Happy 125th Birthday Harry S Truman!

Born on this day in Lamar, Missouri in modest circumstances, became the 33rd US President on April 12 1945.

He's buried at the Truman Presidential Library & Museum courtyard alongside his wife Bess Wallace Truman and their only child Margaret Truman Daniel, who died in January last year.




The first time I met him was when he came to London for the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965.

My parents, who were in the diplomatic corps, took me to the post-funeral wake held at the US ambassador's residence in Regent's Park. Lots of Dems were there including Jackie Bouvier Kennedy and some top brass from the Johnson Administration state department.

I was seven years old and on best grown up behavior, sitting kinda quietly through the speeches and wondering when the dining room doors would open for dinner.

Someone close by me suddenly nudged me and said "Here, have a toffee." I turned around and it was the great man himself.

Some minutes later President Truman stood up and made his own eulogy to Churchill, speaking for well nigh on half an hour.

My parents had all the speeches filmed and we still have the cine footage of what was said at the gathering.

Have waited a very long time to publish that footage!

Good things come to those who wait, perhaps...

I envy you! I, unfortunately, never had the great priviledge of meeting the "Man from Missouri". He has been my hero for many years -- He's from Missouri (As mentioned above); he is the last president to never have attended college; and he had the courage to desegregate the US military at a time when the US was still very much segregated. I am proud to be a resident of the home state of Harry S Truman. :patriot:

it was a freezing cold day in December (or maybe early January?). My dad insisted on taking all of us to stand in line for hours in front of the Truman Library to pay our respects. It was an honor to do that.

I have friends here who are from Independence who can remember him walking around town back in the 60s, after he had come home to retire. He was a fixture in downtown Independence.

I went to the Truman Library for the Lying in State. I never thought that I would be doing the same thing for LBJ only a month later.