BESS TRUMAN
Bess Truman sends an autograph letter as First Lady saying that she is looking forward to seeing Mrs. Tucker in October.
Autograph Letter signed: "Bess W. Truman" as First Lady, 2p (front and verso), 4½x7. No place, no date. To "Dear Mr. Tucker". In full: "I meant to write you days ago - but have been mighty busy. I am most certainly going to be in W. the last of October and shall be very happy to see Mrs. Tucker. Am hoping to have a gallon or two of gas so I can take her to some of the interesting places she may want to see. My telephone number is Woodley 3690 - and I shall be expecting her to call me before the month is gone. - and shall be looking forward to it. I wish you were coming too. Most Sincerely". Slightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition. Accompanied by unsigned envelope addressed by Mrs. Truman to "Mr. Charles Tucker/Tucker Furn. Co./Independence/Missouri", 5x4. Printed return address: "The White House/Washington", postmarked October 18, 1945. Slightly soiled. Otherwise, fine condition. In 1919, 35-year-old Harry S Truman married 34-year-old Elizabeth "Bess" Wallace, whom he had known since the fifth grade. On her first day in the White House, First Lady Bess Truman made breakfast, made the bed, washed dishes, dusted, vacuumed and then read a detective novel, The Crimson Claw. Unlike her predecessor, Eleanor Roosevelt, she gave no press conferences and usually responded to any questions with a terse: "No comment". She tried to curb her husband's salty, blunt language. When one society matron complained that the President had used the word "manure" in public, Bess replied that it had taken her 20 years to get him to say "manure". At her death in 1982 at 97, she had lived longer than any other First Lady. Two items.