Margaret Truman

Mary Margaret Truman Daniel was born on February 17, 1924, at 219 North Delaware Street in Independence, Missouri. She was the only child of Harry S. Truman, who served as the 33rd President of the United States from 1945 to 1953, and First Lady Bess Truman. She was named after her maternal grandmother Margaret Gates Wallace and her aunt Mary Jane Truman, but was known as Margaret during childhood.

Truman received early education in Independence, attending public schools until her father's election to the U.S. Senate in 1934, after which her schooling was split between Independence and Gunston Hall School, a private institution for girls in Washington, D.C. In 1942, she enrolled at George Washington University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and international relations in 1946. During her university years, she was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority.

As a child, Truman took voice and piano lessons, encouraged by her father, who was a pianist. She began voice training with Mrs. Thomas J. Strickler in Independence and later studied singing with Estelle Liebling in New York City. Truman also participated in a notable event in 1944 when she christened the USS Missouri at Brooklyn Navy Yard, a role she reprised in 1986 during the ship's recommissioning.

During her father's presidency from 1945 to 1953, Truman traveled with him on campaign trips, including the 1948 countrywide whistle-stop campaign. She appeared at White House events and was a public favorite in the media.

Her professional singing career began after her graduation. Truman made her concert debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1947 and performed with various major American orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, the NBC Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Saint Louis Symphony. Her repertoire primarily included sacred and secular art songs, Lieder, and concert arias. She recorded two albums for RCA Victor—one of classical selections and another of American art songs—and made recordings of German Lieder for NBC.

Truman's critical reception as a singer was mixed. She received positive reviews early in her career, but a notable review in The Washington Post in 1950 by critic Paul Hume criticized her singing, remarking that she "cannot sing very well" and noting issues such as being "flat a good deal of the time." The review led to a diplomatic incident when President Truman responded publicly with a letter expressing his displeasure. This controversy affected subsequent critical assessments of her performances.

In 1951, Truman made her acting debut on radio, co-starring with James Stewart on NBC's Screen Directors Playhouse. She appeared as a guest on the radio program The Railroad Hour in 1952, performing operetta. She also participated as a panelist and guest on television programs such as What's My Line?, The Martha Raye Show, and The Gisele MacKenzie Show.

In 1957, shortly after her marriage, Truman left her singing career to pursue journalism and broadcasting. She co-hosted the program Weekday with Mike Wallace on NBC Radio and wrote articles as an independent journalist during the 1960s and 1970s.

Truman authored a well-received biography of her father, published shortly before his death in 1972, along with biographies of her mother, and histories of the White House and its inhabitants, including first ladies. She was also a prolific novelist, authoring the "Capital Crimes" series of murder mysteries set in Washington, D.C., from 1980 through 2011. These works were often written with ghostwriters, notably Donald Bain, who acknowledged his collaboration in writing many of the novels.

She was involved in public service through her roles on the board of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, the Board of Governors of the Roosevelt Institute, and her alma mater's trustee.

In her personal life, Truman married Clifton Daniel, a reporter and later managing editor of The New York Times, on April 21, 1956, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Independence. The couple had four sons: Clifton Truman Daniel, William Wallace Daniel, Harrison Gates Daniel, and Thomas Washington Daniel. William Wallace Daniel died in 2000 after being struck by a taxi in New York City.

Later in life, Truman resided in a Park Avenue apartment in New York City. She died on January 29, 2008, in Chicago, where she was moving to be closer to her son Clifton. She was reported to have been suffering from a simple infection and was breathing with the aid of a respirator at the time of her death. Her remains and those of her husband were interred in her parents' burial plot on the grounds of the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri.