12. Harry Truman and Elizabeth Wallace
Harry and the girl who eventually became known as Bess Truman met when the two attended school together as children in Independence, Missouri in the late 1800s. By 1910 Truman courted Bess, to the dismay of the girl’s mother, and when Harry proposed in 1911 the girl turned him down. Bess was from a wealthy family, at least to outward appearances, though her father committed suicide over mounting debts in 1903. When Harry returned from service in Europe during World War I, he proposed again, over the objections of her future mother-in-law. Throughout their long marriage, including while in residence in the White House, Bess’s mother believed her daughter had married beneath her status.
The Truman marriage lasted 52 years, ending with his death in 1972. During those years they faced business failures, the Depression, and World War II, during which Truman served in the US Senate, before becoming Vice-President and eventually President. He sought counsel from Bess when facing virtually every major decision of his career, and she remained at his side throughout the many crises which challenged his Presidency. During his retirement in Missouri, they resided in the house in which Bess had been raised as a child. Harry always told visitors that it was his wife’s house. Bess lived to the age of 97, dying ten years after her husband’s passing. They are buried together at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence.