Harry Truman Returns to Lamar Again

Last time, I wrote about Harry S Truman returning to Lamar, the town of his birth, on the occasion of his nomination for vice president under FDR in 1944. In 1959, Truman, who was now a 74-year-old ex-president, came back to Lamar again for the dedication of his birthplace as a Missouri state historic site.

Truman arrived in Lamar at mid-morning on April 19, 1959, for the festivities. The town was decked out in colorful bunting and signs welcoming the former president, and over 7,000 people turned out for the occasion. After driving around the town visiting old landmarks, Truman had lunch with a Lamar attorney. Later, he dropped in on a reception held in his honor at Memorial Hall by his old World World I outfit, Battery D of the 129th Field Artillery. Truman who had been captain of the battery, joked that he'd never had more than 250 men in the outfit but that, after he became president, the ranks had ballooned to 35,000 men who claimed service in the unit. 

From Memorial Hall, Truman and his old battery mates joined a parade to the little house where he was born about four blocks east of the public square in Lamar. The structure was built in 1867, and Truman's parents purchased it in 1882 for $915. Harry was born there in 1884, and his parents sold the house for $1600 and moved away in 1885. Truman admitted he had no recollection of the house, since he was just eleven months old when the family left Lamar. The home had been in the Earp family for years, but the United Auto Workers purchased it in 1957 with an eye toward developing it as a historic site. Now the UAW was gifting it to Missouri to operate as an official state historic site.

After an invocation and other preliminaries, Leonard Woodcock, vice-president of the UAW, officially presented the house to Missouri, with Governor James T. Blair accepting on behalf of the state. Seventeen-year-old Donald Braker, Lamar High School student body president, then presented Truman with a plaque on behalf of the city of Lamar honoring the former US president, which was to be permanently mounted in the room where he was born. Stuart Symington, US senator from Missouri, took the podium to give the official dedicatory address in which he praised Truman profusely. Harry responded briefly to both Braker's and Symington's speeches. Among his remarks, Truman said he greatly appreciated the honor that was being bestowed upon him. He said he felt as if he'd been buried and dug up while he was still alive. "They usually don't do this to former Presidents until they've been dead 50 years." He also said, after being lauded as a statesman, that he didn't consider himself a statesman because a statesman was nothing but a "dead politician." He said he was a politician and expected to stay one the rest of his life. The crowd roared its approval and shouted for him to "pour it on, Harry."

After the dedication ceremony was over, Truman and other dignitaries retired to the Traveler's Hotel for a dinner to close out the events of the day.

  

Bolivar's Greatest Day

I recently visited the RootsWeb genealogy site for Polk County, Missouri, and I noticed the site mentioned the dedication of the statue of Simon Bolivar that took place in Bolivar on July 5, 1948. I wrote an article about this event, sometimes referred to as "Bolivar's Greatest Day," a few years ago for the Ozarks Reader. After taking office earlier in 1948 as Venezuela's first popularly-elected president, Romulo Gallegos wanted to present a statue of Simon Bolivar to the U. S. as a gesture of good will. Bolivar, Missouri, was selected as the site for the presentation because it was one of the more populous towns in the U. S. that was named after Simon Bolivar, and July 5, the Venezuelan Independence Day and only one day after our own Independence Day, was selected as a fitting date. Both Gallegos and U. S. President Harry Truman were present for the occasion, as were the governor of Missouri and other dignataries. The town of Bolivar went all out in preparation for the event, and a crowd estimated as high as 60,000 people turned out. The statue was unveiled in Bolivar's Neuhart Park, and both presidents gave speeches. Perhaps the most memorable thing about the day, however, turned out to be the intense heat, as the temperature soared to near 100. In later years, according to legend, President Truman, who previously had been inclined to use the expression "hotter than hell" when talking about the weather, resorted instead to describing unbearably hot weather as "hotter than Bolivar."