When Truman arrived, he was immediately escorted to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s second floor suite, where Mrs. Roosevelt, Early, and the Roosevelts’ daughter and son-in-law, Anna and John Boettiger, were waiting.
“Harry, the President is dead,” Mrs. Roosevelt said.
Truman was stunned, but after a long pause said, “Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Is there anything I can do for you?” she responded. “For you are the one who is in trouble now.”
Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone of the Supreme Court was called as were members of the Cabinet and Congressional leaders and told to come to the White House. Calls also went to Bess Truman and to the media.
A red-tinged Bible was found belonging to an usher and when everyone was gathered, the Chief Justice began administering the office, with Truman holding the Bible in his left hand and raising his right hand.
“I Harry Shippe Truman,” Chief Justice Stone began.
“I Harry S. Truman,” he corrected and moments later, the son of a mule trader became the 33rd president of the United States.
***
It was just before five o’clock in Lamar when President Roosevelt’s death was announced.
The skies, already darkened from cloud coverage, soon released a torrent of rain on the city, something Arthur Aull noted in the Democrat.
Here in Lamar, a few moments after the news had flashed over the radio, the rain began to fall.
The very skies wept and mingled their tears with those which fell from the eyes of the people.
Aull offered praise for Roosevelt’s guidance of a nation at war.
No one can deny that he got us through the worst and led us on to triumph.
He not only got us through the worst, but he left a vice president who was eager to carry out Mr. Roosevelt’s wishes.
***
The first full day of Harry S Truman’s presidency, Friday, April 13, 1945, was an eventful one, as the new commander in chief held a 20-minute meeting with Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, met with Congressional leaders on Capitol Hill and issued a proclamation declaring Saturday, April 14 as a day of mourning for President Roosevelt.
“Though his voice is silent, his courage is not spent, his faith is not extinguished,” the proclamation read.
“The courage of great men outlives them to become the courage of their people and the peoples of the world.
“It lives beyond them and upholds their purpose and brings their hopes to pass.”
Truman met with the cabinet and afterward Secretary of War Henry Stimson told him of the existence of a powerful new weapon. Though Stimson provided few details, he asked Truman not to look any further into it because the project could be ruined if its existence became public.
Through his work with the Truman Committee, the president had an inkling that was something was going on because of large amounts of money that were being poured into the locations where work was being done on the Manhattan Project with no explanation.
Stimson’s words were the first time Truman had heard of the weapon that would lead him to make one of the most monumental decisions of his presidency.
***
Martha Ellen Truman, 93, was unable to be in Washington to see her son sworn in as president, but she listened to his speech on the radio and later when it was in print, had her daughter Mary Jane read it to her.
“I heard every word he said,” she told a New York Times reporter. “Harry’s going to be all right. Everyone who knows him at all and heard him this morning knows he’s sincere.
“He’ll do what’s best.”
Later that day, the phone rang and Mrs. Truman was told the White House was calling. She talked briefly with her son, telling him she had listened to his speech.
The conversation ended with her telling Harry Truman the same thing she told him time after time through his childhood.
“Now you be a good boy, Harry.”
Martha Truman lived long enough to see her son reach the White House and spent time there, though she always preferred her Missouri home.
If she was in awe of the White House, she never showed it. With memories of raiders running her family out of her home and burning it in the 1860s, she wanted nothing to do with her son’s offer to sleep in the Lincoln bedroom.
She said she would never sleep in a bed where “that man” slept.
Feisty and active until the end, Mattie Truman died at her home in Grandview July 26, 1947, four months shy of her 95th birthday.
***
After Truman declared April 14 a day of mourning, Lamar Mayor Guy Ross followed suit.
Shortly after word of Roosevelt’s death was announced, Lamar officials and ministers began considering a memorial service in his honor to be held 1 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Hall.
Though no official announcement was made, word circulated throughout the community and when the time for the service arrived, more than 200 gathered at Memorial Hall.
As part of Mayor Ross’ proclamation, all businesses on the square were closed between 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Flags were flown half-staff in honor of Roosevelt throughout the city.
The ceremony included brief messages from four ministers, the reading of an obituary for Roosevelt, reading of scriptures and a group rendition of “America.”
With all of the attention naturally focused on the death of the man who had been president since 1933, the thoughts of Lamar residents now turned to the man who replaced Roosevelt at the helm.
As hard as it was for them to believe, someone who had born in their city was now the president of the United States.
Seventy-five years ago today, Harry S. Truman became president and his story began right here in Lamar, Missouri. The complete story of Truman, the kind of leader we could use now, and the town where he was born is told for the first time in The Buck Starts Here: Harry S. Truman and the City of Lamar, available now in paperback and e-book.
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