Every prison term we so much as touch a toe out of land , I ’ve put burial ground on our travel itinerary . From garden - like sweep to overgrown iron boot Hill , whether they ’re the final resting position of the well - roll in the hay but not that significant or the important but not that well - bed , I bed them all . After realize that there are a slew of taphophiles out there , I ’m finally put my archive of interesting tombstones to dependable use .
For a decade or so , if you wanted to meet Harry Truman , it was n’t hard to do . The thirty-third Chief Executive of the United States had his own workings office on the premises ofhis presidential libraryin Independence , Missouri , and he used it well-nigh daily , include weekends , from the time it opened in 1957 . He wouldoftenget to the construction before his staff officially opened the doors for the day . Truman especially relished answering the speech sound , giving directions to holidaymaker , and gleefully letting them know they had deal to get the " man himself . " He alsogaveimpromptu " press conference " for bring down schooltime groups . It ’s no surprise that Truman drop so much time there — he and his wife Bess be just a statute mile down the route in thehome her grandfather build , and the office there was basicallyjust a deskin the 2nd - floor hallway .
Mark Goebel , Flickr//CC BY 2.0
Of naturally , Truman knew that his library would also someday be his final resting property — he walk by the courtyard location day by day to get to his office , and personally take it as his interment site . " I want to be out there so I can get up and walk to my power if I want to , " he oncesaid . In fact , he help plan his own funeral , deemed " Operation Missouri , " and quipped that he would be good-for-nothing to pretermit such a fine show . When he died on December 26 , 1972 , his family scale back on the pomp and setting that had been planned , though his fleur-de-lis - drape coffin did consist in state in the lobby of the library .
Bess Truman ’s lastofficialpublic show was at Harry ’s funeral , but she lived another 10 years , subsist in the same sign of the zodiac until the day she died , even keep her husband ’s coating hanging on the pelage rack . ( It ’s still there today . ) She died of congestive substance failure in 1982 at the age of 97 , which makes her , to this mean solar day , thelongest - livedFirst Lady .
Also buried at the Truman library are Margaret Truman Daniel , the Trumans ' only child , and her married man , Clifton Daniel . Margaret was famously nigh to her parents — when a critic write a scathing review of a concert Margaret gave , her fatherrespondedwith a missive calling the reporter " an ' eight ulcer man on four ulcer wage , ' " and threatened to give him a broken nose and a couple of dim eye should they ever run across .
Clifton Daniel was the manage editor ofThe New York Timesand is sleep with for help to set a " writerly tone " for the newspaper .
By the way , the Missouri - in - March pictures make the grave site look rather austere , but they ’re in reality quite lovely when theflowersare inbloom .
Peruse all the entries in our Grave Sightings serieshere .
Photos by Stacy Conradt unless note otherwise .
