Missouri bicentennial: Truman's legacy and connection to Southeast Missouri

This is the 18th in a series of articles with Kellerman Foundation for Historic Preservation board chairman Frank Nickell, an emeritus faculty member of Southeast Missouri State University, commenting on Show Me State history on the 200th anniversary of Missouri being received as America's 24th state in 1821.

At the 1944 Democratic National Convention, Sen. Harry Truman — the Show Me State's only occupant of the White House to-date — emerged as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's surprise choice for vice president.

"I think (FDR) knew he was not well (and) was obviously aware he was in serious (health) trouble," historian Nickell said.

"I think if Roosevelt had lived much longer, he was going to publicly resign," Nickell said, adding FDR, who wore heavy braces on his legs after being paralyzed by polio myelitis in 1921, was having migraine headaches and could not shake a head cold.

"Roosevelt dropped (Vice President) Henry Wallace from the '44 ticket because he was too far left and was as close to a socialist as America had ever had so close to the White House," Nickell said.

Roosevelt died in April 1945 in Warm Springs, Georgia, of a cerebral hemorrhage, making Truman president.

Truman different

Nickell recommends a book by 1960 Southeast graduate Alonzo L. Hamby to anyone who wants to understand the nation's 33rd president.

Hamby's 1995 book, "Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman," depicts the nation's former chief executive as a complex historical figure.

Hamby presents Truman, who died the day after Christmas in 1972, as a president who ushered in the nuclear age through his decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II, who valued personal integrity and yet was a machine politician created by Kansas City political boss Tom Pendergast.

"Truman, unlike the men who preceded and followed him — FDR and Eisenhower — was not well-traveled, had not attended college, had never played sports and had gone bankrupt in the haberdashery business," Nickell said.

"Truman did not have a lot of education, just like a lot of Americans in the 1930s and 1940s didn't," he said, adding, "but he read a lot and people saw (him) as an ordinary guy."

At a district Democratic Party rally Oct. 22, 1940, at Houck Field House in Cape Girardeau, are, from the left, congressman Orville Zimmerman of Kennett, Missouri, candidate for reelection; Lawrence McDaniel of St. Louis, Democratic gubernatorial nominee; Sen. Harry S. Truman of Kansas City, candidate for reelection; and A.J. Wirtz, undersecretary of the Department of Interior.G.D. Fronabarger ~ Southeast Missourian archive

Connection to this region

"(Truman) loved the Bootheel and regularly was in Cape Girardeau, Charleston, New Madrid and Sikeston," Nickell said.

For years, according to previous reporting by this newspaper, Truman annually attended the Pemiscot County Fair in Caruthersville.

"Outside of St. Louis, the heaviest concentration of Democrats in Missouri was in the southeast part of the state in those days," he said.

Nickell, who taught history for decades at Southeast and is now the chairman of the board of directors of Cape Girardeau's Kellerman Foundation, said Truman came to the university in October 1962 and stepped into a classroom one morning.

Southeast's then-president, the late Mark Scully, a Charleston, Missouri, native, had invited Truman to campus.

"(Truman) liked to talk to students and I guess the (Southeast undergraduates) were star-struck because no one had a question for him," Nickell said.

"Finally, the professor asked Truman why he decided to drop the atomic bomb," he said, adding Truman is reported to have had a look of mild shock on his face in response.

"Anyone who would ask that question in this setting is just a fool," Truman was heard to reply.

"Clearly, Truman was sensitive about the topic," Nickell said.

Verdict of history

Truman was often the butt of jokes during his nearly eight-year presidential tenure, with phrases heard in the public square such as "I'm just mild about Harry," and "To err is Truman."

"My aunt was extremely critical of Truman because three of her sons were in the military and ended up in Korea," Nickell said, adding his own father, who accepted and tolerated Truman, loved FDR.

As proof of that devotion, the historian said his parents bestowed on him the name, Franklin Delano Nickell.

Nickell recalls Truman left the White House in 1953 with very poor approval ratings, yet today the Missourian is considered in the upper tier of American presidents by many contemporary historians.