Margaret Truman
First Daughter and Beyond
1924 – 2008 A.D.

When college junior Margaret Truman answered the phone in her Washington D.C. apartment in April, 1945 while getting ready to go on a date, she quickly identified her father as the caller. “Are you coming home from dinner?” She added cheerfully,  “I’m going out!”

However, instead of her father’s usual bantering tones, when he answered her this time he seemed both serious as well as firmer than usual. “Let me speak to your mother,” he told her and Margaret matched his tone by immediately allowing the request then returned to her primping. A few moments later Mrs. Harry S Truman with tears trickling down her face, told Margaret: “The President is dead. We’re going to the White House.” And with that the lives of the Truman family from Independence, Missouri was entirely changed, as her father became U.S. President and she herself became an international celebrity.

“That was the beginning,” Margaret wrote later, “It was at that time I ceased to be a free agent.”

Born in February, 1924 in her hometown of Independence, Missouri Mary Margaret Truman was the only child of Harry and Bess Truman. With that status she enjoyed an especially close relationship with her parents. She attended local schools and continued to do so even after 1934, when her father was elected U.S. Senator from Missouri. She later attended classes in a private school in the Washington D.C. area. Then in 1942 she enrolled in George Washington University, in the capital where she joined a sorority. She was also asked in 1944 to christen the battleship USS Missouri at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. That was also the year Margaret’s father left the Senate to serve as Vice President under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Even though Margaret did not major in music in college, she had long wanted a career as a classical soprano singer, and she continued her preparation for a vocal career first in Missouri and then in New York.

When President Roosevelt died in April, 1945 and Harry Truman was sworn in as his successor, the family then moved into the White House, and that presented various challenges for the presidential daughter who was still a college student. One addition to the new residence was Margaret’s piano—a gift from the new President—that had to be lifted by block and tackle into her second floor sitting room. However, there were also advantages to her new life, since she discovered that being chauffeured around town in a White House limousine was better than taking a bus. However, the necessary presence of the Secret Service did prove difficult when she came home from a date, and ended the evening in the building’s floodlights. As one source put it: “One of the first promises she made herself was that, come what might, she would not become engaged while her father was President.”

As Margaret continued her college social life she also enjoyed sharing the White House with her family and friends. And that included viewing her favorite movies as often as she wanted—which included the sixteen times she watched The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Occasionally Margaret entertained her girlfriends, with the White House version of a “slumber party” complete with record players, card games and gabfests to all hours. One time the girls decided to spend the night in the Lincoln bedroom, but found that the old mattress was too lumpy for comfort. Then the President decided to get in on the fun and contribute to the tradition, that Lincoln’s ghost still wandered the corridors of the Executive Mansion. To complete the mischief he asked a tall and lanky but dignified butler named Mays to impersonate Lincoln, according to J.B. West, later White House Chief Usher, the man was “…to dress up in a stovepipe hat and lurk in the corner of the bedroom.” West continued: “However, Mr. Mays called in sick on the day of the charade. ‘I didn’t feel right about impersonating Mr. Lincoln.’ Mays told me.”

Though Margaret Truman graduated from college in 1946, with degrees in history and international relations, she retained her desire to pursue a singing career. Her first voice recital was on the radio in 1947, along with a concert debut the same year, with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Other concert appearances over the next few years included her performances in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and St. Louis, Missouri. She also released two albums of classical selections in 1951 and 1952. She also appeared on the cover of Time Magazine at the time. There followed appearances on stage, radio and on television through 1956.

As to critical response to her solo career, one source called her reviews as “positive, polite or diplomatic in tone” though later observers felt that at the time any less than positive reports were subdued due to her father being president. However, one review in 1950 brought a strong response and widespread publicity. In this case her stage appearance was described as attractive but her singing not so much. “She is flat a good deal of the time. And still cannot sing with anything approaching professional finish.” The reviewer wrote.

Later reports speculated that Truman’s response was derived from not just fatherly pride, but also because of his loss of a close friend, but whatever the case his message for the critic was definitely noteworthy. He wrote the critic: “Someday I hope to meet you. When that happens you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!”

Yet while Margaret was not to become best known for her singing, she remained popular and continued appearances on radio, television and as a panelist and guest on various game shows..

In April, 1956 Margaret Truman and New York Times reporter Cliffton Daniel were married in Independence, and they were to have four sons. Mr. Daniel later became the Times managing editor.

Mrs. Daniel found a new career emphasis as a writer, publishing a well received biography of her father in 1972, followed by a biography of her mother, as well as White House histories of the pets living there. She also served on the board of directors for the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, as well as on the Board of Governors of the Roosevelt Institute, and as a Trustee for George Washington University.

However, Margaret is perhaps best known more recently as the listed author of some 25 books in the Capital Crimes series, murder mysteries set in the environs of Washington. Nevertheless, there is some speculation that these volumes may have been completed, with the help of professional ghostwriters. Margaret passed away in January, 2008 and she was interred with her husband and family, at the Truman Library in Independence.

~*~

Anne Adams is a retired church staffer. She lives in East Texas and has an historical column for a local newspaper. She has published in Christian and secular publications for more than 40 years.

References:

• Wikipedia
• Christine Sadler, Children in the White House G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York 1967
• Sandra Quinn, Sanford Kanter, America’s Royalty All the Presidents’ Children Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn. 1983
• J.B. West, and Mary Lynn Kotz, Upstairs at the White House; My life with the First Ladies, Coward, McGann and Geoghegan Inc. NY 1973