Remembering President Jimmy Carter | December 29, 2024
STATEMENT BY CLIFTON TRUMAN DANIEL
ON THE PASSING OF PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER
Today, our nation mourns the loss of a beloved statesman, world citizen, Nobel Peace Prize winner, friend and neighbor.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Carter family, our friends and colleagues at the Carter Center and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, and all those who loved and were inspired by him.
I am honored to have spent enough time with Jimmy Carter, the longest surviving president in United States history, to consider the ways in which the Plains, Georgia, farmer was like my own grandfather, Harry Truman.
As tributes pour in for a former president who will be remembered for his faith, his fidelity, his character and his global leadership on peace and human rights, I hope these recollections will help illuminate the character and humanity of America’s 39th commander in chief.
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First Family Stories: Margaret and Jack | February 16, 2024
First Family Stories
By Clifton Truman Daniel
“Margaret and Jack”
MY MOTHER, Margaret Truman Daniel, wasn’t much impressed by politics and politicians.
This was almost certainly a case of familiarity breeding contempt. Titles and position meant little to her, even when she was sitting in the White House.
During the early 1950s, while she pursued a singing career in New York, Mom kept an apartment at the Carlyle Hotel at the corner of Madison and 76th. My grandparents stayed there a few times, as well.
First Family Stories: Remembering Rosalynn Carter | November 21, 2023
First Family Stories
By Clifton Truman Daniel
“Remembering Rosalynn Carter”
I DID NOT KNOW ROSALYNN CARTER WELL. We met only once, in 2019, when I was invited to give a talk during the annual meeting of the Carter Political Items Collectors in Plains, Georgia. Even so, I felt her presence throughout the town.
Plains, her home, to which she and Jimmy Carter returned after leaving the White House, was—and is—so small that Lillian Carter, Rosalynn’s future mother-in-law, helped deliver her on the day she was born. Years later, when Jimmy Carter first asked her on a date, she turned him down. Then she “ran around with everyone else in Plains,” as he put it, before accepting his invitation.
First Family Stories: Truman Defeats Dewey | November 1, 2023
First Family Stories
By Clifton Truman Daniel
“Truman Defeats Dewey”
THE FIRST STORY my mother told me about the 1948 presidential campaign had nothing to do with tactics, crowds, or the upset victory.
The Ferdinand Magellan presidential railcar was outfitted with a speedometer connected to the engine, so folks in back could see how fast they were going. Mom and Grandpa were in the lounge one afternoon, reading, when Mom noticed Grandpa glancing up repeatedly at the speedometer, which was climbing. 80. 82. 85 . . . Finally, he said to an aide, “Tell the engineer to slow down.”
First Family Stories: The Recognition of Israel | May 14, 2023
First Family Stories
By Clifton Truman Daniel
Seventy-five years ago today, on May 14, 1948, President Harry S. Truman made one of the most momentous decisions of his presidency: recognizing the new state of Israel just minutes after its founding. My grandfather is justly celebrated for providing the legitimacy this nascent democracy required to survive, but his WWI buddy and former business partner, Eddie Jacobson, deserves credit, as well. This installment of “First Family Stories” is dedicated to a friendship that changed the world.
Wild About Harry Raises More than $1 Million for President Truman’s “Classroom for Democracy” | April 21, 2023
Pictured: Executive Director Alex Burden, Event Chairs Leigh and Tyler Nottberg, Honorary Chairs Ursula Terrasi and Jim Miller
The 24th annual benefit for Harry S. Truman’s presidential library and legacy made history as it smashed all former attendance and fundraising records. In an effort that rivaled the enthusiasm, passion and energy of Truman’s 1948 Whistle Stop Campaign, WILD ABOUT HARRY raised more than $1 MILLION for civics and history programs at the Truman Library. The April 20 event at Kansas City’s historic Muehlebach Hotel – President Truman’s hometown political HQ – attracted nearly 1,000 attendees, as well as the single largest gift in the event’s history, generously donated by 2023 WILD ABOUT HARRY title sponsor, CPKC.
If you have not yet made a gift in support of this important cause, it’s not too late to add your name to the donor honor roll, which will be published in the next issue of TRU Magazine.
First Family Stories: Babysitter in Chief | March 31, 2023
First Family Stories
By Clifton Truman Daniel
“First Family Stories” is a serial memoir exploring the history, humanity and humor of being part of one of America’s First Families. Clifton Truman Daniel is the eldest grandson of Bess and Harry Truman.
First Family Stories: The Politics of Hair | February 13, 2023
First Family Stories
By Clifton Truman Daniel
“First Family Stories” is a serial memoir exploring the history, humanity and humor of being part of one of America’s First Families. Clifton Truman Daniel is the eldest grandson of Bess and Harry Truman.
First Family Stories: Grandpa and LBJ | January 22, 2023
First Family Stories
By Clifton Truman Daniel
“First Family Stories” is a serial memoir exploring the history, humanity and humor of being part of one of America’s First Families. Clifton Truman Daniel is the eldest grandson of Bess and Harry Truman.
Truman Family Christmas | December 21, 2022
First Family Stories
By Clifton Truman Daniel
Caption: Truman Daniel Christmas family photo in 1965. From left to right: Harrison, Margaret Truman Daniel with Thomas, William, Clifton, and E. Clifton Daniel. (Photo: Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum)
“First Family Stories” is a serial memoir exploring the history, humanity and humor of being part of one of America’s First Families. Clifton Truman Daniel is the eldest grandson of Bess and Harry Truman.
