As most readers familiar with Missouri history probably know, President Harry S Truman was born in Lamar. He was born on May 8, 1884, in a one and a half story frame house located at what is now 1009 Truman Street in Lamar. The family moved away, however, when Truman was just eleven months old, before he was old enough to have any recollection of the place.
Except for a brief stopover in 1924 when his car broke down near Lamar while on a trip from Kansas City to Joplin, Truman didn't come back until sixty years later, on the eve of his official nomination as FDR's vice presidential running mate. Senator Truman reached Joplin about 1:45 p.m. on August 30, 1944, by motorcade from Kansas City. He was greeted with cheers when he arrived at the Connor Hotel, where the Joplin Democratic Women's Club held an informal reception for him during which he met hundreds of well-wishers.
Later that afternoon, he was driven to the Camp Crowder army post near Neosho, where he was the guest of post commander Major General Walter E. Prosser. That evening, he returned to Joplin, where he spent the night at the Connor. The next morning he and the Democratic National Committee hosted a breakfast at the hotel for a congressional delegation of at least sixteen US senators and representatives. Later he held a press conference at 11:00 a.m., but a planned luncheon was canceled so as not to further delay his expected appearance in Lamar. During his stay in Joplin, Truman declared that he expected the Roosevelt ticket to carry Missouri by 100,000 votes in November. (The Democrats actually ended up winning the state by less than half that margin.)
Meanwhile, the town of Lamar had been busy all day on the 30th preparing for Truman's visit. When he finally arrived about four o'clock in the afternoon of the 31st, he was met at the edge of town by a reception committee of several hundred people. Some of them had been simmering about the Democratic Committee allowing Joplin to eclipse Lamar's big day, but at the sight of their favorite son, they put aside their pique and welcomed Truman as a conquering hero. His car halted frequently to let Truman, who was sitting in the backseat of the open automobile, greet well-wishers as he was escorted downtown. At the square, Truman, "smiling like a schoolboy," waved to spectators as his automobile circled the courthouse in a parade led by high-stepping school bands from Lamar and surrounding larger towns like Joplin, Carthage, and Springfield.
Truman was then taken to the Traveler's Hotel, where he pressed through a crowd and made his way to the dining room for an informal reception. About a thousand people came through the reception line to shake his hand.
After the reception, Truman was driven to the home of his birth at 1009 Kentucky Street. He and other visitors were shown around by the 86-year-old owner of the house, W. S. Earp, a collateral descendant of the Wyatt Earp family.
That evening, Truman was taken back to the square for his speech officially accepting the vice-presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. Among the spectators was his 92-year-old mother, Martha, who had arrived in Lamar about sunset.
During his time in Lamar, Truman was asked about the middle initial "S" in his name. He said it stood for his two grandfathers, both of whose names began with "S." "Therefore," he explained, "to please everybody, they just gave me the initial."
After 1944, Truman came back to Lamar one more time, in 1959, for the dedication of his birthplace as a Missouri state historic site, but that's a subject for another post, perhaps next time.
Bibliographical note: I took most of the information for this article from Joplin and Springfield newspapers, but for a more thorough examination of Truman's ties to Lamar, I recommend Joplin author Randy Turner's The Buck Starts Here.
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