The Trumans at Home

At 7:15 p.m. the tan Chrysler coupe pulled up in front of the home of Mrs. Truman's brother, George Wallace. The Senator, his wife, and blonde, 20-year-old daughter Margaret washed up and had a little supper while they chatted about Chicago. It was the usual quiet Sunday night in Independence, Mo. (pop: 16,066). Few of the neighbors noticed the hatless, coatless nominee for the U.S. Vice-Presidency.

Underneath the Roses. Up at 6 a.m. the next morning, he drove the seven miles to his office in the Federal Court Building in Kansas City. By now everybody knew that Harry Truman was back. Callers streamed into the large reception room, sat staring at pictures of Jim Farley, John Garner, and Garner and Truman, while they waited to pump the Senator's hand. All afternoon he kept jumping up to answer the telephone in the next-door office of Federal Judge John Caskie Collet. There is no telephone in the Truman office--the Senator says it's an unnecessary expense.

Mrs. Truman was redding up her rambling, 80-year-old home at 219 North Delaware St. in Independence. At 4:30 p.m. next day the visitors began arriving, passing through the front porch and the tile-floored vestibule, over the well-worn, plum-colored rug in the Victorian living room, out onto the spacious back lawn. Underneath a rose arbor the Senator, in an ice-cream-colored linen suit, shook hands at least 3,000 times, flatteringly remembering many a first name. At nightfall people were still coming; lights were strung over the arbor and the reception went on. It was one of the biggest nights in Independence since 1834, when town roughs burned down nearly 300 Mormon houses.

10,000 Handshakes. All week long the callers came. On Friday, when Harry Truman failed to show up for a speech scheduled in St. Joseph, a report got out that he was suffering from "nervous exhaustion." Hastily the 60-year-old Senator issued a vigorous denial: "I've just shaken hands with about 10,000 people and my old soldier pal, Dr. Graham, thought I ought to rest."

As the week ended there was another interruption in the all-hail homecoming. Newspapers broke the story that Mrs. Truman has been on the Senate payroll since 1941, for the last two years at the top Senate clerk salary: $4,500 a year. Explained Harry Truman: "She is my chief adviser. I never write a speech without going over it with her. She takes care of my personal mail."

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