Bess Truman Facts:
Occupation: First Lady
Also known as: Elizabeth Virginia Wallace, Bess Wallace Truman
Background, Family:
- Father: David Willock Wallace, Missouri political officeholder and milling company owner
- Mother: Margaret Elizabeth Gates
- oldest of four siblings; 3 brothers
Education:
- Barstow School, Kansas City, Missouri
Marriage, Children:
- husband: Harry S Truman(married June 28, 1919)
- children: (Mary) Margaret Truman, born 1924
Bess Truman Biography:
Bess Wallace and Harry Truman met first in Sunday School as children, and began seeing each other in 1910. They married in 1919, and moved to the house in which Bess had grown up, in Independence, Missouri.
Bess Truman was a housewife and raised their only child, Margaret Truman, while Harry Truman began a political career. In the 1920s and 1930s Harry Truman worked near home but when he was elected to the Senate in 1934 Bess and Margaret split their time between Independence and Washington, DC. Margaret's college choice, George Washington University, meant a move to Washington for Bess, too. Bess remained socially shy and made few friends in Washington. Her main activity outside the home was at church.
Bess Truman was, according to her daughter's recollection, angry that her husband accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party to serve as vice president under Franklin D. Roosevelt, for FDR's fourth term beginning in 1945. Early in 1945 Harry Truman became President when Roosevelt died.
In the White House, Bess Truman discontinued Eleanor Roosevelt's practice of holding press conferences. She fulfilled social duties for White House events, but did not take well to being a celebrity as First Lady. During their White House years, Bess took care of her ailing mother who lived at the White House with them until her death in 1952.
After Truman's presidency ended, Harry and Bess Truman returned to their home in Independence -- the same home in which Bess grew up and she and Harry spent their earlier years. Harry S Truman died on December 26, 1972, and Bess Truman died of cardiovascular disease almost ten years later. At the time of her death, she was the longest-lived First Lady.
Harry Truman's letters to Bess reveal a sentimental devotion to his wife. Her letters to him reveal a sense of humor as well.
