President Harry S. Truman

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President Harry S. Truman was born in the small town of Lamar, Missouri on May 8, 1884 to a farmer and livestock dealing father, John Anderson Truman and Martha Ellen Young Truman. Truman was named after his grandfather on his mother’s side, Harrison Young. He was given a middle initial but not an actual middle name; it is only ‘S’ which was to please his two grandfathers and refers to their names, Anderson Shipp Truman and Soloman Young. Truman had two siblings, John Vivian and Mary Jane. Soon after Harry was born, his parents moved the family to a farm near Harrisonville and when he was 6 years old they moved to Independence, Missouri where he attended the Presbyterian Church Sunday School.
As a child, Truman was very interest in music, reading and history. He and his mother were very close and she encouraged all of his interests, including piano. He would wake up at 5 o’ clock every more and practice playing, and he also studied it twice a week until he was 15. As a result he became a very skilled piano player and even considered becoming a concert pianist. Although he excelled in studies, it was difficult for him to make friend and was very uncomfortable around girls. Also because of his glasses, which he wore because of his poor extremely eyesight and which would later in his life cause him to be turned down for an appointment to the United States Military Academy, which was his dream, it was hard for Truman to become close to his peers.
After graduating high school in 1901, Truman could not attend college because of his family’s financial situation and after working in a mailroom, for a construction company and as a bank clerk, Truman left work and went to work on the family farm in Grandview, Missouri with his father and...

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...ow about President Truman. For one, Truman’s inauguration for his second term was the first to be shown on television! Also, two Puerto Rican pro-independent activists, Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo tried to assassinate the President on November 1, 1950. And last, there is a balcony at the White House named after Truman. The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum is located in Independent, Missouri.

Works Cited

• Hamby, A. (n.d.). American president a reference resource. Retrieved from http://millercenter.org/president/truman/essays/biography/2
• Biographical sketch harry s. truman 33rd president of the united states. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.trumanlibrary.org/hst-bio.htm
• Michael Beschloss, H. S. (Performer) (n.d.). Harry s. truman [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/harrystruman

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