Harry Truman Biography

Biography 1. Date of Birth & Birth Place Harry S. Truman was born on May 8, 1884 in Lamar, Missouri. 2. Childhood John A. Truman sold and bought livestock form a lot adjacent to their house when Harry was first born. When Harry was ten months old the Trumans sold their house and stocklot to move to Harrisonville, Missouri. From Harrisonville they moved to Belton, then to Grandview, and finally settled in Independence, Missouri when Harry Truman was six years old. President Truman was the oldest of three children and the only one born in Lamar. His brother John Vivian, was born on April 25, 1885, at Belton, Missouri and his sister, Mary Jane, was born August 12, 1889, in Grandview, Missouri. Harry grew up on
He was a bookworm--a sissy, as he said himself later on, using the dreaded word. 3. Education When Truman was six years old, his family moved to Independence, Missouri, where he attended the Presbyterian Church Sunday school. There he met five-year-old Elizabeth Virginia (“Bess”) Wallace, with whom he was later to fall in love. Truman did not begin regular school until he was eight, and by then he was wearing thick glasses to correct extreme nearsightedness. His poor eyesight did not interfere with his two interests, music and reading. He got up each day at 5 AM to practice the piano, and until he was 15, he went to the local music teacher twice a week. He read four or five histories or biographies a week and acquired an exhaustive knowledge of great military battles and of the lives of the world’s greatest leaders. In 1901, when Truman graduated from high school, his future was uncertain. College had been ruled out by his family’s financial situation, and appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was eliminated by his poor eyesight. 4. Family Harry S. Truman’s family included his father John Anderson
He later moved to Kansas City, where he worked as a mail clerk for the Kansas City Star, then as a clerk for the National Bank of Commerce, and finally as a bookkeeper for the Union National Bank. In 1906 he was called home to help his parents run his grandmother’s large farm in Grandview, Missouri. For the next ten years, Truman was a successful farmer. When his dad died in 1914 he succeeded him as a road overseer. An argument soon ended the job, but Truman became the Grandview postmaster. In 1915 he invested in lead mines in Missouri, lost his money, and then turned to the oil fields of Oklahoma. Two years later, just before the United States entered World War I, he sold his share in the oil business and enlisted in the U.S. Army. He trained at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, but returned to Missouri to help recruit others. He was elected first lieutenant by the men of Missouri’s Second Field Artillery. 6. Date Elected Harry Truman was elected to the presidency at 7:09 PM on April 12, 1945 after being vice-president of the United States for only 82