FIRST LADY BESS W. TRUMAN - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 05/29/1974 - HFSID 215375

BESS TRUMAN
Bess Truman sends a typed letter of thanks for the letter.
Typed Letter signed: "Bess W. Truman", 1p, 6x8. Independence, Missouri, 1974 May 29. On personal letterhead to Selwyn C. Gamble, Senatobia, Mississippi. In full: "Your letter and the many kind things you had to say are greatly appreciated. I was glad to autograph the two drawings you enclosed with your letter [not included] and they are being returned in the self-addressed, stamped envelope you were thoughtful enough to provide. Sincerely." In 1919, 35-year-old Harry S Truman married 34-year-old Elizabeth "Bess" Wallace. When six-year old Harry Truman first met five-year-old Bess Wallace in a Sunday School class at the First Presbyterian Church in Independence, Missouri. Harry later said it was love at first sight. At his death in 1972, Harry and Bess Truman had been married for 53 years but they had known each other for an incredible 82 years! 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. Fine condition.