And they are beautiful. They are incredible letters. You have my grandmother reporting to my grandfather that she lied to politicians to wanted them to back them on the campaign saying she is not home and cant possibly do it for you. She took part. She was engaged. She was a lot of fun but again compared to lou and elnore she was taking care of her mothers and brother and a family oriented first lady. My grandfather said in writing and in person had it not been for my grandmother doing that and holding the fort he could not have done the job he did. And unlike ms. Hoover she lived longer than the president. Outlived him by ten years. She is the longest lived first lady still. She was 97 when she died. And she died in new york . No she did in missouri. Your mother was in new york in no my mother was in chicago. My family dies all over the place. Talk about the person. That person was developed well before they became first lady and how they performed in the office has a great from their early lives and prepared even if they didnt know they were preparing. That is true. There is probably several people in the audience that can tell more things about my mother than i can. Some of you grew up with her and knew her as a young bride or high school or whatever. Grand rapids had a lot to do with my mothers character and moulded her. I think my mother is a cross between bess truman and lou hoover. She was an activist when she wanted to be. And some of you heard the story of her going to a palm reader, way before she married by dad or right after and they said you will meet kings and queens. To my mother that meant she was going to dance, because we all know that dance was her love, and she danced with martha graham, she would get to dance in front of queens and kings. Little did she know she would meet them at state dinners and host them at the whitehouse. Take a chance at changing Womans Health care which she truly did. The survival rate is 90 from Breast Cancer and when diagnosed it was 70 . She made a huge change in that. And her drug and alcohol. She was a very private person as well. And wanted her private time and there were many many days she would sit on the couch and say i dont want to get back and shake another hand or be that public persona which is more the bess truman in her. She loved it did a great job and she only had two and a half years. I think she would have been a fabulous first lady. It would have been interesting to see where she would have gone in another four years. This was unexpected in both cases. They were thrust in the role of first lady in very difficult circumstances. It is hard to overstate in the case of the death of Franklin Roosevelt and the resigning of richard nixon, how it impacted the country. Did that put more pressure on them to be more forthcoming or show more strength or resolve for the country . Was that part of the task that was laid on them in that unexpected moment . Well i think the country was in such unrest and the American People didnt trust the presidency. This was a death situation which was a little different. They are different situations. Mother just kind of stepped in and she kind of slid in went i am going to lay low and feel my feelers out and do it that sort of way. Bess was just a little different because a death is different. And she i think my grandmother while conscious of what she was stepping into was also stubborn. And wasnt going to let it change her. She was going to do her job. But she wasnt going to let it rule her. There is pictures she knee what she was getting into. In the 1944 Democratic Convention in chicago when my grand father was nominateed to be on the ticket with president roosevelt, everybody was happy about that except my grandmother and there are pictures of my mother and my grand father waving and shaking hands and just everything is great. And my grandmother is over there like this. Damn it. Just knowing that it was a funny thing with president roosevelt. Everybody knew how sick he was but everybody denied it. There was the whole she knew it wasnt likely to happen and that wasnt something she wanted. It is important to remember this wasnt their first rodeo. They had been in politics for a long time. Margaret talk about your greatgrandmother. Now you are in the whitehouse, you are the first lady from what you have been able to find what was her impression of what her role was to be . She saw it as an enormous opportunity in terms of the role with the president , my greatgrandfather was not an outwardly gregarious or publically excited figure. He was orphaned at nine years old and that changes how you interface with the world. She was a very gregarious personality. She was the first lady to give public addresses on the radio. She saw her role helping to soften him with his sons in his work and then in the presidency. She also understood there was a role for the first lady and was very aware of that. You see that throughout the letters. One thing she did that wasnt replicated until Jacky Kennedy came to office is she was the first woman to take inventory of the furniture and things assembled in the whitehouse onward since washington were never cataloged or documented. She took this project on. She was an academic in her own right and helped translate this was an earlier accomplishment of her. She was the first woman to graduate with a degree in zoo zoology in the United States. The bible of me she translated was published in the 16th cinch century and all in latin and she and my great grandfather dedicated five years of her life to translate this. She started to reconstruct techniques used in the 17th century because words were made up. We didnt know the techniques and that is how they wanted latin when the romans were around. They had to collect an entire library of books that ultimately ended up serving as one of the first bases of the harvey mud collection on geology. Those are the skills she took to category category of the whitehouse and Jacky Kennedy took it on after that. She was born in illinois right . Waterloo iowa. How did she get to california . Hader father had Health Problems in iowa and they moved to california for that. She grew up they had two daughters, and her father wanted a son, and treated lou like his son. She loved the outdoors. Was very involved in the girl scouts and spent 40 years. All of the time she returned to the United States to her death the girl scouts was her primary cause. She grew up camping and wanted girls, especially in the Victorian Era to get outside and do more than be ornamental. Gl didnt she have a gun . She was a hunter, an equestrian, a marks man. It is good to have one of those. You might need it as first lady. If you havent sent up your questions, i would remind you. I want to and the position of moving from iowa to california. It isnt as easy as you would today. Your grandmother was raised born and died in the same house. Born in a different house. But nearby . The house known as the truman home is her grandfathers house. George porter gates bought the house precivil war but it is a gray house like one story. And in 1885 George Porter gates who had made a pretty good living as a coowner of the queen of the pantry flower the milling gates company, one of the wealthiest men in town built it up from what it was. She was born in her parents house which is nearby. But spent much of her life in the gates house and what became the truman home. Her father committed suicide when she was 18 years old. The family went to colorado for a year. The stigma being much worth worse. 20 minus 97 77 years in that house. This is her reaction with the public because of what she went through. It was painful to her father. David wallace was a wonderful guy. Independence was one of the biggest the town has seen. He would give you the shirt off his back. She was a nice human being. He was a politician a would be politician, son of the former mayor of independence. He could never make head way and was never a temperate man. As things got worse, she was always in debt and borrowing from his father in law. He woke up in 1903 got dressed, and went to the bathroom and put a gun to his head. No one saw it coming. His wife a beautiful wife at the time didnt question at the time why or what condition he was in or where the money was coming from. She nursed him through one hangover after another and everybody was stunned when he killed himself. My grandmother was very upset, she loved him, and he left without an explanation and she was hurt the rest of her life from that. That is where the privacy comes from. And to move to betty ford and the almost opposed way she dealt with some very personal hurtful issues in her life where bess truman and the president were willing enough to keep her pulled back. It was a different time too. But by the 1970s your mom broke the mold when it came to talking to the press. She may have given them more information on what to do. And more information than i would have liked out and some saying. I am so grateful she opened up about the Breast Cancer issue and what she has done to change womens Hilary Clinton health care the press back then wouldnt have said tell us the truth. What is really going on. The press would not have done that then. She could have gotten away with saying no problems. There were details of a mastectomy and how much lymph node was involved. The other side was doing an interview and saying i would not be surprised if my daughter had an affair. We could have left that alone. Because of the boys lined up saying you have a hussy little daughter out there. I am sure my brother jack would have preferred her son not admitting her son smoked dope. We are like mom, do you have to share all of the details . We were criticized for wearing blue jeans, criticized for wearing fur coats which would still be criticized today. Who knows what else. But oh well, betty chose to live her life on her sleeve and thank god she did. It set an example for other first ladies and left the door open margaret tell us something that would surprise us about your greatgrandmother. I bet unless you study her you dont know she was the first lady to invite an africanamerican woman to tea. It caused a huge scandal. It was called the depriest incident. She was the wife of congressman depriest who was elected from chicago. It was a tradition the first lady invited the members of congress wives tea. And they were progressive and knew it could be a scandal and tried to handle it in the right way and decided to go ahead with it because it would bow bee a good move for the country. My great grandfather invited her husband to the whitehouse the next day making it the first time an africanamerican was invited to the whitehouse publically. There are probably a lot of surprising facts about bess truman. What would surprise us the most . The bed flap story. So many of my favorite bess truman stories. It is a good story. My grandparents were very close and hated being apart. And my grandmother did leave him in the whitehouse and blare house during the Second Administration was the white how was rotten on the inside and that by the way is a reflection of its structure not not a medical. So they had to rebuild the whole thing and they lived at the blare house for three and a half years. My grandmother went back to independence to care for her mother. My grandmother was the rope and her husband and mother were at the other end. When she returned back to the blare house, the head usher, mr. Field, reported it was just like sunshine breaking into the blare house. My grandparents were so thrilled to be with each other again it lit up the whole room. The staff and everybody was walking on clouds. It was just fantastic. And my grandmother came down the next day, took mr. Fields aside and she said we have an issue upstairs. In the room there is an it oh hell, fields one of the flaps on the bed is broken. Grandchildren go ew but there is a surprise. Dont ask me that because i cannot top that one. This is a great opportunity. There is a whole bunch of questions like this. This is a great question for all. Let me start here. It is addressed to everybody, i think. It is it will be very different for each one of you. How did being a first first family, first grand child, affect you . I assume varying degrees. It does have an impact further down the family tree even with your mother and her career and with you have and your career now and all of this does have an impact. How does it affect you being one of the first . Well i guess it affects me differently in different ways. In grand rapids of course i am more recognized, more acknowledged more people know me as betty and jerrys daughter. Most people dont even call me bails they call me susan ford or susan fordbails. So here and on the other side of that this is a tone because this is where my cousins are this is where my grandmother was, this is where my parents were raised and has more of a home feeling. At home in tulsa, i am balesdaughterinlaw. My fatherinlaw who passed away was a city attorney. So everyone goes it is refreshing to be known for Something Else other than my own parents and proud of my inlaws. So i can hide when i want to hide which is the nice part and be dirty. I go to the gym and no body knows who i am there and i am dirty just like everybody else. You can get dressed up put the contacts in take the glasses off and play the other role. So i guess that is the biggest thing. I can come and go in it as i please. That is nice. I would not want to be a first daughter in Todays Society because of the 247 news cycle. It would be miserable. I think it would be really miserable. I dont know. I just assume. Just thinking she is talking about dirty and grungy that is how we walked around key west. We were supposed to go for a photoop photoop and we are all dirt ski i thought i was the only one and susan walks in saying thank god. I wasnt invited to the key west event. We will get you there next time. I will be there. No one is more surprised that i take such a role in my grand grandparents legacy as i am. I never intended to sit on the board of the Truman Library and be his honary chairman. Where work at the little whitehouse in key west. I worked for Truman College in chicago until recently. What happened . Everything had truman on it. As a teenager it is like oh god, you have chopped liver syndrome with everyone coming up to me saying your grandfather is wonderful and what am i . Chopped liver . People want to talk to you because you were related to someone more famous than you. I went through the whole i want to be famous too and wanted to be an actor. That worked well. You have a career in standup comedy coming. On limited venues. Right. President ial libraries, i get 13 gigs a year. But, you know i do this and i take such a role and i have written books about my grandparents and what surprises me and i am interested and enjoy it. I enjoy the people and i have come to enjoy the presidency through them and history through them. It was just something that i ran in the complete opposite direction from for years. It caught up to me. None of your brothers have an interest either . No. No. Well my youngest brother, thomas, you know when you prevail upon him to go to something he enjoyed it but he is a computer programmer. He makes Everything Else run while i am up front. So surprise. And happily so. But every once in a while i wake up and say what happened . There is no doubt about it it is a very different appearance. For the first generation second generation, Third Generation i agree with you. I think a lot of the girls helps you. I think the obama girls are sheltered a little bit from it which is nice. You didnt have a choice. This is something your parents decide long before you. This is something you did that requires a lot of interest. This is a passion project, interested and in my case there is an incredible story to tell about the hoovers. I think our story needs to be told. The American Country needs to be told and lou hoover has an incredible journey through the american tapistry. And today we have american individualism. But by the time you get to me and susan says when she is in tulsa she can be susan bails and sort of chose that. I didnt know it was possible for a child in a president. If you could ask your great grandmother any question what would it be . I think i would personal ask her some girly stuff. Just because that is the one thing she didnt write about. Quantify girly. I want to know what was it like to be a woman she and my grandfather helped organize relief in belgium and for the citizens of northern france that said 10 million bellgians were gay and he was interested in getting that operation up and running. She was a woman. And she was part of it. In the same way that in the context women didnt do the things lou was good at i would be curious to know what it was like as a woman doing the things she did at the time she did. This isnt a question from the audience but one i promised
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.