Margaret Truman
Truman in 1951
Truman in 1951
BornMary Margaret Truman
(1924-02-17)February 17, 1924
Independence, Missouri, U.S.
DiedJanuary 29, 2008(2008-01-29) (aged 83)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Resting placeHarry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum, Independence, Missouri, U.S.
OccupationSinger, writer, historian
Alma materGeorge Washington University (BA)
GenreMystery fiction, biography, autobiography
Years active1947–2008
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1956; died 2000)​
Children4, including Clifton Truman Daniel
Parents

Mary Margaret Truman-Daniel (February 17, 1924 – January 29, 2008) was an American classical soprano, actress, journalist, radio and television personality, writer, and New York socialite. She was the only child of President Harry S. Truman and First Lady Bess Truman. While her father was president during the years 1945 to 1953, Margaret regularly accompanied him on campaign trips, such as the 1948 countrywide whistle-stop campaign lasting several weeks. She also appeared at important White House and political events during those years, being a favorite with the media.[1]

After graduating from George Washington University in 1946, she embarked on a career as a coloratura soprano, beginning with a concert appearance with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1947. She appeared in concerts with orchestras throughout the United States and in recitals throughout the U.S. through 1956. She made recordings for RCA Victor, and made television appearances on programs like What's My Line? and The Bell Telephone Hour.[2]

In 1957, Truman abandoned her singing career to pursue a career as a journalist and radio personality, when she became the co-host of the program Weekday with Mike Wallace. She also wrote articles as an independent journalist, for a variety of publications in the 1960s and 1970s. She 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 well-received biographies of her father, President Harry S. Truman and mother Bess Truman.

She was married to journalist Clifton Daniel, managing editor of The New York Times. The couple had four children, and were prominent New York socialites who often hosted events for the New York elite.[2]

Early life

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 schools in Washington, D.C. and Independence.[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.

Career

Singing

Truman with her mother in Washington DC in 1948
Truman portrait by Greta Kempton, c. 1947

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]

Acting, radio, and journalism

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 more than once on NBC's The Martha Raye Show.

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

Writing

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.

Novels

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]

Institutions

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]

Personal life

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:

Italian dress designer Micol Fontana – the designer of Margaret Truman's wedding gown – was invited to appear as a mystery guest on the April 15, 1956, episode of TV show What's My Line? in New York City. The Truman/Daniel wedding occurred a few days later on April 21, 1956, in Independence, Missouri.

Later years and death

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]

Bibliography

Non-fiction

BookYearNotes
Souvenir: Margaret Truman's Own Story1956OCLC 629282
White House Pets1969OCLC 70279
Harry S. Truman1973ISBN 0-688-00005-3
Women of Courage1976ISBN 0-688-03038-6
Letters From Father: The Truman Family's Personal Correspondence1981ISBN 0-87795-313-9
Bess W. Truman1986ISBN 0-02-529470-9
Where The Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman1989ISBN 0-446-51494-2
First Ladies1995ISBN 0-679-43439-9
The President's House: 1800 to the Present2003ISBN 0-345-47248-9

Fiction

The Capital Crimes series:

BookYearNotes
Murder in the White House1980ISBN 0-87795-245-0
Murder on Capitol Hill1981ISBN 0-87795-312-0
Murder in the Supreme Court1982ISBN 0-87795-384-8
Murder in the Smithsonian1983ISBN 0-87795-475-5
Murder on Embassy Row1984ISBN 0-87795-594-8
Murder at the FBI1985ISBN 0-87795-680-4
Murder in Georgetown1986ISBN 0-87795-797-5
Murder in the CIA1987ISBN 0-394-55795-6
Murder at the Kennedy Center1989ISBN 0-394-57602-0
Murder at the National Cathedral1990ISBN 0-394-57603-9
Murder at the Pentagon1992ISBN 0-394-57604-7
Murder on the Potomac1994ISBN 0-679-43309-0
Murder at the National Gallery1996ISBN 0-679-43530-1
Murder in the House1997ISBN 0-679-43528-X
Murder at the Watergate1998ISBN 0-679-43535-2
Murder at the Library of Congress1999ISBN 0-375-50068-5
Murder in Foggy Bottom2000ISBN 0-375-50069-3
Murder in Havana2001ISBN 0-375-50070-7
Murder at Ford's Theatre2002ISBN 0-345-44489-2
Murder at Union Station2004ISBN 0-345-44490-6
Murder at the Washington Tribune2005ISBN 0-345-47819-3
Murder at the Opera2006ISBN 0-345-47821-5
Murder on K Street2007ISBN 0-345-49886-0
Murder inside the Beltway2008ISBN 0-345-49888-7
Monument to Murder2011ISBN 978-0-7653-2609-6

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]

References

  1. ↑ Truman, by David McCullough, 1992
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Margaret Truman, 83, Singer and Author". The New York Sun. January 30, 2008. Archived from the original on January 31, 2022. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Margaret Truman".
  4. 1 2 "Margaret Truman Daniel bio". Truman Presidential Library. Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  5. ↑ "Notable Pi Phis". pibetaphi.org. Archived from the original on July 13, 2010.
  6. ↑ Dean Fowler, Alandra (1994). Estelle Liebling: An exploration of her pedagogical principles as an extension and elaboration of the Marchesi method, including a survey of her music and editing for coloratura soprano and other voices (PhD). University of Arizona.
  7. ↑ Time, February 26, 1951.
  8. ↑ Truman, by David McCullough, 1992, Simon and Schuster
  9. ↑ "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, NBC News, January 29, 2008, retrieved January 29, 2008.)
  10. ↑ "Margaret Truman To Star Tonight On Radio Drama". Las Cruces Sun-News. New Mexico, Las Cruces. Las Cruces Sun-News. April 26, 1951. p. 1. Retrieved November 14, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  11. ↑ Kirby, Walter (March 16, 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. The Decatur Daily Review. p. 44. Retrieved May 23, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  12. ↑ Thomas, Bob (November 2, 1951). "Tallulah Bankhead Praises Margaret Truman's Talents". Reading Eagle. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
  13. 1 2 House, Allan (November 11, 1955). "Margaret Truman Gets a Kick Out of Radio-TV". The Fayetteville Observer. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
  14. ↑ "'Monitor' to debut on KDKA Sunday". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. June 10, 1955. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
  15. ↑ "Radio:Woman's Home Companion". Time. November 28, 1955. Archived from the original on December 15, 2008. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
  16. ↑ "The Giselle MacKenzie Show". TV.com. Archived from the original on June 20, 2009. Retrieved May 15, 2009.
  17. ↑ Bain, Donald (March 14, 2014). "A Novel of My Own". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
  18. ↑ "William G. Harrington, 68; Wrote Mysteries and Thrillers". The New York Times. November 16, 2000. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
  19. 1 2 Gelder, Lawrence Van (January 29, 2008). "Margaret Truman Daniel Dies at 83". The New York Times. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  20. ↑ "Truman celebrates heritage, history with grandson of US president". Kirksville Daily Express. September 15, 2011. Archived from the original on March 31, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
  21. ↑ Daniel, Clifton Truman (2009). "Adventures with Grandpa Truman". Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  22. ↑ "Hit by Cab, a Grandson of Harry Truman dies". The New York Times. September 6, 2000. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
  23. ↑ Goldstein, Steve (January 31, 2008). "First Daughter". Obit-mag. Archived from the original on January 1, 2010. Retrieved April 3, 2010.
  24. ↑ 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.
  25. ↑ "Margaret Truman Books in Order". Book Series in Order. August 12, 2015. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
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