so mad at him, you know. And when he’d come in he’d say, “I can always tell when Mrs. Earnshaw’s mad. Her eyes turn green.” [chuckling] You know, we never went by first names. You know,
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everybody was Mr. or Mrs. It was a lot of fun working in it, but it was hard work—long, hard work.
WILLIAMS: He seemed to have a successful practice, by all the houses and property that he owned around on Maple Street.
S. EARNSHAW: Oh, yeah. Yes, he was quite successful financially. He had to be to raise those four girls and put them through . . . all through MU, and their expensive ways.
G. EARNSHAW: And Stephens College.
S. EARNSHAW: I think Marie is the only one who went to Stephens.
G. EARNSHAW: Oh, is that right?
S. EARNSHAW: Harriet went to Christian, and Mona and Barbara MU. But the girls, his girls, were all nice, nice girls. Really were. They were well-trained.
WILLIAMS: I’ve spoken to Barbie on the phone, and she seems very bubbly and outgoing.
S. EARNSHAW: Oh, yeah. Oh, she bubbled all right. [chuckling]
WILLIAMS: I hope to interview her. She’s coming out next month to visit.
S. EARNSHAW: Is she?
WILLIAMS: To visit her mother. And I think she wanted to bring Harriet, but, you know, Harriet’s had her falls.
S. EARNSHAW: Yeah, it’s too bad about Harriet. Do you know Harriet’s son Chuck Kellogg? The attorney.
WILLIAMS: He’s the . . . that visits Mrs. Allen twice a day?
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S. EARNSHAW: Yes.
WILLIAMS: She mentioned that.
S. EARNSHAW: Yeah, she told me on the phone yesterday that he comes every morning and every evening to see about her. Well, he lived there with her for a long time.
G. EARNSHAW: Chuck.
S. EARNSHAW: I guess Chuck has turned out to be a very nice person. I don’t know, he had a rough go there for a while, but . . . I don’t know him. I haven’t seen him since Doctor died, I guess.
WILLIAMS: Were you in the Allens’ house very much?
S. EARNSHAW: Oh yeah, I was in and out of there. I was in their weddings and . . . I was just part of the family.
WILLIAMS: Would they have dinner parties or anything like that?
S. EARNSHAW: They didn’t have too much of that because you never knew when Doctor was going to be home, you know. And Mrs. Allen kept food back on the back burner warm, you know, forever. The girls, they did some entertaining, but not a lot. They went an awful lot to a lot of entertainment.
WILLIAMS: So did they socialize then with the elite or the upper level?
S. EARNSHAW: Oh, anybody, everybody, yeah. I don’t think any of those girls ever thought they were any better than anybody else, none of them, unless it would have been Harriet. I shouldn’t say that. You can erase that. [chuckling] I’m sorry.
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WILLIAMS: [speaking to Scott Stone] Do you have anything to ask? We really appreciate you talking to us today. It’s been nice.
S. EARNSHAW: Well, I’m sorry I couldn’t give you . . . Oh, show them that picture of that . . . I mean, that knife hanging up there on the wall. That’s an old knife, an operating room knife. It was given to Dr. Allen by the doctor that preceded him in practice, Dr. Wood. That’s the kind they used to operate, you know, a wooden handle and . . . I don’t think they ever boiled them or anything, you know.
WILLIAMS: It doesn’t look like it.
S. EARNSHAW: He gave me that, and then I had this framed to give to Dr. Bachmann, see. Because Dr. Bachmann was kind of a protege of Dr. Allen. And then when Bachmann died, his widow gave it back to me. So that knife has opened up many a gunshot wound and everything else, I guess.
WILLIAMS: How do you spell Bachmann?
S. EARNSHAW: B-A-C-H-M-A-N-N. Paul Bachmann. He was a very fine . . . He just about got all Dr. Allen’s practice when Doctor had to quit. He was a nephew to Polly Compton. Have you heard of Polly Compton?
WILLIAMS: Well, we interviewed Dorsy.
S. EARNSHAW: Dorsy, okay. Dorsy Lou [Warr]. She didn’t mention Bachmann?
WILLIAMS: Would that have been her . . .
S. EARNSHAW: That would have been her cousin.
WILLIAMS: Okay. No, she didn’t.
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S. EARNSHAW: Well, he was a very wonderful doctor, a young man, and he died very young. And Dr. Allen took care of him when he was a young kid, and I specialed him. He had a ruptured appendix. He was just a little boy.
WILLIAMS: Well, it sounds like the medical community in Independence was pretty tight-knit, everyone knew each other.
S. EARNSHAW: Yes. It was a small group, you know, and we were small, the hospital was small, and we were all close. Now you don’t even . . . I volunteer over there. I go over every Wednesday and volunteer. I have volunteered over there thirteen years. It’s a large place now and you don’t know all the doctors, and there isn’t that closeness anymore.
WILLIAMS: Did Mr. Truman ever go to the sanitarium?
S. EARNSHAW: I don’t ever remember him being over there. It was always Baptist. Or . . . yeah, wasn’t it Baptist?
WILLIAMS: I think he went to Research.
S. EARNSHAW: Research, you’re right.
G. EARNSHAW: What was his doctor’s name? Graham?
S. EARNSHAW: Wallace Graham.
WILLIAMS: Did you know Wallace Graham?
S. EARNSHAW: Mm-hmm.
WILLIAMS: How did you know him?
S. EARNSHAW: Word of mouth, I think. I used to see him. We used to see him around town. He had an office there right off of the square.
WILLIAMS: Oh, really?
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S. EARNSHAW: Yeah, for a while. I can’t even think what . . . It was upstairs.
G. EARNSHAW: Don’t ask me because I don’t know. Wasn’t it at the corner of Lexington and . . .
S. EARNSHAW: The corner of Lexington and Main.
G. EARNSHAW: Lexington and Liberty.
S. EARNSHAW: Yeah, Liberty. Yeah.
G. EARNSHAW: I guess you heard about Dr. . . .
S. EARNSHAW: No, it wasn’t. It was down on Main.
G. EARNSHAW: Was it?
S. EARNSHAW: There used to be a grocery store in there.
G. EARNSHAW: Truman belonged to that club, the . . . You’ve heard about that.
WILLIAMS: The Harpies?
G. EARNSHAW: The Harpies Club, yeah.
S. EARNSHAW: And the rabbits and the goats? You remember that?
WILLIAMS: I never knew Dr. Graham had an office out here.
S. EARNSHAW: He was there. I don’t know why he had . . . I don’t know too much. I know he was up there for a while. Is your father still living? Is he?
WILLIAMS: Yes. He practices out in Hickman Mills.
S. EARNSHAW: That’s what you told me.
WILLIAMS: I know how it is to have him come home late at night.
S. EARNSHAW: Does he come home late at night?
WILLIAMS: He’s one of those people that goes to work late and works late.
S. EARNSHAW: Does he make house calls?
21
WILLIAMS: Occasionally. I don’t think he enjoys it as much.
S. EARNSHAW: How old is he?
WILLIAMS: Sixty-two.
S. EARNSHAW: Oh, he’s just a young man.
WILLIAMS: Family practice, though.
S. EARNSHAW: Yeah, it’s a different ballgame. I don’t think I’d like working for a specialist. I like the general flow of people. I wouldn’t take anything for all the friendships, lasting friendship that I made, you know, with all those patients. He was a wonderful person to work for.
WILLIAMS: Well, it’s a good time to stop, I guess. Would you mind if I took your picture?
END OF INTERVIEW

Earnshaw Oral History Appendix

NPS

Three photographs by Stella E. Earnshaw of Bess W. Truman at Nurse Cadet Corps
1945 birthday party.
Identifications from the back of the photos:
a. “Mrs. Harry S. Truman and her Chevy in front of the Sanitarium, 7/1/45.”
b. “Mrs. Truman and Nancy Lacke, student nurse @ San. 7/1/45.”
c. “Miss Copeland, Miss Taylor, Miss Butterworth, Miss Morgan, Miss Schick, Mrs. Earnshaw on lawn of old San at Nurse Cadet Corp. birthday party when Mrs. Truman was guest. Misses Taylor and Schick are news reporters from Washington, D.C., 7/1/45.”
2. Photograph of Dr. Charles Allen.
3. Nurse Cadet Corp maypole dance King and Queen photograph.