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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: June 28, 1957

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service, and coming to you from the Noland Home, 216 North Delaware Street, Independence, Missouri. Joseph and Ella Noland were an aunt and uncle of Harry Truman, and they had daughters that were close to Truman. Aunt Ella was the sister of Truman’s father, John Anderson Truman.

Over the last three years, and over the course of 150 episodes, we have used this podcast series to share with you some of our favorite letters between Harry and Bess Wallace Truman, letters written between 1910 and 1959. These letters not only document one of the greatest love stories in American history, they also document the partnership that existed with these two people. When their correspondence started in 1910, Harry Truman was a farmer working on his maternal grandparents’ farm near Grandview, Missouri. Truman was a partner in this farm in every sense, from the work to the actual business arrangement, particularly with his grandmother Harriet Louisa Young and his uncle Harrison Young. But the letters document that this wasn’t the easiest time in Truman’s life, from broken legs to financial setbacks to litigation to the death of John Truman. The letters capture Truman’s inner thoughts as he served as an artillery officer in World War I. They capture the family dynamics on all sides, showing us that his family faced many of the same challenges that ours do. The last letter was written by Harry Truman as a former President of the United States.

From a farmer in western Missouri to the most powerful individual in the world, and, then, back to being “Mr. Citizen.” Is there a more American story than that?

We wish we had more of the letters from Bess Wallace Truman, but that sadly is not the case. But we are grateful to have what we have. So thank you for listening to these for the last three years. We would like to share today one of the last Dear Bess letters, from June 28, 1957. Former President Truman wrote this to his bride on their 38th wedding anniversary. In his eyes, she was still the pretty girl he first saw at First Presbyterian Church on that day in 1890.

[June 28, 1957. Envelope addressed "To: Mrs. Harry S. Truman. From: H.S.T. No. 38."]

June 28, 1920 One happy year.

June 28, 1921 Going very well.

June 28, 1922 Broke and in a bad way.

June 28, 1923 Eatern Judge. Eating.

June 28, 1924 Daughter 4 mo. old.

June 28, 1925 Out of a job.

June 28, 1926 Still out of a job.

June 28, 1927 Presiding Judge - eating again.

June 28, 1928 All going well. Piano. Al Smith.

June 28, 1929 Panic, in October

June 28, 1930 Depression. Still going.

June 28, 1931 Six-year old daughter

June 28, 1932 Roads finished.

June 28, 1933 Employment Director.

June 28, 1934 Buildings finished. Ran for the Senate

June 28, 1935 U.S. Senator. Gunston.

June 28, 1936 Resolutions Philadelphia. Roosevelt reelected.

June 28, 1937 Grand time in Washington

June 28, 1938 Very happy time. Margie 14.

June 28, 1939 Named legislation.

June 28, 1940 Senate fight coming [sic].

June 28, 1941 Special Senate Committee. Margie wants to sing.

June 28, 1942 Also a happy time.

June 28, 1943 Lots of work.

June 28, 1944 Talk of V.P. Bad business.

June 28, 1945 V.P. & President. War End.

June 28, 1946 Margie graduate & singer. 80th Congress.

June 28, 1947 Marshall Plan & Greece & Turkey. A grand time 28th Anniversary.

June 28, 1948 A terrible campaign. Happy day.

June 28, 1949 President again. Another happy day.

June 28, 1950 Korea - a terrible time

June 28, 1951 Key West - a very happy day

June 28, 1952 All happy. Finish, Jan. 20, 1953.

June 28, 1953 Back home. Lots of Roses.

June 28, 1954 A happy 35th.

June 28, 1955 All cut up but still happy.

June 28, 1956 A great day - more elation.

June 28, 1957 Well here we are again, as Harry Jobes would say.

Only 37 to go for the diamond jubilee!

H.S.T.

Written on their 38th wedding anniversary, former President Harry S Truman recounts where they were in life, together, on every June 28, from 1919 to 1957. This is one of the last known Dear Bess letters.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-truman-1921-1959/june-28-1957

Dear Bess: June 12, 1945

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess, Dear Harry podcast for June 12, 2024, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service.

Today’s Dear Bess letter we’d like to share is from this date in 1945. President Harry S Truman writes his First Lady, who was back home in Independence, Missouri.

Truman was still in his first months of his presidency, and he misses his First Lady. But while in the White House, Truman feels a connection to some of his predecessors who lived there. There’s an interesting line in the middle of the letter when Truman alludes to being a County Judge in Jackson County, Missouri. At that time, County Judges were more of an administrative job, and not a judicial one. But Truman seems to make reference to his days as a Pendergast man, and it cannot be denied that he won those local elections with the help of Thomas J Pendergast and his machine.

We’ve shared this letter before, but we love it so we’re sharing it again!

The White House

June 12, 1945 Dear Bess: Just two mo nths ago today, I was a reasonably happy and contented Vice President. Maybe you can remember that far back too. But things have changed so much it hardly seems real.

I sit here in this old house and work on foreign affairs, read reports, and work on speeches--all the while listening to the ghosts walk up and down the hallway and even right in here in the study. The floors pop and the drapes move back and forth--I can just imagine old Andy and Teddy having an argument over Franklin. Or James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce deciding which was the more useless to the country. And when Millard Fillmore and Chester Arthur join in for place and show the din is almost unbearable. But I still get some work done.

Hope the weather lets up and you will be able to do some work on the house. The Gibson boy should have been taken care of long ago. I'll see what's happened. I'm not able to do as many things for my friends now as I did when I was just a dirty organization Democrat and a County Judge.

Guess you and Helen will have a grand time. Hope you do. We are working on Dr. Wallace. Glad everybody was in his right mind at the family party. Undoubtedly they were walking the straight and narrow for your mother. But I'm sure you had a nice time anyway.

That address mixed up is causing me some embarrassment (if that's the way you spell that blushing word). I addressed a letter to you at 4701 Conn. Ave, Independence, MO., and another one 219 North Delaware, Washington, D.C. Now it seems I sent one to the Nolands. The boys in the House here didn't catch that one but they did the other two. I'll have Reathal attend to the chores you suggest. I haven't seen her but twice since you left. She comes in after I go over to the office, usually goes out to lunch and doesn't come back until I am gone again and then goes home before I get over here. Had Charlie Ross and Rosenman to lunch yesterday. We worked on my San Francisco speech. That date is postponed until next week now on account of the slow windup and Gen. Eisenhower's visit.

Write me when you can--I hope every day.

Lots of love, Harry

Glad you saw Mamma and Mary

President Harry S Truman, in the White House, writes to his First Lady, back home in Independence, Missouri, supervising some repairs to their home at 219 North Delaware Street. Lots of charming tidbits in this letter!

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-truman-1921-1959/june-12-1945

Dear Bess: June 6, 1945

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for June 6, 2024, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, and coming to you from Independence, Missouri.

For today’s episode, we would like to share a Dear Bess letter from June 6, 1945. Today is the 80th anniversary of the day known as D-Day. We pause to remember those who exhibited incredible courage that day, and thank them for their honor and sacrifice.

Two notes of context for this letter: • One, this letter was written by President Harry S Truman on the first anniversary of D-Day. A year before, Harry S Truman was a United States Senator from Missouri and that summer of 1944 quickly found himself elevated to being the Democratic nominee for Vice President, with Franklin Roosevelt at the top of the ticket for the fourth time. • In early June of 1945, early in Truman’s term, his wife Bess and daughter Margaret went home to Independence, Missouri, mostly to supervise some work being done on their home at 219 North Delaware Street. Truman missed them terribly, and felt quite lonely without them.

Thanks for listening. Here’s the letter: June 6, 1945

Dear Bess: Well I'm getting better organized now. My office force soon will be shaken down and so will my Cabinet when I've gotten State straightened out. War and Navy I shall let alone until the Japanese are out of the picture.

It won't be long until I can sit back and study the whole picture and tell 'em what is to be done in each department. When things come to that stage there'll be no more to this job than there was to running Jackson County and not any more worry.

Foreign relations, national finances, reconversion, and a postwar military policy will be the big headaches--and they can all be solved if the Congress decides to help me do a bang-up job, and I believe they will do that.

Had a grand time last night at Biffle's party. Barkley, Lucas, Hatch, Overton, Radcliff, Chavez, Fullbright and Charlie Ross and Harry Vaughan from my office were there as well as several of Biffle's friends from around town. I'd say about 25 in all were there. Old Barkley paid high tribute to both me and Biffle.

Well I'm facing another tall day as usual. But I like 'em that way. I'm never half so worn out when I have too much to do as I am when there is too little. Trouble is I'm working the help to death. Tell my baby I was glad to talk to her last night as well as to her mamma.

Lots of love,

Harry

Written on the first anniversary of D-Day, President Harry S Truman, still in his first months of his administration, shares with his wife (back home in Missouri) a bit of how he intended to shape his administration.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-truman-1921-1959/june-6-1945

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

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 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: 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 Bess: March 25, 1918 (circa)

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess and Dear Harry podcast for March 25, 2024, brought to you as a service of Harry S Truman National Historic Site, and coming to you from Independence, Missouri. It was forty years ago that the Truman Home in Independence opened to the public, and we are honored to serve the American people.

We wanted to share this Dear Bess letter with you, a letter we think dates from this date in 1918. First Lieutenant Harry S Truman and his men are en route to Europe to be part of the Great War effort, and had stopped off for a brief rest in New York. While there, Truman acquired a few pairs of glasses. It’s easy to see that the officer from Jackson County, Missouri, much prefers home, and is eager to fight on behalf of that place he calls home.

Please note that in this letter Truman uses two words that are today considered racial slurs, one for a Jewish person, one for an Italian person. Truman used those words in his letters and in conversation. They sound shocking to us today in 2024. We include them for completeness and context.

As always, we thank you for listening. Here’s the letter.

Dear Bess:

Your telegram and letter were both waiting for me when I returned from New York this afternoon. I was in on strictly business today. Bought two pairs of glasses which makes me six pairs so I don't suppose I'll run out.

I accidently ran into an honest optician who happened to belong to my goat tribe (ie Scottish Rite) and he sent me to the best or one of the best oculists in the city. He gave me a complete and thorough examination a prescription I can use in Paris or Vienna and lots of good conversation all for the whole sum of $5.00 and then he asked me if thought I could stand that. How is that for the crookedest town in the universe? Then the optician who also gave me lots of good advice only charged me $17.50 less 10% for two complete pairs of regulation aluminum frames and glasses, throwing in an extra lens that he happened to chip on the edge in the grinding. I can't understand it. Watts stung me for $22.00 for two pairs and Dr. Leonard charged me $10.00 the last time I bought any and they were supposed to be friends of mine, too. This place is on Madison Ave. just off 42nd St. and I know he pays more rent for a week than Watts does for a month. Evidently these men are patriotic even if one of them is named Haustettee. That's the optician's name and he says it loses him business although his son has made some wonderful inventions in observing instruments for the U. S. Navy since we went to war. I sent you a small package today for Easter. I hope it arrives intact. When you wear it think of me out on the Atlantic thinking of you and seeing your face in the moonlit waves of Old Neptune, and wishing, wishing oh so badly that I could only see you. Really I'm almost homesick for you & mamma & Mary. If I could only have stayed these two days in Kansas City instead in this kike town I'd have felt much better. I am crazy to leave because I know that if the British stem this tide there'll not be another and I do want to be in at the death of this "Scourge of God." Just think what he'd do to your great country and our beautiful women if he only could. This is the reason we must go and must get shot if necessary to keep the Huns from our own fair land. I am getting to hate the sight of a German and I think most of us are the same way. They have no hearts or no souls. They are just machines to do the bidding of the wolf they call Kaiser. Old Julius Caesar's description of the [illegible] exactly fits the Germans of today and to think that Wilhelm should call himself Caesar. Attila or Tamerlane would be nearer the truth.

As I told you before I've seen this town from cellar to garrett and from the Battery to the North End and I can't do much for it. When a New Yorker shows you the Woolworth Bldg or Sen. Clark's house or Grant's Tomb or the Hudson River he expects you to fall death with admiration and if you don't he's confident your education has been overlooked. When one of our N.Y. Lieuts showed me Grant's Tomb from the Hudson Ferry I did him like Mark Twain did the dago who showed him the paintings of Michaelangelo. I said, "Well! Is he dead." The nut didn't even think it was a joke. He thought I wanted to know sure enough. Anyone from west of the Mississippi can make these people believe anything. I believe I could sell gold bricks on Broadway and make 'em cry for more.

I shall try my best to find White's and spoil a photographic plate if it will please you. This is Wednesday evening and Friday we leave so I don't know whether I can make it but I'll try.

Don't you worry about me not taking care of myself. I'm not out for V.C.s or Croix de Guerre. I'm going to use my brains, if I have any for Uncle Sam's best advantage and I'm going to aim to keep them in good working order, which can't be done by stopping bullets.

Agnes must want my fine plug pretty badly, but she doesn't want to pay what he's worth. He has a pedigree that would make the King of Spain green with envy. He's worth $300.00 for a saddle horse and being himself he's worth $500.00. If Agnes wants to make an offer like that I might listen to it. Although I promised Col Danford that I'd keep him until the war is over and let him have him if he wants him. That was the only way I'd take him because it would have been stealing to buy him for $100.00. Agnes must think I want $50.00 mighty badly. I do need it and badly but my grand saddle horse isn't for sale. This letter is not what it should be but I'm trying to make up for what I didn't do at Ft. Sill. I hope you'll forgive me because my intentions were the best but I was trying hard to make good for Uncle Sam. I did down there and if I can only hold up on the other side perhaps I can do him and you and everyone some small service. A telegram just came from Gates Wells to know if I can see him. I shall try to meet him at the McAlpin tomorrow if he can come up there and I can get away. It's fine of him to want to see me. Tell your mother I love her almost as much as I do my own and if you ever throw me down I'm going to call her mother anyway. I'll write you tomorrow and wire you Friday.

I shall cable you direct when I land. My cable censor address is Boxley and I can cable oftener because it's about ½ the cost. Keep on writing to the same address the letters will be forwarded.

Yours always,

Harry.

In this Dear Bess letter, written while Harry Truman was en route to serve in the Great War in Europe, he describes buying some new pairs of eyeglasses, his impressions of New York City, and more.

Please note that in this letter, Truman uses racial slurs for Jewish, Italian,and German people. They read and sound shocking us today. We include them for completeness.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/march-25-1918-postmark

Dear Bess: March 19, 1911

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for March 19, 2024, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service. We come to you today from the Noland Home, the home of Harry Truman’s aunt and uncle, across the street from the Truman Home, in Independence, Missouri.

We’d like to share with you a great Dear Bess letter written on this date in 1911. This letter was written in the first year of the courtship of Harry Truman and Bess Wallace, if Harry Truman’s letter of December 31, 1910, was the first letter.

The first paragraph is most fascinating. Harry Truman’s family was mostly Baptist, although Truman’s mother also was described as a “lightfoot Baptist” because she liked to sing, dance, and play games. Miss Wallace’s family is a little more complex. Her grandparents, George P and Elizabeth Gates, were members of First Presbyterian Church on Maple Street, just a few steps from their home on Delaware Street. Bess Wallace’s mother was raised in that church, as were her siblings. But at some point, there was a personnel issue at First Presbyterian that spurred Madge Gates Wallace to move her membership to the nearby Trinity Episcopal Church. Mrs. Wallace remained a member of that church the rest of her life, as would Bess Wallace Truman. It was in Trinity that Bess Wallace married Harry Truman in 1919, and where their daughter Mary Margaret married E Clifton Daniel in 1956.

Note how Truman remarks how he could envision himself retiring to Independence someday…but as a retired farmer. Could he ever imagine he would retire to Independence, indeed…but as a retired President of the United States?

Thanks for listening. Here’s the letter.

Grandview, Mo.

March 19, 1911

Dear Bessie,

I sincerely hope you enjoyed the playing of that musical editor was well as I did. He was simply great. You know that I think when good music is played in his style it is always enjoyable. Hope I didn't cause you to do anything against your religious principles. You know that I know nothing about Lent and such things and when I was urging you to go with us to dinner at the Baltimore I was merely thinking of giving you all a good time. That was the first "time" I was ever at an Episcopal Church and I like the service very much. But I guess I'll have to remain a Lightfoot Baptist for a while yet anyway. You know I told you that I also had strayed from the Presbyterian fold; but I went in the other direction. In place of more form we haven't any. But there are many things I do not like. For instance they do not want a person to go to shows or dances or do anything for a good time. Well I like to do all those things and play cards besides. So you see I am not very strong as a Baptist. Anyhow I don't think any church on earth will take you to heaven if you're not real anyway. I believe in people living what they believe and talking afterwards, don't you? Well hang religion anyway; it's a dull subject, but I'll not ask you to dinner any more till after Easter Sunday. Will that be all right?

Mary has not arrived home yet. The last I heard she was in Independence. When she gets down there she never knows when to come home, and I don't blame her. I like Independence and if I ever get rich enough to retire (be a retired farmer, ah) I think I'll land in Independence.

We go to sowing oats in the morning. It will take a week or two as we have about eighty acres to sow. Mr. Hall wanted to know of me if we were planting wheat now. You know a town farmer always gets his verbs mixed. We sow wheat, oats, and grass seed and plant corn and potatoes. See the difference?

I did certainly enjoy Miss Dicey's (I guess that's how you spell her) excitable conversation. I bet she is a person who enjoys life. You know when people can get excited over the ordinary things in life, they live. You know a good author makes common things seem great in books, and people who can live them that way always enjoy life. I never did know but one boy that way and only one man. Neither of them can cross the street without having an adventure worth telling of.

When she was telling about those chickens and that trip to St. Louis I thought I'd go up. I guess they thought I was a perfect chump because I forgot to tell them and you too that I enjoyed the evening, but I most certainly did and you please tell them, will you? Next time I'll do better provided I can have a next time.

Mamma has seven little chickens and more coming. They looked rather out of place when we had that snow. I told her she would have to begin knitting socks if she was going to raise chickens in the winter. The last few days have been fine on them though. One of my numerous cousins was over this evening and she had seventy-six chickens big enough to fly. They were incubator chickens. I hope you don't cook yours before they hatch. They say that is generally what happens the first time. So be careful.

Did you get your suitcase all right? I wish we had thought and taken it to the N.Y. Life Building and then we could have got it. No one ever thought that man would play overtime. They don't generally. Now please don't wait so long to write as I do enjoy your letters even if you do call them notes.

What do you think of Mrs. E. C. W.? Isn't she a caution? Some time when she has a swell recital if you care to go out, we'll go and then you'll see her show off proper.

Well I'm going to quit because I have to run overtime but if you don't want to read, remember you owe me a letter now and I am looking for it.

Sincerely yours, Harry

Harry S Truman, farmer, writes about religion and theology, books, chickens, and more in a most delightful letter from early in their courtship.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/march-19-1911

Dear Bess: An Undated Letter, Likely From 1915

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast series for March 1, 2024, brought to you by the staff of Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service. We come to you from the Truman Home in Independence, Missouri.

Today we would like to share with you a great Dear Bess letter, written by Harry S Truman, farmer, to Miss Bess Wallace, the love of his life. But here’s the thing. We can’t date this letter very well. He didn’t put a date on the letter, and the postmark is mostly illegible. But the letter is a gem. Based on context, we think it’s from 1915. And since he references snow, either early or later 1915. Truman alludes to his Uncle Harrison Young, his mother’s brother. When he refers to ‘Old Liz,’ he is referring to his car, a Stafford touring car he had recently bought. The car was a maintenance headache for Truman, but he loved it.

But perhaps most importantly he refers to taking care of the Grandview Post Office. He was appointed to that job, but didn’t have it long. It’s been said Truman gave the job up to allow a lady to take it, a lady who needed the money. But at the very least, Truman became familiar with the postal service, and this helped him in his knowledge of how government works. And with these letters, he certainly gave the post office some business!

Here’s the letter.

Grandview

Dear Bess:

I got your letter this morning and I can tell you I most certainly appreciated it. I am very glad you like the flowers and only wish they could have been more. If I could have been in town I'd have sent you some fresh ones every day. I am hoping that you'll be up very soon so I can get to see you. It has been so long since I last saw you that it seems like a year. If you don't hurry and get well, Mr. Warfield is going to get by. They tell me that Blanche Ring is as fine as ever at the Orpheum.

I have finally succeeded in getting Uncle Harry home. He remarked when he got here that he was either awful sick or awful drunk, one. It was a combination. The doctor has succeeded in getting him sober and we hope to keep him that way for some time to come. I was in the city Saturday and it did seem entirely wrong not to go to Independence anyway. I sent you a little bunch of homegrown sweet violets. They told me that they are more fragrant than the California variety. I like violets better than any other kind of flowers both to eat and to look at. I shall try and send you some more before the week is out.

We are having a mostly lovely snow out this way. I am hoping it keeps up. Mrs. Chas. H. Lester has asked Mary and me to come out there to dinner tomorrow evening but I fail to see how I'm going to make it over roads like they are now. Old Liz hasn't been out since Thursday when I brought Uncle Harry home. This is the longest rest she's had for some time. I've got to put her back in the factory. She is suffering from a worse knock than ever. It seems that experts are experts only in getting money out of people. They expert an engine all to pieces and do it up again only to find it won't run any better than it would before. They also charged me up with thirty hours labor at seventy-five cents an hour. I don't know how they got it in as the car was only there a day and a half. Charging and getting are two altogether different processes. I am going to jaw with them some even if I have to pay in the end.

I am supposed to take active charge of the post office today but I haven't done it. The thing is a white elephant on my hands. Every person in Grandview who could possibly run the thing has asked me for the privilege of doing it. I have had the efficiency gag, the poor widow who is the only support of her family, the plain, easy-money one, and every other hand drawn on me to get the job. I have so far turned a deaf ear to all of them and allowed the boy I promised it to to keep it. There's no telling what I may do if they keep on. Political promises are no good anyway and I may break mine yet. I have an idea that I'll simply resign and let 'em fight it out all over again among themselves.

I am hoping to see you before the week goes by again. When you get well you've simply got to give me another picture of yourself so I can have one downstairs and one up. It's right unhandy to chase upstairs every day to see how you look. Here's hoping to see the original before long.

Most sincerely,

Harry

In this undated and most wonderful letter, Harry S Truman talks about his Uncle Harrison, his car, and his new job as caretaker of the Grandview Post Office.

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/157639084

Dear Bess: February 22, 1918

Transcript

Lawton, Okla. [Feb. 22, 1918]

Dear Bess:

This day has been a bright one. So was yesterday. I got your letter both days, and I have been the delinquent party this week. I hope you won't blame me when I tell you what has been happening. The overseas detachment is again having spasms of preparation to leave. I am still on it, thank heaven, and so of course I am having spasms too. I had a regular one yesterday when Colonel Danford ordered me up before an examining board not for efficiency but for promotion. I think I failed miserably because General Berry was so gruff and discourteous in his questions that I forgot all I ever knew and couldn't answer him. He said, "Eh huh! You don't know, do you? I thought so. You don't know. That'll be all, outside." He kept me and the two others, Lieutenant Paterson and Lieutenant Marks, standing out in the cold so long that we took a terrific cold and I couldn't get up this morning for reveille. I got up for breakfast and outside of a slight headache I am all in good health and spirits. That is as good spirits as could be expected in a man when he falls down on an examination. We had no opportunity for preparation and I suppose that it would have been no better if we had. I have been looking for them to say that it was a mistake and that an efficiency board is what I needed instead of an examining one. Please don't say anything about it until the announcement is made as to whether I get the promotion or not. If I don't get it then we won't say anything. If I do then we can tell it. I guess it is a compliment anyway to get ordered up even if I didn't pass. They almost sent me home on a physical, too, yesterday but I talked past the M.D. He turned my eyes down twice and threatened to send me to division headquarters for a special examination and then didn't. I guess I can put a real good conversation when circumstances demand it. You see by taking everything together if I hadn't gotten your letters, I'd sure have been a blue person. In addition to all the other things I did yesterday I turned the exchange over to Captain Butterfield and sat on a general court martial. Some day, wasn't it? Can you wonder that I didn't get up for reveille and still have a slight headache?

I shall cable you as soon as I arrive in Europe. I thought I told you I would once before. I intended to anyway. I am glad Uncle William was landed safely and I hope to see him when I get across. I don't know much to tell you about leaving, but I'll let you know immediately I start. I shall also let you know if I get the two bars. Please don't say anything about that though until I hear that I'm turned down, which is what we all think. I am no longer Trumanheimer. Did I tell you I met a pretty girl in Guthrie who was nice to me until someone sold her my name was Trumanheimer, and then she wouldn't look at me anymore. She thought I surely must be of Hebraic descent with that name. She of course didn't know that it is little I care what she thinks or doesn't.

Please write me as often as possible because the days are sure brighter and not so hard when your letters come.

I think of you always.

Yours, Harry

An amazing letter written by Lieutenant Harry S Truman to his fiancee, Miss Bess Wallace, shortly before his mobilization to Europe in the Great War.

Truman is examined for a promotion. Will he get it? He is also examined for his eyesight...how did that fare? Listen to find out.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/february-22-1918

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