Harry Truman

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States. He was born on a farm near Lamar, Missouri, on May 8, 1884. As a child, Harry Truman was often sick. By the time he was eight years old he had to wear glasses. He was so afraid that he might break them that he rarely took part in rough games of the other boys. Instead he spend much of his time reading. Before he was fourteen, he said later, he had read every book in the library in Independence, Missouri, where his family lived. Truman did not go to college, He worked for a railroad, at a bank, and on the family farm. During World War I, at the age of thirty-three he served in France as a captain with the 129th Field Artillery. When the war was over, he married Bess Wallace, a high school sweetheart in 1919. After engaging briefly and unsuccessfully in the haberdashery business in Kansas City, Missouri, Truman entered local politics. Under the sponsorship of Thomas Pendergast, Democratic bo...