Margaret Truman

Mary Margaret was born at 219 North Delaware Street in Independence, Missouri, on February 17, 1924,^[3] 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 took voice and piano lessons as a child (at the encouragement of her father, who famously played piano) and attended public school in Independence until her father's 1934 election to the United States Senate, after which her education was split between public schools in Independence and Gunston Hall School, a private school for girls in Washington, D.C.^[4]

In 1942, she matriculated at George Washington University, where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi,^[5] and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and international relations in 1946.^[4] In June 1944, she christened the battleship USS Missouri at Brooklyn Navy Yard, and spoke again in 1986 at the ship's recommissioning. She studied singing with Estelle Liebling, the voice teacher of Beverly Sills, in New York City.^[6]

On April 12, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died. His Vice President Harry Truman assumed the presidency when Margaret was 21.

 

 

When Truman was 16 years old, she began taking voice lessons in Independence from Mrs. Thomas J. Strickler, a family friend. After classical vocal training, Truman's singing career began with a debut radio recital in March 1947, followed shortly thereafter with her professional concert debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She sang professionally for the next decade, appearing with major American orchestras and giving several national concert tours.^[2] Some of her credits include concert appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the National Symphony Orchestra, the NBC Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Saint Louis Symphony among others. While she never performed in staged operas, she did perform opera arias in concert. Her performances were mainly of both sacred and secular art songs, lieder, and works from the concert soprano repertoire. In 1951 and 1952, RCA Victor issued two albums by Truman, one of classical selections, the other of American art songs.^[2] She also made recordings of German lieder for NBC. A 1951 Time Magazine cover^[7] featured Truman with a single musical note floating by her head. She performed on stage, radio, and television through 1956.^[2]

At the beginning of her career, critical reviews of Truman's singing were positive, polite or diplomatic in tone, with some later reviewers speculating that negative opinions were held back out of deference for her father as a current sitting United States President.^[2] This practice was broken in 1950 when 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." The review angered President Truman (who was dealing that same day with the sudden death of his childhood friend and White House Press Secretary Charlie Ross^[8]), who 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!"^[9] Hume wanted to publish the letter, but Washington Post publisher Philip Graham vetoed the idea. However, Hume showed the letter to a number of his colleagues, including Milton Berliner, music critic of the rival Washington Times Herald, which published a story. The Post was then forced to acknowledge the letter, which drew international headlines, becoming a minor scandal for the Truman administration. Reviewers after that felt more free to be honest in their reviews of her performances, with mixed criticism for her singing thereafter.^[2]

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.^[10] On March 17, 1952, Truman was guest soloist on The Railroad Hour in a presentation of the operetta Sari.^[11]

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.^[12][13] She became part of the team of NBC Radio's Weekday show that premiered in 1955, shortly after its Monitor program made its debut.^[14] Paired with Mike Wallace, she presented news and interviews aimed at a female listening audience.^[13][15]

She appeared several times as a panelist (and twice as a mystery guest) on the game show What's My Line? and guest-starred^{[clarification needed]} more than once on NBC's The Martha Raye Show.

In 1957, she sang and played piano on The Gisele MacKenzie Show.^[16]

Truman's full-length biography of her father, published shortly before his 1972 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). Truman published regularly into her eighties.

From 1980 to 2011, 25 books in the Capital Crimes series of murder mysteries, most set in and around Washington, D.C., were published under Margaret Truman's name.

Professional ghostwriter Donald Bain (1935–2017) acknowledged in the March 14, 2014, issue of Publishers Weekly that he had written "27 novels in the Margaret Truman Capital Crimes series (mostly bylined by Truman, my close collaborator – my name is on only the most recent entries, released after her death)."^[17]

In 2000, another ghostwriter, William Harrington, had claimed in a self-written obituary before his apparent suicide that Margaret Truman and others were his clients.^[18]

She served on the board of directors for the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum and the Board of Governors of the Roosevelt Institute, and served as a Trustee for her alma mater.^[19]

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

• Clifton Truman Daniel (born June 5, 1957), Director of Public Relations for Harry S Truman College.^[20][21]
• William Wallace Daniel (May 19, 1959 – September 4, 2000), a psychiatric social worker and researcher at Columbia University. He died after being struck by a taxicab in New York City.^[22]
• Harrison Gates Daniel (born 1963)
• Thomas Washington Daniel (born 1966)

Italian dress designer Micol Fontana, who designed Truman’s wedding gown, was invited to be a surprise guest on the TV show What's My Line? in New York City, just six days before the Truman/Daniel wedding on April 21, 1956, in Independence, Missouri.

In later life, Truman lived in her Park Avenue home.^[19] She died on January 29, 2008, in Chicago (to which she was relocating to be closer to her son Clifton). She was said to have been suffering from "a simple infection" and had been breathing with the assistance of a respirator.^[23] Her ashes and those of her husband were interred in Independence in her parents' burial plot on the grounds of the Truman Library.^[24]

The Capital Crimes series:

As of 2021, six further novels in the series had been published under Truman's name as "with Donald Bain" or "with John Land."^[25]

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Margaret Truman.

• trumanlibrary.org
• Margaret Truman at Find a Grave
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Margaret Truman at IMDb