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Margaret Truman Was Author, Actress

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By MARGARET STAFFORD, The Associated Press

Published: January 30, 2008

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Margaret Truman Daniel, 83, the only child of former President Harry S. Truman, died Tuesday at a Chicago assisted living facility after a brief illness.

Her father's succession to the presidency in 1945 thrust her into the national spotlight while a college junior.

"I feel that I've lived several different lives, and that was one of them," she said in 1980. "Some of it was fun, but most of it was not. It was a great view of history being made.

"The only thing I ever missed about the White House was having a car and driver," Daniel once said.

She became a concert singer, actress, radio and TV personality and mystery writer.

Her singing career attracted barbs of music critics - even the embarrassment of having her father threaten one reviewer. But she found a fulfilling professional and personal life in New York, where she met her husband, journalist Clifton Daniel, who later became managing editor of The New York Times. They married in 1956.

She wrote her first book, an autobiography "Souvenir," in 1956. She said it was "hard work" and told reporters: "One writing job is enough."
Mystery Writer
But then she wrote a book on White House pets in 1969, and later more, one a biography of her father.

The idea of doing a mystery called "Murder in the White House" came "out of nowhere," she said.

That 1980 title was followed by mysteries set in the Supreme Court, the Smithsonian, Embassy Row, the FBI, Georgetown, the CIA, Kennedy Center, the National Cathedral and the Pentagon. The last book, "Murder on K Street," was released last year. Donald Bain, a well-known ghost writer, was rumored to have written Truman's mysteries, but he has denied it.

Later in life, she was a grandmother and sang only in her church choir.

"I've had three or four different careers," she told an interviewer in 1989. "I consider being a wife and mother a career. I have great respect for women - both those who go out and do their thing and those who stay at home. I think those who stay at home have a lot more courage than those who go out and get a job."

Mary Margaret Truman was born Feb. 17, 1924, in Independence. She was the only child of Bess and Harry Truman, who was then a county judge.

For a few years after her father was elected to the Senate in 1934, she split her school year between Independence and a private girls school in Washington. She later attended George Washington University. She had taken voice lessons at the urging of a church choir leader. After graduation, she used the political limelight to launch her singing career.

"I wanted to establish myself as an individual capable of standing on my merit, to experience the satisfaction of achievement," she said.

She made her professional singing debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1947 and gave her first Carnegie Hall concert two years later. Critics generally praised her poise but were less impressed with her vocal talent.

Dad Blasts Music Critic

When Washington Post critic Paul Hume wrote after a 1950 concert that she "is extremely attractive on the stage ... but cannot sing very well. She is flat a good deal of the time," her father fired off a note on White House stationery scolding Hume for a "lousy review."

"I have never met you, but if I do you'll need a new nose and plenty of beefsteak and perhaps a supporter below," the president wrote.

The note made Page One news - but was not the sort of publicity an aspiring artist seeks. Years later she was able to laugh about it: "I thought it was funny. Sold tickets."

She soon turned more to radio and television, where she made regular guest appearances with Jimmy Durante and Milton Berle.

On radio, she was co-host, with Mike Wallace, of a daily talk show on the NBC network and had a nationally syndicated interview program for eight years. She also worked with Fred Allen and Tallulah Bankhead. Her stage career began in 1954, about the time she quit the concert stage.

"I learned my comedy timing from Fred Allen and Goody Goodman Ace," she recalled. "You couldn't do better than that. I'd still rather hear an audience laugh than do a serious play."

During her 20s, reporters constantly asked about marriage prospects, but she said she was pursuing her career.

When she met Clifton Daniel at a dinner party in 1955, he was working in New York after a decade as a foreign correspondent. It was not until a month before their wedding in April 1956 that their romance became public.

She and Daniel had four sons; he died in February 2000. Son William died in September 2000 when he was hit by a taxi; he was 41.

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