Harry Truman, Small-Town American

Harry Truman was six years old in 1890 when his parents moved from Grandpa Young's big farm near Grandview to Independence, Missouri, the county seat of Jackson county. He had happy memories of farm life, but, having just reached an age at which children began to take on a conscious identity, he was bound to he powerfully affected by the town in which he would spend the next dozen years of his life. In Independence he would acquire the values that provided him with inner-direction throughout his adulthood, learn how to relate to others, and find the love of his life. It would be Independence to which he would return in later years to enter politics, live with his wife's family during his career as a local official, and eventually retire after nearly eight years as President of the United States.