The Old Soldier

Harry Truman was 33, well past the age for a man to be a volunteer soldier, unless, of course, the country is in severe danger. In 1917, when the US entered the Great War, as it was called then, the country was not in severe danger, and most people believed it was a “European” War best left to the Europeans. After all, that was the sage advice of George Washington.

Nevertheless, once the US was committed, Harry Truman, mostly farmer, and part-time off-season employee decided to enlist. Not only was he somewhat over age, medium in size, with little education past high school, his eyesight had been poor from earliest childhood. 

But he memorized the standard eye chart, signed the papers, and was now a soldier. Perhaps the higher-ups detected some hidden leadership. They made him a captain.

Bess Wallace, his long-standing sweetheart, thought he was nuts and said so. But Harry persisted in doing his patriotic duty, and prepared to go “over there.” Bess wanted to get married immediately, but Harry disagreed. He was concerned that something might happen and she would be left a widow. Or worse. He could be wounded, and she might be saddled with an invalid for the rest of her life. 

So she gave him her photograph, wished him luck, and off he went. 

Harry and Bess

Harry Truman always claimed that he met 5-year-old Elizabeth Wallace in little kid dancing school, and loved her from that time on. He was a few months older. Even though he was a farm boy in rural Lamar, MO, he attended school in Independence, where they two were in the same class – at least in the same grade. Their social class was miles apart. 

The Trumans were a poor farming family, and the Wallaces were considered upper crust. Harry and Bess always knew each other and said hello, but the distinctions prevented anything other than the superficial pleasantries. With little money and plenty of farm chores, Harry had no hope of further education, despite being a fine student. 

Much of that changed when Bess was eighteen and recently graduated from high school. Her father, David Wallace, with a long history of alcoholism and inability to find/keep employment, stepped in the family bathtub and put a bullet in his head. It was a horrific scandal in 1903, and any hopes Bess might have had for further education or employment of her own were now rendered impossible.

Her mother, Madge Wallace, the daughter of the wealthy Gates family, had always been difficult and headstrong, which included her marriage to the handsome-but-hapless David, which her parents had strongly objected. Now she became more difficult, and took Bess (the eldest) and her three younger brothers to Colorado for a year – to let the scandal die down. When they returned, they moved in with her aging parents. And Bess was needed at home.

Hello Again

Years passed and Harry worked the farm, which need him even more after his father died. In the winter months, he took whatever positions he could find in town to make a little extra money. 

When he was in his mid-twenties, he was visiting a relative in Independence, who mentioned in passing that she needed to return a pie plate to Mrs. Wallace, who lived down the street. Harry volunteered to return it, remarking that he and Bess Wallace had been classmates. 

Armed with the pie plate, he knocked at the door, was greeted by Bess, who seemed happy enough to chat with him awhile. The chat led to Harry asking if he could come by again, and a very mild and long courtship began. It lasted for nearly twelve years. Harry didn’t have any money, so their “outings” had to be whatever was free. Bess did not seem to mind, and was always happy to go. 

Bess had plenty of friends and a nice social life, but her marital opportunities were limited. Harry kept coming by however, and soon enough most people assumed that Harry and Bess would marry. Eventually. If he ever had enough money.

Money and the Family

Money was only part of Harry’s problem. The other part was that he was truly needed by his mother and a younger brother and sister. Then too, was the fact that he had little skills other than farming and the occasional jobs he held. Nor did he have any guidance in what kind of work to seek. 

Bess’ grandparents had money – and one of the finest houses in town. But they were getting on in years, and Madge Wallace was dispositionally unfit to manage a household. It fell to Bess to see to those details, and also make sure her younger brothers got a) an education and b) the opportunity to get out of that household. She was, by her own admission, a homebody.

And then there was the fact that Madge Wallace bitterly opposed any union between her daughter and the socially-way-down-the-line Farmer Truman. But after three years of courtship, Bess finally agreed to an “understanding, albeit she was in no rush. It lasted for six years.

So while “Captain” Harry was gone, she continued her pleasant social connections with her bridge group and discussion club. She sold war bonds, and sewed for the Needlework Guild. And the two corresponded “over there.”

Hello Again, Again

Harry Truman came home from the War. He was not killed, nor maimed in any way. He had justified his superiors’ confidence in him, and his men liked him immensely.

Meanwhile, with both parties now in their mid-thirties, they decided it was now or never, and they got married. Their wedding date was one of the rare details that Bess publicly admitted to the press. It was June 28, 1919.

Sources:

Foster, Feather Schwartz – The First Ladies from Martha Washington to Mamie Eisenhower – Sourcebooks, 2011

Truman, Margaret – Bess W. Truman, 1986, MacMillan

Truman, Margaret – Harry S Truman – 1972, William Morrow

http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=34

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/bwt-bio.htm