Podcasts about Bess Truman

Today's episode features: Bess Truman, First Lady Sponsored by ⁠⁠⁠2 Complicated 4 History⁠⁠⁠ Produced by ⁠Primary Source Media⁠

You can take Harry S Truman out of Independence, but you can't take the Independence out of Harry S Truman! Learn about the 33rd President's lightning-quick ascension into the top office; his election and administration; his wife, Bess, and daughter; as well as his homes! Check out the website at VisitingthePresidents.com for visual aids, links, past episodes, recommended reading, and other information!Episode Page: https://visitingthepresidents.com/2022/12/12/season-2-episode-33-harry-s-truman-and-independence/Season 1's Harry S Truman Episode: "Harry S Truman and Lamar"Support the show

We thought Bess Truman was a hard turn from Eleanor. Well get ready for an even harder turn. Mamie delivers up heteronormativity to the max. And we are here for it, sort of. We discuss Mamie's upbringing as a wealthy midwest girl, her devotion to Ike and her love for all things First Lady. We also theorize when dentistry became a real necessity and assume that Mamie is likely the person who invented Go Fund Me. Claire brings an absolutely biting energy and Elyse loves it. Mamie, we're sorry we were so hard on you, but you were a little mean. Love you! 

We take a sharp left turn with our next FLOTUS, Bess Truman. A star basketball player and women who just wanted to keep her head down and have a simple life becomes First Lady when FDR dies after being prez for 1000 terms. We talk about how Bess never really got to live in the White House because spoiler, THERE WERE RATS. Even when Bess tried to navigate the social scene of Washington she really didn't do too well. We introduce the true star of the ep , John McShane. An absolutely chaotic "architect" who mostly goes to sports games. Stay warm! Stay hydrated! We love you! 

Sally stops by with a NEW Old Fashioned (maple syrup makes it new and it's delicious!)  to talk about her charming new novel Much Ado About Barbecue. Sally goes on twenty different tangents and I follow her down every one.  We talk about Bess Truman, my Oma and barbecue and writing during Covid and exercise induced asthma and the pleasures of writing and reading retellings. Sally is as warm and charming as her novel!

Wet Brain takes the fashion world as Walt and Honor call some major players in this chopped up industry :•P. First a call to seasoned critic and Conde Nasty, Rachel Tashjian for a talk about First Ladies, first fashion weeks, NYFW, GQ and the DNC. Next up Adam and Maia two of the industry's freshest faces talk about the ups and downs of being up and comers. They offer fresh perspective and some chopped trend predictions. Then some classic banter with some classic Wet Brain guests. First Mitch gives the run down on the hottest new brands and his feelings on mixed clout relationships. Finally Olive “opens up” about the first Wet Brain romance and her thoughts on whats to come across the pond London fashion week. Honestly I can't write in 3rd person anymore I feel like something bad is going to happen like someone is going to get hurt or annoyed or something at some point like this so what happens when you talk to people about people like First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt said “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people” but we here at Wet Brain are on that Bess Truman type grind. Wait hold up we are editing but pause Walt time to pause cause filmmaker and longtime Wet Brain fan Eugene Kotlyarenko is calling to set the record straight and hit us with some fashion takes! Wow what a ride that was hope everyone is doing well

Krysta and Dean discuss Kansas City's Hotel Savoy, and it's famed restaurant the Savoy Grill. A favorite eatery of Harry and Bess Truman (who often sat at Table 4) it was also beloved by a Rockefeller, Teddy Roosevelt and many many more. They discuss it's characters and those who remain long after they have passed including apparitions and shadow people. It's history both light and dark are examined.

SUMMARY Award- winning journalist and six-time author Matthew Algeo brings us Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip. By retracing the Trumans’ 2500-mile journey from Independence, Missouri to the East Coast and back again, Algeo captures the ordinariness of an extraordinary former U.S. President and his wife Bess. Although the Trumans could not reasonably travel incognito, as they had planned, they travel on a tight budget, staying in simple hotels and eating at everyday diners along the way. Truman, our last citizen-president, uses his road trip to visit old friends as well as to capitalize on the chance to secure a retirement pension for himself and future ex-presidents. He also becomes “the first ex-president to engage in partisan politics in the age of modern mass media.” Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure is a great read-aloud for families who want to understand 1950s American history and all its tangents and contradictions. LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS With only a high-school diploma, he’s the last American president to not attend college. When Truman leaves the White House in 1953, he has no plan for the rest of his life and his only income is a small army pension of $111.96/month. Truman, a “road scholar,” campaigns vigorously to improve the U.S. transportation system. Truman loves driving (fast), but he gets rusty in while in the White House. In spite of getting many lucrative offers, Truman refuses to “commercialize” the presidency or “exploit or trivialize the office in any way.” The Trumans travel without Secret Service protection. In the early 1950s, no two hotels and motels are alike, and even finding one could be difficult when road-tripping. Cold-War fear and carefree optimism co-exist in the 1950s. Truman, in all practical terms, invents the modern press conference. QUOTES FROM ALGEO “Harry Truman was the last president to leave the White House and return to something resembling a normal life.” “Harry and Bess Truman’s road trip…marked the end of an era: never again would a former president and the first lady mingle so casually with their fellow citizens.” “The [road] trip was…part of his effort to make the transition…from Mr. President to Mr. Citizen.” “[In Truman’s day,] you worked until you couldn’t work anymore, in which case your family, probably large, provided for you. Or you worked until you died. No gold watches, no pensions, no Social Security.” BUY Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip RECOMMENDATIONS BUY "Truman" by David McCullough (Hardcover, 1992 Edition) BUY All This Marvelous Potential: Robert Kennedy's 1968 Tour of Appalachia by Matthew Algeo  Connect with us! Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube Website Special thanks… Music Credit Sound Editing Credit  

Bess Truman was a rather private person, but we still have a few things to talk about! ________________________ Be sure to subscribe to the show! Leave us a review on iTunes - It really helps us out! Facebook  |  Twitter  | Instagram ________________________ Music from: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is one for the record books here in the Pews.. It commenced with some significant historic references including: ancient Rome’s actual implement of execution, how the Washington Monument took shape, John and Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, World War II, the Cold War, Franklin Roosevelt,, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lucy Mercer, Harry and Bess Truman, Blair House, Dwight D. Eisenhower, JFK, Sam Giancana, Judith Campbell, LBJ, Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, sex in the Oval Office—all presented in the unique Sex in the Pews style.  Then the fellas welcomed single mother, female Marine and Epidemiologist PHD candidate Tiela Watts for a discussion on STD’s. However, as often happens on this quality podcast, things went very differently from what was planned. Among many fascinating revelations, Tiela tells the Choir of the “dry spell” she has been in for a while, why women may not be suited for military combat, how you could still contract a disease while using a condom and how she experienced something for the first time in her sexual history because of Owen and something he had shared on a previous show. To say the least, this one ain’t going to be boring nor should be missed!  NSFW or children. Strong Sexual Content, Language and Condemnation of Religion.  A portion of all proceeds donated to combat human sex slave trafficking.

For part two of the Women of the White House series, we continue to focus on the women behind the men of the presidency with discussions of Jackie Kennedy and Mamie Eisenhower. The book is Upstairs at the White House, written by J. B. West, a White House usher through several presidential administrations starting with the Roosevelts in 1941. This book had so much great information, we had to split the discussion in to two parts. The first part featured Eleanor Roosevelt and Bess Truman, while this segment covers the Kennedys and Eisenhowers. We are so excited to share what we learned here, and we hope you love it, too.

As we head into Presidents' Day, we focus on the women behind the men in our latest episode. The book on tap is Upstairs at the White House, written by J. B. West, a White House usher through several presidential administrations starting with the Roosevelts in 1941. This book had so much great information, we had to split the discussion in to two parts. The first part features Eleanor Roosevelt and Bess Truman. The next episodes will cover Jackie O, Mamie Eisenhower and Ladybird Johnson. We are so excited to share what we learned here, and we hope you love it, too.

By the early 1970s, when the fabrics and designs of Lilly Pulitzer were retail and media darlings, Tony Falcone started coming to Key West with his partner, Bill Conkle. Eventually, they decided to open up a store. It was called Fast Buck Freddie's and it was on Key West's main drag, Duval street. They opened at a time when many other stores on Duval Street were closing. They tapped into the new chic money that was just starting to discover Key West, with it's fabulous old houses built in its late 19th century heyday, and supplied housewares for all of those renovations. But in the summer all the business died and Falcone says they would not have made it through except for local matriarch, Mary Spottswood. "She would come in and buy everythin - wine glasses, placements and tons of housewares that she didn't even need." She did it only to try and keep us alive. Falcone said, "she would come in, we had a long table and a big fan chair behind it, and then some stools in front of it. And she would just come in and just sit and talk to us for hours." Well, that was classic Mary Spottswood. Mary and her husband John lived at 531 Caroline Street in what is known today as the John M. Spottswood House. They moved into the house in the 1940's and she raised her three sons and a daughter there. Mary's grandchildren are now seventh generation conchs! Mary was active in the community. She was involved in the Montessori School and was always taking on charitable endeavors. She was a member of the Laureate Delta chapter of Beta Sigma Phi and she opened her home to many other charitable organizations and social events were continually being held at the Spottswood home. The society pages of the newspaper during the 1980's were full of mentions of all the charitable deeds of Mary Spottswood. She was a longtime friend and supporter of Bayview Manor. She was a hospitable woman and she loved doing things for other people. She was constantly involved in fundraising for organizations in town that were closest to her heart. In the 1960's John Spottswood began his first foray into real estate development with the purchase of the Casa Marina and La Concha hotels. John and Mary Spottswood also became friends with Harry and Bess Truman. You'll remember that Harry Truman spent many vacations as president in Key West and John s and Mary Spottswood were some of the people that were frequently at dinner together with Harry and Bess Truman. It's not every day that you can live on a tiny island and yet still be friends and dinner companions with the most powerful man in the world. You can find reminders of Mary Spottswood all over Key West and even at the Mary abnd John Spottswood Waterfront Park located in the city. And it was today December the 20th, 1996, that Mary Spottswood, the island's grand dame, matriarch and First Lady died at the age of 73. Her late husband John had been Sheriff of the county, a state senator, and also started Cable Vision, one of the first cable systems in the country. And that's what happened today in Key West history. Today in Key West History is brought to you by 43 Keys Media. If you want to learn more about Key West history and the people who put it on the map, visit http://43keys.com. You can get this program as well as others as an Alexa flash briefing. Just tell Alexa, "Play today in Key West history as my flash briefing."  

Speaker/Writer/Activist/Actor Clifton Truman Daniel, the oldest grandson of President Harry S. Truman and Bess Truman and son of author Margaret Truman, recently embarked on a new project, portraying his grandfather in a one-man show Give 'Em Hell, Harry by playwright Samuel Gallu. Daniel, who has contributed to expanding our understanding of Truman’s pivotal era with a national lecture series, two books and a continuing association with the Harry S. Truman Library and Institute in Independence, Missouri, joined the conversation on February 23, 2018 to talk about the show, his 2012 trip to Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Truman presidency. Season 3 Episode 2 Originally posted February 28, 2018

Cost-Benefit AnalysisA process by which you weigh expected costs against expected benefits to determine the best (or most profitable) course of action.http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/cost-benefit-analysisA few years ago I was at a customer site in Independence, Missouri. It is a classic American town, sitting on the eastern edge of Kansas City. One of the advantages of working for a company with a wide-spread customer base was that I had the opportunity to visit a lot of different places. When money has been spent to get you there, you had better make the most of it - so you maximize the hours you spend with the customer. However, when the working day is done there is an opportunity for personal benefit and exploration as well. So wherever I went, I made sure to learn about the local history and try to see a few attractions.It's all about maximizing the value for the cost - which is the primary basis for cost-benefit analysis. In this case, the personal cost was not financial, but in time away from family - so it was worth my while to see the sights that I could in the time that I had. Especially when somebody else had already paid to get me there.With a population of 119,000 Independence is more like a small city, but they have preserved their identity and character despite the closeness to their larger next door neighbor, Kansas City (pop 467,000). It's just what you might expect from a town called Independence.Although I was only there for a few days, I made the most of my visit and thoroughly enjoyed having a look around the place while I was there. Few attractions were open after working hours, but I did manage to fit in a tour of the Harry S. Truman national historic site before it closed for the day. It was a nice southern-style building - not huge, not opulent - but it was a good, solid building with nice architectural features.Source: Wikipedia (cc) NationalparksIn fact, it was his family home. We were only allowed to tour the downstairs, as Bess Truman wrote into her will that in order to protect her family's privacy, the second floor was to remain closed until the death of her daughter, Margaret. Though Margaret died in 2008, the second floor has remained closed in order to better preserve the home.For a President who took America from its traditional isolationism into the age of international involvement, it was a sign of his firm connection with his roots that he and his family lived in this same comfortable house since his marriage in 1919 until his wife Bess died in 1982. Having visited a number of other presidential national historic sites, this was the one that I liked the most. Unlike the imposing columns and the expansive property of Mount Vernon, this felt like somewhere a real person lived - not someone larger than life.The next evening, I finished work too late to see any other historic sites, so I decided to see a movie. At least, that was the plan.Listen to the podcast or read the full article on Gazza's Corner Blog.   

A little Wisconsin winter and snowblower talk.A Thanksgiving story.We hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving.Fact of Crap: John gets 1 for 1 this week.Mail Bag:Two from Earl:1) The "Super Committee" not so super.2) Jon Huntsman.Two from Clint:1) Michele Bachmann demands apology from NBC.2) Justin Bieber's paternity accuser undone by text messages?One from Peter: Harry and Bess Truman.One from Dennis: Syrian gunman attack and beat cartoonist Ali Ferzat. The Rest of the Show:An all email and rant show.

Memorial day is coming up, and maybe you are going to take a little car trip. It might even be a “road trip,” one of the great American enterprises (which isn’t to say other folks don’t take them, but Americans can rightly say they invented this genre of fun). In 1953, Harry and Bess Truman took a road trip in a shiny new Chrysler. Without any secret service protection at all. Harry wanted to see what it was like to be a private citizen again. He did and he didn’t, as Matthew Algeo explains in his charming new book Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure. The True Story of a Great American Road Trip (Chicago Review Press, 2009). Even in those days, it was hard for ex-presidents to keep a low profile. Harry and Bess did their best, but people wanted to see them and talk to them. They did. Perhaps that’s what Harry wanted all along. It’s hard to say. But this much is sure: no American president could do anything similar today. George Bush (either one) can’t go to the store to buy a gallon of milk without his “detail,” and he probably couldn’t get fifty feet from his door without encountering a mix of well-wishers and protesters. Harry and Bess met a horde of the former and none of the latter. The presidency has changed, and so has America. Read all about it in this most readable of books. Please become a fan of “New Books in History” on Facebook if you haven’t already. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Memorial day is coming up, and maybe you are going to take a little car trip. It might even be a “road trip,” one of the great American enterprises (which isn’t to say other folks don’t take them, but Americans can rightly say they invented this genre of fun). In 1953, Harry and Bess Truman took a road trip in a shiny new Chrysler. Without any secret service protection at all. Harry wanted to see what it was like to be a private citizen again. He did and he didn’t, as Matthew Algeo explains in his charming new book Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure. The True Story of a Great American Road Trip (Chicago Review Press, 2009). Even in those days, it was hard for ex-presidents to keep a low profile. Harry and Bess did their best, but people wanted to see them and talk to them. They did. Perhaps that’s what Harry wanted all along. It’s hard to say. But this much is sure: no American president could do anything similar today. George Bush (either one) can’t go to the store to buy a gallon of milk without his “detail,” and he probably couldn’t get fifty feet from his door without encountering a mix of well-wishers and protesters. Harry and Bess met a horde of the former and none of the latter. The presidency has changed, and so has America. Read all about it in this most readable of books. Please become a fan of “New Books in History” on Facebook if you haven’t already. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Memorial day is coming up, and maybe you are going to take a little car trip. It might even be a “road trip,” one of the great American enterprises (which isn’t to say other folks don’t take them, but Americans can rightly say they invented this genre of fun). In 1953, Harry and Bess Truman took a road trip in a shiny new Chrysler. Without any secret service protection at all. Harry wanted to see what it was like to be a private citizen again. He did and he didn’t, as Matthew Algeo explains in his charming new book Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure. The True Story of a Great American Road Trip (Chicago Review Press, 2009). Even in those days, it was hard for ex-presidents to keep a low profile. Harry and Bess did their best, but people wanted to see them and talk to them. They did. Perhaps that’s what Harry wanted all along. It’s hard to say. But this much is sure: no American president could do anything similar today. George Bush (either one) can’t go to the store to buy a gallon of milk without his “detail,” and he probably couldn’t get fifty feet from his door without encountering a mix of well-wishers and protesters. Harry and Bess met a horde of the former and none of the latter. The presidency has changed, and so has America. Read all about it in this most readable of books. Please become a fan of “New Books in History” on Facebook if you haven’t already. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Memorial day is coming up, and maybe you are going to take a little car trip. It might even be a “road trip,” one of the great American enterprises (which isn’t to say other folks don’t take them, but Americans can rightly say they invented this genre of fun). In 1953, Harry and Bess Truman took a road trip in a shiny new Chrysler. Without any secret service protection at all. Harry wanted to see what it was like to be a private citizen again. He did and he didn’t, as Matthew Algeo explains in his charming new book Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure. The True Story of a Great American Road Trip (Chicago Review Press, 2009). Even in those days, it was hard for ex-presidents to keep a low profile. Harry and Bess did their best, but people wanted to see them and talk to them. They did. Perhaps that’s what Harry wanted all along. It’s hard to say. But this much is sure: no American president could do anything similar today. George Bush (either one) can’t go to the store to buy a gallon of milk without his “detail,” and he probably couldn’t get fifty feet from his door without encountering a mix of well-wishers and protesters. Harry and Bess met a horde of the former and none of the latter. The presidency has changed, and so has America. Read all about it in this most readable of books. Please become a fan of “New Books in History” on Facebook if you haven’t already. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices