Margaret Truman

Margaret Truman
Margaret Truman in the Netherlands in 1951
Born	Mary Margaret Truman February 17, 1924 Independence, Missouri
Died	January 29, 2008 (aged 83) Chicago, Illinois
Occupation	Writer historian
Alma mater	George Washington University
Genre	Mystery fiction biography Autobiography
Spouse	Clifton Daniel
Children	Clifton, William, Harrison, Thomas

Mary Margaret Truman Daniel (February 17, 1924 – January 29, 2008), also known as Margaret Truman or Margaret Daniel, was an American singer who later became the successful author of a series of murder mysteries and a number of works on U.S. First Ladies and First Families, including a biography of her father, President Harry S. Truman. The only child of Harry Truman and First Lady Bess Truman, she was "a witty, hard-working Midwestern girl with singing talent who was neither particularly pretty nor terribly plain."^[1]

Early life

Margaret Truman

Mary Margaret was born in Independence, Missouri on February 17, 1924 and was christened Mary Margaret Truman (for her aunt Mary Jane Truman and maternal grandmother Margaret Gates Wallace) but was called Margaret from early childhood. She attended school in Independence until her father's 1934 election to the U.S. Senate, after which her education was split between schools in Washington, D.C. and Independence.^[2]

In 1942, she matriculated at George Washington University, where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi^[3] and earned a B.A. in History in 1946.^[2] In June 1944, she christened the battleship USS Missouri at Brooklyn Navy Yard, and spoke again in 1986 at the ship's recommissioning.

Career

Opera

After operatic vocal training, Truman's singing career began with a debut radio recital in March 1947. Reviewers were not always kind, but her father was fiercely protective: when in 1950 Washington Post music critic Paul Hume wrote that Truman was "extremely attractive on the stage... [but] cannot sing very well. She is flat a good deal of the time. And still cannot sing with anything approaching professional finish," President Truman wrote to Hume, "Some day 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!"^[4] A 1951 Time Magazine cover^[5] featured Truman with a single musical note floating by her head. She performed on stage, radio, and television until the mid-1950s.

Acting

Truman's professional acting debut occurred April 26, 1951. She co-starred with James Stewart in the "Jackpot" episode of Screen Directors Playhouse on NBC radio.^[6] On March 17, 1952, Truman was guest soloist on The Railroad Hour in a presentation of Sari.^[7]

Truman also performed on the NBC Radio program The Big Show. There she met writer Goodman Ace, who gave her advice and pointers; Ace became a lifelong friend, advising Truman even after The Big Show.^[8][9] She became part of the team of NBC Radio's Weekday show that premiered in 1955, shortly after its Monitor program made its debut.^[10] Paired with Mike Wallace, she presented news and interviews aimed at a female listening audience.^[9][11]

She appeared several times as a panelist (and once as a mystery guest) on the game show What's My Line? and guest-starred more than once on NBC's The Martha Raye Show. In 1957, she sang and played piano on The Gisele MacKenzie Show^[12]

Writing

Truman's full-length biography of her father, published shortly before his death, was critically acclaimed. She also wrote a personal biography of her mother and histories of the White House and its inhabitants (including first ladies and pets). A series of murder mysteries set in and around Washington, D.C. published under her name were ghostwritten, first by William Harrington (according to Harrington)^[13] and then allegedly by Donald Bain.^[14][15]

Truman published regularly into her eighties. She also served on the board of directors for the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum and the Board of Governors of the Roosevelt Institute.^[16]

Personal life

On April 21, 1956, Truman married Clifton Daniel, a New York Times reporter and later editor, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Independence; he died in 2000. They had four sons:

• Clifton Truman Daniel (born 1957), Director of Public Relations for Harry S Truman College.^[17][18]
• William Wallace Daniel (May 19, 1959 – September 4, 2000), a psychiatric social worker and researcher at Columbia University.^[19]
• Harrison Gates Daniel (born 1963)
• Thomas Washington Daniel (born 1966)

In later life, Truman lived in her Park Avenue home.^[16] She died on January 29, 2008, in Chicago (to which she was relocating to be nearer her son Clifton). She was said to have been suffering from "a simple infection" and had been breathing with the assistance of a respirator.^[20] Her ashes, and those of her husband, were interred in Independence, in her parents' burial plot on the grounds of the Truman Library.^[21]

Bibliography

Fiction

Book	Year	Notes
Murder in the White House (Filmed as Murder at 1600 starring Wesley Snipes)	1980	ISBN 0-87795-245-0
Murder on Capitol Hill	1981	ISBN 0-87795-312-0
Murder in the Supreme Court	1982	ISBN 0-87795-384-8
Murder in the Smithsonian	1983	ISBN 0-87795-475-5
Murder on Embassy Row	1984	ISBN 0-87795-594-8
Murder at the FBI	1985	ISBN 0-87795-680-4
Murder in Georgetown	1986	ISBN 0-87795-797-5
Murder in the CIA	1987	ISBN 0-394-55795-6
Murder at the Kennedy Center	1989	ISBN 0-394-57602-0
Murder at the National Cathedral	1990	ISBN 0-394-57603-9
Murder at the Pentagon	1992	ISBN 0-394-57604-7
Murder on the Potomac	1994	ISBN 0-679-43309-0
Murder at the National Gallery	1996	ISBN 0-679-43530-1
Murder in the House	1997	ISBN 0-679-43528-X
Murder at the Watergate	1998	ISBN 0-679-43535-2
Murder at the Library of Congress	1999	ISBN 0-375-50068-5
Murder in Foggy Bottom	2000	ISBN 0-375-50069-3
Murder in Havana	2001	ISBN 0-375-50070-7
Murder at Ford's Theatre	2002	ISBN 0-345-44489-2
Murder at Union Station	2004	ISBN 0-345-44490-6
Murder at the Washington Tribune	2005	ISBN 0-345-47819-3
Murder at the Opera	2006	ISBN 0-345-47821-5
Murder on K Street	2007	ISBN 0-345-49886-0
Murder inside the Beltway	2008	ISBN 0-345-49888-7
Monument to Murder	2011	ISBN 978-0-7653-2609-6

Non-fiction

Book	Year	Notes
Souvenir, Margaret Truman's Own Story	1956	OCLC 629282
White House Pets	1969	OCLC 70279
Harry S. Truman	1973	ISBN 0-688-00005-3
Women of Courage	1976	ISBN 0-688-03038-6
Letters From Father: The Truman Family's Personal Correspondence	1981	ISBN 0-87795-313-9
Bess W. Truman	1986	ISBN 0-02-529470-9
Where The Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman	1989	ISBN 0-446-51494-2
First Ladies	1995	ISBN 0-679-43439-9
The President's House: 1800 to the Present	2004	ISBN 0-345-47248-9
The Life of a White House Girl	2003

References

1. Times online, February 2, 2008
2. "Margaret Truman Daniel bio". Truman Presidential Library. Retrieved June 2, 2011.
3. "Notable Pi Phis". pibetaphi.org. Archived from the original on July 13, 2010.
4. "Truman's Letter to Paul Hume". Truman Library, Independence Mo. December 6, 1950. Retrieved June 2, 2011. Years later Margaret Truman recalled, "I thought it was funny. Sold tickets." (Staff writer, Truman's only child dies at 83, MSNBC, January 29, 2008, retrieved January 29, 2008.)
5. Time, February 26, 1951.
6. "Margaret Truman To Star Tonight On Radio Drama". New Mexico, Las Cruces. Las Cruces Sun-News. April 26, 1951. p. 1. Retrieved November 14, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
7. Kirby, Walter (March 16, 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 44. Retrieved May 23, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
8. Thomas, Bob (November 2, 1951). "Tallulah Bankhead Praises Margaret Truman's Talents". Reading Eagle. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
9. House, Allan (November 11, 1955). "Margaret Truman Gets a Kick Out of Radio-TV". The Fayetteville Observer. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
10. "'Monitor' to debut on KDKA Sunday". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. June 10, 1955. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
11. "Radio:Woman's Home Companion". Time. November 28, 1955. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
12. "The Giselle MacKenzie Show". TV.com. Retrieved May 15, 2009.
13. "William G. Harrington, 68; Wrote Mysteries and Thrillers". New York Times. November 16, 2000. Retrieved October 15, 2014. After Harrington's apparent suicide, a self-written obituary was found in which he referred to Margaret Truman and others as his "clients". Harrington's literary agent (who was also Truman's agent) denied any collaboration with Truman, while somewhat obliquely acknowledging Harrington had "worked on" books credited to another author. Harrington has been "squarely" credited by at least one verifiable source with ghostwriting all the books published by the child of another US president, Elliott Roosevelt.
14. Breen, Jon. The Ghost of Miss Truman, Weekly Standard, November 18, 2002, retrieved January 29, 2008.
15. Bain, Donald (March 14, 2014). "A Novel of My Own". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
16. Gelder, Lawrence Van (29 January 2008). "Margaret Truman Daniel Dies at 83". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
17. "Truman celebrates heritage, history with grandson of US president". Kirksville Daily Express. September 15, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
18. Daniel, Clifton Truman (2009). "Adventures with Grandpa Truman". Retrieved April 20, 2013.
19. "Hit by Cab, a Grandson of Harry Truman dies". The New York Times. September 6, 2000. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
20. Goldstein, Steve (January 31, 2008). "First Daughter". Obit-mag. Retrieved April 3, 2010.
21. Meyer, Gene, "The ashes of Margaret Truman Daniel are put to rest in her roots", Kansas City Star, February 23, 2008. Retrieved March 13, 2008.

External links

• trumanlibrary.org
• Margaret Truman at Find a Grave
• Works by or about Margaret Truman in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Appearances on C-SPAN