Margaret Truman Daniel | June 12, 2025
Margaret Truman Daniel—A Unique Privilege
ON FEBRUARY 17, 1924—a wintry Missouri day—Harry and Bess Truman celebrated the birth of their daughter.
Two years earlier, Harry Truman’s haberdashery business in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, had failed. Now, he was taking classes at the Kansas City School of Law by night and serving as a county court judge by day. There was nothing to hint that this humble family from Independence, Missouri, would one day occupy the White House. Or that Margaret would grow to be an American classical soprano, actress, journalist, author, radio and television personality, and New York socialite.
Today, we turn to the Truman archive—and her eldest son, Clifton Truman Daniel—for a more personal portrait of the treasured child of President Harry S. Truman and First Lady Elizabeth “Bess” Wallace Truman.
MARGARET AND JACK
By Clifton Truman Daniel
MY MOTHER, MARGARET TRUMAN DANIEL, wasn’t much impressed by politics and politicians. This was almost certainly a case of familiarity breeding contempt. Titles and position meant little to her, even when she was sitting in the White House.
During the early 1950s, while she pursued a singing career in New York, Mom kept an apartment at the Carlyle Hotel at the corner of Madison and 76th. My grandparents stayed there a few times, as well. When Mom married Dad in 1956, the newlyweds bought an apartment a whole block east, at 76th and Park. The living room windows faced 76th Street. If you put your face near the glass and looked west, you could easily see the front door of the hotel.
On a visit to New York early in his presidency, John F. Kennedy stayed at the Carlyle. According to Mom, she recommended it. Parked out front during his stay was the phalanx of large motorcycles that accompanied the presidential motorcade.
“I WAS BROUGHT UP TO BE A VERY HONEST CHILD. I HAD TO LEARN TO FORGET A LOT OF THAT WHEN I GOT INTO POLITICS. IF I SAW SOMEBODY THAT I DIDN’T LIKE, I HAD TO BE POLITE AND NOT SAY…’I WISH YOU WOULD GO AWAY.’ I DO NOT SUFFER FOOLS GLADLY, AND MY HUSBAND [SAID] THAT [ONCE I WAS] OUT OF POLITICS, I [WAS] RATHER OBVIOUS ABOUT IT.”
DEAR MARGIE, LOVE DAD
HARRY TRUMAN WAS an inveterate letter writer. His remarkable correspondence with Bess (some 1,300 letters) has been mined by historians and are a favorite feature in the new museum at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library.
Equally astounding are the letters Harry Truman wrote to Margaret (more than 100, from 1927-1964). Clifton Truman Daniel found them stuffed in a grocery bag on the floor of a hall closet after his mother’s death.
Referring to the letters in her 1981 book, Letters from Father, Margaret Truman wrote, “They show a side of my father not contained in his historical notes and memoranda. [They] show him to be not only an extraordinary President but also an extraordinary human being with exemplary beliefs and unimpeachable values. They show the warm human side of a man burdened with the most pressing problems in this world but never too busy or too preoccupied to take time out for the second great love of his life, his daughter.”
February 23, 1937
Senator Truman encourages his daughter’s studies and explains politics in this gem of a letter:
Politics is a great game…. It is a game of people and how they will act under certain conditions. You never can tell, but you can sometimes guess and I’ve been a good guesser. You must be able to tell the facts too and to believe them yourself…. The office force all say hello. Lots of love to my sweet Margie. Dad.
May 22, 1951
Truman breaks into tears as Margaret departs for a European vacation. His advice for international travel reflects his love of learning. His reminder that she is an ambassador reflects his position as president.
In a few days you’ll be on your way to the cradle of our civilization…. Whether you like it or not you will be an ambassador of your own great country…. You’ve always done the right thing…here at home and I know you will do it abroad.
January 28, 1952
President Truman advises his 27-year-old daughter on managing a career in the limelight.
I want you to succeed in whatever you undertake. To do that you must give it all you have, keep your balance and display all the Truman-Wallace mulishness where right and wrong are in the balance. Right must always prevail. Do not let the glamour of the Rockefellers, the Watsons and the so called “stars” get you…
“REREADING [MY FATHER’S] LETTERS, I COULDN’T HELP BUT THINK HOW LUCKY I WAS—NOT SO MUCH TO HAVE BEEN THE DAUGHTER OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AS SIMPLY TO HAVE BEEN HIS DAUGHTER.”
MARGARET IN THE WHITE HOUSE
A UNIQUE PRIVILEGE
By Natalie Alms
ON JUNE 11, 1945, nearly two months into his presidency, Harry Truman wrote to his daughter Margaret: “you evidently are just finding out what a terrible situation the President’s daughter is facing…so you must face it. Keep your balance and go along just as your dad is trying to go.”
Like many presidential children, Margaret Truman experienced both the benefits and challenges of being a member of the first family. Surely, Margaret appreciated this advice during her father’s tenure as president. Margaret Truman, the daughter of Harry S. Truman and Elizabeth “Bess” Truman, was born in Independence, Missouri on February 17, 1924.
Margaret was a 21-year-old in her junior year at George Washington University when her father became president of the United States on April 12, 1945, after the death of President Franklin Roosevelt.
“PERHAPS I WAS BETTER ABLE THAN SOME TO ENDURE THE [LACK OF PRIVACY WHEN DAD BECAME PRESIDENT], BECAUSE GROWING UP IN A SMALL TOWN—AS INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI, WAS IN THOSE DAYS—IN ONE WAY WAS NOT VERY DIFFERENT FROM LIVING IN THE WHITE HOUSE. EVERYBODY KNEW YOUR BUSINESS.”
MUSEUM HIGHLIGHTS
“LITTLE MARGARET”
EXPLORE THE GALLERIES of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, and you will encounter big history: The Great War, World War II, Civil Rights, the Cold War and, of course, presidential politics. Just as engaging is the personal history of an extraordinary First Family—Harry and Bess, and their beloved daughter, Margaret. Don’t miss these treasured artifacts (below) while learning more about why baby Margaret slept in a dresser drawer (Bess didn’t purchase any nursery furniture until after Margaret was born); the close-knit family’s nickname (the Three Musketeers); and how a quick-thinking teacher thwarted a would-be kidnapper at Margaret’s elementary school in 1930.
“I WISH I COULD RE-CREATE THE RHYTHM OF THOSE EARLY DAYS OF MINE IN MISSOURI FOR YOU, FOR IT SEEMS TO ME THAT I WAS COMPLETELY HAPPY AND THAT I LIVED IN THE CENTER OF THE WORLD.”
A LIFE IN PICTURES
“MARGARET TRUMAN DANIEL:
A CENTURY OF LEGACY”
IN HER OWN WORDS
“DAD SUPPORTED MY ASPIRATIONS for a musical career [but] he insisted that getting my college degree had to come before embarking on a career. His insistence that I finish my formal education first was probably based on the fact that his own education had been difficult for him to obtain…. He did not want the same thing to happen to me.”
“I WAS A NATURAL-BORN HAM and would have pursued the stage no matter who my father was…. For every critic who condoned or over-praised me because of my political position, others sought to find faults for the same reason. Thus, if they said good things, I had to wonder if they meant it; if they said bad things, I had to consider the source as well as the statement.”
“THERE WAS ONE THING that Dad wanted even more than to see me be a singer. He wanted to be a grandfather…. Not only my father, but also my mother, and especially the press, were anxious to get me married off, or at least engaged, while I was living in the White House. But I think I made a wise decision early in my White House residency that I would never marry until I left there.”
SOURCE: The quotes above are excerpted from Margaret Truman Daniel’s preface of Letters from Father: The Truman Family’s Personal Correspondence, New York: Arbor House, 1981, in accordance with Fair Use copyright law
Margaret Truman, waving from the deck of the SS United States as it arrives at Southampton, July 9, 1952. (Photo by Norman Vigars/Fox Photos/Getty Images)