FIRST LADY BESS W. TRUMAN - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 07/15/1954 - HFSID 36126

BESS W. TRUMAN
The former First Lady writes to Norman Thomas, whom her husband beat in the election of 1948.
Typed Letter Signed: "Bess W. Truman", 1p, 7¼x10½. Kansas City, Missouri, 1954 July 15. To Norman Thomas, New York. On her husband's stationery. In full: "My husband asks me to thank you for your most kind and thoughtful letter and I should like to add my appreciation of your thoughtfulness, too. He hopes to be able to write you soon. Sincerley," NORMAN THOMAS (1884-1968) was the Socialist candidate for President against Hoover in 1928, against FDR in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944 and against Harry S Truman in 1948, finishing fifth with 139,009 popular votes to Truman's 24.1 million. He campaigned for many measures that he saw become law: unemployment insurance, minimum wage, five-day work week and abolition of child labor. In 1919, 35-year-old Harry S Truman married 34-year-old ELIZABETH "BESS" WALALCE. When six-year old Harry Truman first met five-year-old Bess Wallace in a Sunday School class 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. Staple holes at upper left corner. Lightly creased. Fine condition.