Truman

  “Well, I would say”: Wilson, Oral History, HSTL.

  “You soldier for me”: Ibid.

  “soldier, soldier, all the time”: Lee, 33–34.

  “Talk about your infantryman”: HST to EN, August 5, 1918, HSTL.

  “You’ve no idea what an immense responsibility”: HST to EW, August 13, 1918, HSTL.

  train passing close enough to Paris: War Diary of Captain Keith W. Dancy, Battery A, Liberty Memorial, Kansas City, Missouri.

  “It was just a quiet sector”: Frederick J. Bowman, Oral History, HSTL.

  “It was surely some steep hill”: HST to EW, November 23, 1918, HSTL.

  “we were firing away”: Leigh, Oral History, HSTL.

  “gasping like a catfish”: Columbus (Kansas) Daily Advocate, August 16, 1950.

  “I led the parade!”: Walter Menefee, Oral History, HSTL.

  “I got up and called them everything”: Daniels, 96.

  “The men think I am not much”: HST to EW, September 8, 1918, HSTL.

  “It was literally true”: Lee, 67.

  Bennett Clark incident: Steinberg, 47.

  “Well, I was scared green”: HST to EW, November 23, 1918, HSTL.

  “September 10. Leave Coyviller”: HST War Diary, HSTL.

  “Who can ever forget”: Lee, 75.

  “So slow was our progress”: Ibid, 72.

  “American drive begins”: HST War Diary, HSTL.

  “The great adventure”: HST to EW, September 15, 1918, Dear Bess, 271.

  “We were doing our best to finish”: HST to EW, September 15, 1918, HSTL.

  “And there was an order out”: Floyd Ricketts, Oral History, HSTL.

  “like a crazy man”: McKim, Oral History, HSTL.

  Tiernan’s coat: Ibid.

  “The Colonel insults me shamefully”: HST War Diary, HSTL.

  “The weather was bad”: Ricketts, Oral History, HSTL.

  “the history of the world”: Miller, 101.

  “If all priests were like him: Ibid, 103.

  “I stripped the battery for action”: HST to EW, November 23, 1918, HSTL.

  “Everything was now in readiness”: Lee, 93.

  “Just a word to you”: Toland, No Man’s Land, 403.

  Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, who took off: Ibid, 432.

  “That gun squad worked”: Harry E. Murphy, Oral History, HSTL.

  “My guns were so hot”: HST to EW, November 23, 1918, HSTL.

  “confusing in the extreme”: Marshall, Memoirs of My Services in the World War, 160.

  At a crossroads near Cheppy: Truman, “The Military Career of a Missourian,” HSTL.

  “Truman didn’t panic”: Leigh, Oral History, HSTL.

  “Truman sent back the data”: McKim, Oral History, HSTL.

  “You know…when you’re in the artillery”: Leigh, Oral History, HSTL.

  “The artillery fire has been something”: Minder, This Man’s War, 328.

  “Well, men,” Miles said: Lee, 167.

  “The coolness, the steady courage”: Ibid., 168.

  “It isn’t as bad as I thought”: HST to EW, October 8, 1918, Dear Bess, 274.

  “He was the Captain”: Leigh, Oral History, HSTL.

  “The most terrific experience”: HST to EW, October 8, 1918, Dear Bess, 274.

  “all the comforts of home”: HST to EW, October 30, 1918’, ibid., 276.

  consistently clean and dapper: Vaughan, Oral History, HSTL.

  “where every time a shell lights”: HST to EW, November 1, 1918, Dear Bess, 277–78.

  “When the moon rises”: HST to EW, October 30, 1918, ibid., 276.

  sends a poppy: HST to EN, November 1, 1918, HSTL.

  “He handed me a piece”: Meisburger quoted in Peoria Journal-Star, May 6, 1970.

  “My battery fired the assigned barrages”: Weintraub, A Stillness Heard Round the World, 169.

  “When the firing ceased”: Ibid.

  “People went so wild”: Ibid, 170.

  “You’ve no idea”: HST to EN, December 18, 1918, HSTL.

  “We were just—”: Leigh, Oral History, HSTL.

  “what you’d expect at the Gaiety”: HST to EN, December 18, 1918, HSTL.

  Paris tour: HST to EW, November 29, 1918, Dear Bess, 283.

  “as wild as any place”: HST to EN, December 18, 1918, HSTL.

  “a dandy place”: HST to EW, November 29, 1918, Dear Bess, 283.

  “beautifully sung”: HST to EW, December 18, 1918, ibid., 284.

  “To keep from going crazy”: Steinberg, 50.

  “Every day nearly someone”: HST to EW, January 12, 1919, Dear Bess, 292.

  “Would as leave lost a son”: HST War Diary, HSTL.

  “It’s some trick to keep”: HST to EN, January 20, 1919, HSTL.

  the possibility of running for political office: HST to EW, November 1, 1918, Dear Bess, 277.

  “I can’t see what on earth”: HST to EW, December 19, 1918, ibid., 287.

  “thirsted for a West Point education”: HST to EW, December 14, 1918, ibid., 286.

  “back to God’s country again”: HST to EW, November 1, 1918, ibid., 277.

  “Maybe have a little politics”: HST to EW, December 14, 1918, ibid., 285.

  “We’ll be married anywhere”: HST to EW, February 18, 1919, ibid., 296.

  “You may invite the entire 35th Division”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 77.

  “As far as we’re concerned”: HST to EN, January 20, 1919, HSTL.

  he bought a wedding ring: Truman, 78.

  violently seasick nearly the whole way: HST to EW, April 24, 1919, Dear Bess, 297–98.

  Part Two

  5. Try, Try Again

  “I’ve had a few setbacks”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 70.

  nineteenth-century man: Ibid., 43.

  “I want you to be happy”: HST to EWT, July 9, 1925, Dear Bess, 319.

  “It was characteristic”: Leuchtenburg, Perils of Prosperity, 83.

  “I have always wondered”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 127.

  answering letters from the mothers and fathers: Miller, 97.

  “Well, I remember when he came back”: Ethel Noland, Oral History, HSTL.

  last heated argument: HST to EWT, June 29, 1949, Dear Bess, 558.

  Truman wedding: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 79–80.

  “I hope you have the same success”: Unidentified letter from member of Battery D, Waco, Texas, to HST, July 15, 1919; HSTL.

  “Well, Mrs. Truman, you’ve lost Harry”: Ted Marks, Oral History, HSTL.

  Mary Jane had cooked noon dinner: Miller, 107.

  “You’ve just never seen such a radiant”: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.

  “a very, very difficult person”: Miller, 106.

  “I didn’t know”: Quoted in Daniels, The Man of Independence, 100.

  “Twelfth Street was in its heyday”: Ibid., 105–06.

  “We’d all drop in”: Edward McKim, Oral History, HSTL.

  “But Harry seemed glad”: Miller, Harry S. Truman, 155.

  “You can’t quit them”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 92.

  “I see no reason”: Unidentified letter to HST, December 14, 1919, HSTL.

  “Well, sir, don’t forget me”: Eugene Donnelly to HST, October 4, 1920, HSTL.

  “We’d have done anything for him”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 97.

  husband never worked as hard: Ibid., 112.

  Battery D reunion: E. J. Becker to HST, March 22, 1921, HSTL.

  “He would get out and go’: Marks, Oral History, HSTL.

  Dr. A. Gloom Chaser: HSTL.

  war memorial ceremonies: Kansas City Times, October 17, 1921.

  “That was when we took”: Quoted in Daniels, 119.

  “high jinks”: McKim, Oral History, HSTL.

  a sign of anti-Semitism: Miller, Plain Speaking, 106.

  Eddie’s frayed suit: Daniels, 109.

  “It was a nice store”: Edgar Hinde, Oral History, HSTL.

  ??
?There goes Harry”: Gaylon Babcock, Oral History, HSTL.

  “a nice boy”: HST to EWT, September 20, 1921, Dear Bess, 312.

  “I’ve got friends”: Quoted in Reddig, Tom’s Town, 28.

  “There is no kinder hearted”: Kansas City Times, March 26, 1892.

  “No deserving man”: Quoted in Dorsett, The Pendergast Machine, 21.

  reputation of saloon keepers: Kansas City Star files, undated.

  “I never needed a crooked”: Quoted in Reddig, 32.

  “His support of any man”: Ibid., 72.

  “Brother Tom will make”: Ibid.

  Thomas Joseph Pendergast: Ibid., 33.

  “Yes. Why not?”: O. K. Armstrong, “Crusade in Kansas City,” This Week, March 13, 1938.

  “He was a master!”: Matt Devoe, author’s interview.

  “that fellow could probably talk”: Conn Withers, author’s interview.

  “Oh, he was a wonderful man”: Geraldine Ketchum, author’s interview.

  “No, I never had a sense of evil”: Monsignor Arthur Tighe, author’s interview.

  Tom kept to himself: Mason, Truman and the Pendergasts, 33.

  “You can’t make a man good”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 12, 1937.

  “We have the theory”: Ibid.

  “Let the river take its course”: Mason, 25.

  “Politics is a business”: Kansas City Star, March 31, 1966.

  “When a man’s in need”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 12, 1937.

  happy to be “repeaters”: Ketchum, author’s interview.

  woman in the hospital laundry: Ibid.

  “Oh, I knew it was illegal”: Ibid.

  “When we come over the hill”: Reddig, 34.

  “Stealing elections”: Quoted in Mason, 46.

  Fifty-Fifty Agreement: Dorsett, 62–63.

  “enforcer of loyalty”: Reddig, 97.

  “tenacious fighting type”: Unidentified obituary of Pendergast, September 2, 1929.

  Mike passed over because of temper: Robert Pendergast, author’s interview.

  idea of running Harry: Joseph and Catherine Pruett, author’s interview.

  If Captain Truman was all Jim said: Ibid., and Robert Pendergast, author’s interview.

  “They are trying to run me” HST to Ernest Schmidt, February 4, 1922, HSTL.

  “Now, I’m going to tell you” Quoted in Daniels, 114.

  “Old Tom Pendergast wanted”: Harry Vaughan, Oral History, HSTL.

  “Went into business all enthusiastic”: “Pickwick Papers”, HSTL.

  “I loved him as I did my own daddy”: Ibid.

  “feeling fairly blue”: Daniels, 109.

  “Well, I’ve got to eat”: Ibid., 110–.

  “mess up” his life with politics: Ibid., 110–.

  “They always like to pick winners”: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.

  auditorium at Lee’s Summit: Lee’s Summit Journal, March 9, 1922.

  “thoroughly rattled”: Quoted in Truman, Mr. Citizen, 156.

  “I was scared worse”: HST Diary, September 23, 1952, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record 271.

  “I knew Harry Truman”: Stephen Slaughter, author’s interview.

  “the poorest effort of a speech”: Hinde Oral History, HSTL.

  “If you’re going to be in politics”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 128.

  “We’d do whatever was necessary”: Ibid.

  sacks of cement: Memoirs, Vol. I, 137.

  to arrive by airplane: McKim, Oral History, HSTL.

  “I am now going to tell you”: Independence Examiner, July 18, 1922.

  “I want men for road overseers”: Quoted in Daniels, 142.

  “You have heard it said”: Ibid., 118.

  Edgar Hinde urged Harry: Hinde, Oral History, HSTL.

  “They didn’t just hate Catholics”: Quoted in Reddig, 113.

  “The smell of old ‘alky’ ” Independence Examiner, August 1, 1922.

  Shannon henchmen: Ibid., August 2, 1922.

  Gibson’s 45-caliber: Ibid.

  Fifty-fifty was finished: Kansas City Times, September 2, 1929.

  “We ran the county”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 137.

  “When a road project” Independence Examiner, July 9, 1919.

  suffered a second miscarriage: Truman, 88.

  “I wish you would send me”: HST to Ralph Truman, February 23, 1923, HSTL.

  “It is now 10:20”: Quoted in Truman, 90.

  She would wait for hours: Ibid.

  “You be a good girl”: HST to EWT, July 21, 1923, Dear Bess, 314.

  Nurse Kinnaman’s account of baby’s birth: From reporter Champ Clark’s files dated February 1951, Time-Warner archives.

  “He has the most magnetic personality”: Quoted in Schlesinger, The Crisis of the Old Order, 376–77.

  “He kept his feelings to himself” Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 127.

  “The record of the county court”: Kansas City Star, July 17, 1924.

  “To even talk about throwing” Independence Sentinel, undated, General Family Files, HSTL.

  Klan rally: Daniels, 126.

  “You did what your gang told you”: Henry P. Chiles, Oral History, HSTL.

  Kansas City Automobile Club: Autobiography, 59.

  “This is almost like campaigning”: HST to EWT, November 9, 1926, Dear Bess, 323.

  “If one thing did not work”: Marks, Oral History, HSTL.

  called the Citizens Security: Daniels, 134–35.

  “kind of a cold bird”: Mary Salisbury Bostian, author’s interview

  “Anybody who’s ever been a friend”: Hinde, Oral History, HSTL.

  “used me for his own ends”: Pickwick Papers”, HSTL.

  “a no-good bastard”: Jonathan Daniels interview notes, September 25, 1949, HSTL.

  run for county collector: Memoirs, Vol. I, 139.

  Collector’s job: Daniels, 138.

  “No criticism or scandals”: Independence Examiner, July 27, 1928.

  “Every subject of debate”: New Republic, April 30, 1945.

  “We intend to operate”: Independence Examiner, January 3, 1927.

  spinning about in Judge Truman’s swivel chair: Robert Pendergast, author’s interview.

  nervous breakdown: Ibid.

  “You Can’t do it”: Quoted in Daniels, 145.

  “I told the voters”: Ibid., 146.

  “Here were hundreds of square miles”: Results of County Planning, 7, 9.

  Farm on Blue Ridge Boulevard: Ibid., 97.

  “Oh! If I were only John D. Rockefeller”: Pickwick Papers, HSTL.

  “a loudmouthed, profane, vulgar”: FOIPA No. 297,745, FBI.

  “What the hell do you do”: Ibid.

  The facts about Canfil: Ibid.

  “Fred’s a little rough” Quoted in Steinberg, The Man from Missouri., 257.

  “Character excellent”: FOIPA No. 297,745, FBI.

  an equestrain bronze of Andrew Jackson: Steinberg,95.

  “I wanted a real man”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 139.

  “that I either had to run away”: HST to EWT, February 12, 1931, Dear Bess, 343.

  “and every person I’ve ever had”: “Pickwick Papers”, HSTL.

  exceptionally fit: U.S. Army Personnel Records, 1925, 1936, HSTL.

  “I haven’t had a headache”: HST to EWT, July 13, 1927, Dear Bess, 329.

  “We didn’t have any equipment”: Vaughan, Oral History, HSTL.

  “I’ve been around Legion conventions”: Hinde, Oral History, HSTL.

  “Three things ruin a man”: Quoted in New York Post December 29, 1972.

  “I never wanted power”: Ibid.

  Truman buying seat covers: Kansas City Star, November 14, 1990.

  attempt to kidnap Margaret: From reporter Champ Clark’s file dated February 1951, Time-Warner archives.

  “While it looks good”: HST to EWT, August 27, 1933, Dear Bess, 358.

  “Politics should make a thief”: H
ST to EWT, May 7, 1933, ibid., 353.

  “The Boss wanted me”: “Pickwick Papers”, HSTL.

  Meeting with Pendergast: Daniels, 146–47.

  Harry’s later account: “Pickwick Papers”, HSTL.

  “Didn’t I tell you boys”: Daniels, 147.

  “And That’s God’s truth”: Miller, Plain Speaking, 137.

  “He, in times past”: “Pickwick Papers”, HSTL.

  “Loved the ladies”: Ibid.

  “Since childhood at my mother’s”: Ibid.

  “This sweet associate of mine” Ibid.

  Pendergast lecturing: Ibid.

  To little Sue Ogden: Sue Ogden Bailey, author’s interview.

  “And this was a disaster!”: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.

  Sue Ogden’s memories: Bailey, author’s interview.

  “I never heard a squabble’: Vietta Garr quoted in Kansas City Star, April 18, 1945.

  “I was an only child”: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.

  “I could twist him”: Ibid.

  “My manners were expected”: Truman, 109.

  “Her presence”: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.

  “Yes, I spoiled him”; Kansas City Star April 18, 1945.

  “She liked Mamma Truman”: Truman, 109.

  Once when she offered food: J.C. Truman, author’s interview.

  189The Capture of the Clever One: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.

  “I want her to do everything”: HST to EWT, July 17, 1929, Dear Bess, 338.

  “The car was washed” Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.

  “Straight, absolutely straight”: Ibid.

  “He read all the weather maps”: Ibid.

  “How does Harry put up”: Mary Shaw Branton, author’s interview.

  “It was very hard”: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.

  picked Number 369: Sue Gentry in Independence Examiner, April 25, 1979.

  Harpie Club: Daniels, 152.

  “He liked his walk”: Margaret Truman Daniel, author’s interview.

  the town directory: Independence City Directory, 1934.

  “Just think of all those wasted years”: HST to EWT, July 22, 1930, Dear Bess, 339.

  “Have you practiced your music?”: HST to EWT and MT, July 10, 1932, ibid., 347.

  “You may yet be the first lady”: Daniel, 117.

  over lunch with…Eric Sevareid: Sevareid, “A Truly Great Man,” McCall’s, March 1973.

  “He loved politics”: Marks, Oral History, HSTL.

  hadn’t he been a late bloomer: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.

  “There, he struck his gait”: Ibid.