Margaret Truman
Mary Margaret Truman Daniel (February 17, 1924 – January 29, 2008) was an American classical soprano, actress, journalist, radio and television personality, writer, and New York socialite. She was the only child of President Harry S. Truman and First Lady Bess Truman. While her father was president during the years 1945 to 1953, Margaret regularly accompanied him on campaign trips, such as the 1948 countrywide whistle-stop campaign lasting several weeks.
Also recorded as Margaret (Mary) Truman
Margaret Truman

unattributed · National Archives and Records Administration · Public domain
- Born
- 1924. · Independence.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- actress, novelist, writer, biographer and singer.
- Fields
- detective literature and biography.
- Education
- George Washington University.
- Teachers
- Estelle Liebling.
- Languages
- English.
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Documentary summary
Mary Margaret Truman Daniel (February 17, 1924 – January 29, 2008) was an American classical soprano, actress, journalist, radio and television personality, writer, and New York socialite. She was the only child of President Harry S. Truman and First Lady Bess Truman. While her father was president during the years 1945 to 1953, Margaret regularly accompanied him on campaign trips, such as the 1948 countrywide whistle-stop campaign lasting several weeks.
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Note VALÉORINE
Margaret Truman (1924–2008) was an actress, biographer and novelist, among other activities, of American nationality. The actress was born in Independence and died in Chicago.
Margaret Truman was educated at George Washington University. Activity centred on biography and detective literature. Languages used include English.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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wikidata · Q266959 · wikipedia · Margaret Truman
In this article
Early life
Early life
She also appeared at important White House and political events during those years and was a favorite with the media. After graduating from George Washington University in 1946, Truman embarked on a career as a coloratura soprano, beginning with a concert appearance with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1947. She appeared in the US in concerts with orchestras and in recitals through 1956. She made recordings for RCA Victor and made television appearances on programs such as What's My Line? And The Bell Telephone Hour. In 1957, one year after her marriage, Truman abandoned her singing career to pursue a career as a journalist and radio personality when she became the cohost of the program Weekday with Mike Wallace. She also wrote articles as an independent journalist for a variety of publications in the 1960s and 1970s. Truman later became the successful author of a series of murder mysteries as well as a number of works on first ladies and their families, including well-received biographies of her father. Truman was married to journalist Clifton Daniel, managing editor of The New York Times. The couple had four sons and lived in a Park Avenue apartment.
Mary Margaret Truman was born at 219 North Delaware Street in Independence, Missouri, on February 17, 1924 and was named for her aunt Mary Jane Truman and maternal grandmother Margaret Gates Wallace, but she was called Margaret from early childhood. She took voice and piano lessons as a child (at the encouragement of her father, who famously played piano) and attended public school in Independence until her father's 1934 election to the United States Senate, after which her education was split between public schools in Independence and Gunston Hall School, a private school for girls in Washington, D.C. In 1942, Truman matriculated at George Washington University, where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and international relations in 1946. In June 1944, she christened the battleship USS Missouri at Brooklyn Navy Yard, and spoke again in 1986 at the ship's recommissioning. She studied singing with Estelle Liebling, the voice teacher of Beverly Sills, in New York City. On April 12, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died and his vice president Harry Truman assumed the presidency when Margaret was 21.
Singing
Singing
When Truman was 16 years old, she began taking voice lessons in Independence from Mrs. Thomas J. Strickler, a family friend. After classical vocal training, Truman's singing career began with a debut radio recital in March 1947, followed shortly thereafter with her professional concert debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She sang professionally for the next decade, appearing with major American orchestras and embarking on several national concert tours. In 1950 she began studying singing with Sidney Dietch. Some of her credits include concert appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the National Symphony Orchestra, the NBC Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Saint Louis Symphony. While she never performed in staged operas, she did perform opera arias in concert. Her performances were mainly of both sacred and secular art songs, Lieder, and works from the concert soprano repertoire. In 1951 and 1952, RCA Victor issued two albums by Truman, one of classical selections, the other of American art songs. She also made recordings of German Lieder for NBC. A 1951 Time Magazine cover featured Truman with a single musical note floating by her head. She performed on stage, radio, and television through 1956. At the beginning of her career, critical reviews of Truman's singing were positive, polite or diplomatic in tone, with some later reviewers speculating that negative opinions were withheld from deference to her father as a current president. This practice was broken in 1950 when Washington Post music critic Paul Hume wrote that Truman was "extremely attractive on the stage... [but] cannot sing very well. She is flat a good deal of the time. And still cannot sing with anything approaching professional finish." The review angered President Truman (who was dealing that same day with the sudden death of his childhood friend and White House press secretary Charlie Ross), who wrote to Hume, "Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!" Hume wanted to publish the letter, but Washington Post publisher Philip Graham vetoed the idea. However, Hume showed the letter to a number of his colleagues, including Milton Berliner, music critic of the rival Washington Times Herald, which published a story. The Washington Post was then forced to acknowledge the letter, which drew international headlines, becoming a minor scandal for the Truman administration. Subsequent reviewers felt freer to be honest in their reviews of her performances, with mixed criticism for her singing thereafter.
Acting, radio, and journalism
Acting, radio, and journalism
Truman's professional acting debut occurred on April 26, 1951 when she costarred with James Stewart in the "Jackpot" episode of Screen Directors Playhouse on NBC radio. On March 17, 1952, Truman was a guest soloist on The Railroad Hour in a presentation of the operetta Sari. Truman also performed on the NBC Radio program The Big Show where she met writer Goodman Ace, who offered her advice and pointers. Ace became a lifelong friend, advising Truman even after The Big Show. Truman became part of the team of NBC Radio's Weekday show that premiered in 1955, shortly after its Monitor program made its debut. Paired with Mike Wallace, she presented news and interviews aimed at a female listening audience. She appeared several times as a panelist (and twice as a mystery guest) on the game show What's My Line? and guest-starred multiple times on NBC's The Martha Raye Show. In 1957, Truman sang and played piano on The Gisele MacKenzie Show.
Writing
Writing
Truman's full-length biography of her father, published shortly before his 1972 death, was critically acclaimed. She also wrote a personal biography of her mother and histories of the White House and its inhabitants (including first ladies and pets). Truman published regularly into her eighties.
Novels
Novels
From 1980 to 2011, 25 books in the Capital Crimes series of murder mysteries, most set in and around Washington, D.C., were published under Margaret Truman's name. Professional ghostwriter Donald Bain (1935–2017) acknowledged in the March 14, 2014, issue of Publishers Weekly that he had written "27 novels in the Margaret Truman Capital Crimes series (mostly bylined by Truman, my close collaborator – my name is on only the most recent entries, released after her death)." In 2000, another ghostwriter, William Harrington, had claimed in a self-written obituary before his apparent suicide that Margaret Truman and others were his clients.
Institutions
Institutions
She served on the board of directors for the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum and the Board of Governors of the Roosevelt Institute, and served as a Trustee for her alma mater.
Personal life
Personal life
On April 21, 1956, Truman married Clifton Daniel, a reporter for The New York Times and later its managing editor, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Independence; he died in 2000. They had four sons: Clifton Truman Daniel (born June 5, 1957), Director of Public Relations for Harry S Truman College. William Wallace Daniel (May 19, 1960 – September 4, 2000), a psychiatric social worker and researcher at Columbia University. He died after being struck by a taxicab in New York City. Harrison Gates Daniel (born 1963) Thomas Washington Daniel (born 1966)
Popular culture
Popular culture
Italian dress designer Micol Fontana, who designed Truman’s wedding gown, was invited to be a surprise guest on the TV show What's My Line? in New York City, just six days before the Truman/Daniel wedding on April 21, 1956, in Independence, Missouri.
Later years and death
Later years and death
In later life, Truman lived in her Park Avenue home. She died on January 29, 2008, in Chicago (to which she was relocating to be closer to her son Clifton). She was said to have been suffering from "a simple infection" and had been breathing with the assistance of a respirator. Her ashes and those of her husband are interred in Independence in her parents' burial plot on the grounds of the Truman Library.
Fiction
Fiction
The Capital Crimes series: As of 2021, six further novels in the series had been published under Truman's name as "with Donald Bain" or "with John Land."

Photograph of Margaret Truman in her dressing room with her singing coach, Helen Traubel, on the occasion of... - NARA - 200135
Abbie Rowe · U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Margaret Truman, Photograph of movie stars posing with President Truman and his family at the White House, (front row, left to right)... - NARA - 199330
Abbie Rowe · U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1924
Margaret Truman was born in 1924 at Independence.
2008
Margaret Truman died in 2008 at Chicago.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Independence.
Birth place
Chicago.
Death place
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.McCullough, David. Truman. 1992.
- 2.Margaret Truman, 83, Singer and Author. The New York Sun. January 30, 2008.
- 3.Margaret Truman.
- 4.Truman Presidential Library. Margaret Truman Daniel bio.
- 5.Notable Pi Phis. pibetaphi.org.
- 6.Dean Fowler, Alandra. Estelle Liebling: An exploration of her pedagogical principles as an extension and elaboration of the Marchesi method, including a survey of her music and editing for coloratura soprano and other voices. University of Arizona. 1994.
- 7.New Voice Teacher for Miss Truman. Republican and Herald. 7. November 28, 1950.
- 8.Time, February 26, 1951.
- 9.Truman, by David McCullough, 1992, Simon and Schuster
- 10.Truman Library, Independence Mo. Truman's Letter to Paul Hume. December 6, 1950.
- 11.Margaret Truman To Star Tonight On Radio Drama. Las Cruces Sun-News. 1. April 26, 1951.
- 12.Kirby, Walter. Better Radio Programs for the Week. The Decatur Daily Review. 44. March 16, 1952.
- 13.Thomas, Bob. Tallulah Bankhead Praises Margaret Truman's Talents. Reading Eagle. November 2, 1951.
- 14.House, Allan. Margaret Truman Gets a Kick Out of Radio-TV. The Fayetteville Observer. November 11, 1955.
- 15.Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 'Monitor' to debut on KDKA Sunday. June 10, 1955.
- 16.Radio:Woman's Home Companion. Time. November 28, 1955.
- 17.TV.com. The Giselle MacKenzie Show.
- 18.Bain, Donald. A Novel of My Own. Publishers Weekly. March 14, 2014.
- 19.William G. Harrington, 68; Wrote Mysteries and Thrillers. The New York Times. November 16, 2000.
- 20.Gelder, Lawrence Van. Margaret Truman Daniel Dies at 83. The New York Times. January 29, 2008.
- 21.Truman celebrates heritage, history with grandson of US president. Kirksville Daily Express. September 15, 2011.
- 22.Daniel, Clifton Truman. Adventures with Grandpa Truman. 2009.
- 23.Hit by Cab, a Grandson of Harry Truman dies. The New York Times. September 6, 2000.
- 24.Goldstein, Steve. First Daughter. Obit-mag. January 31, 2008.
- 25.Meyer, Gene, "The ashes of Margaret Truman Daniel are put to rest in her roots", Kansas City Star, February 23, 2008. Retrieved March 13, 2008.
- 26.Margaret Truman Books in Order. Book Series in Order. August 12, 2015.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q266959: Margaret TrumanWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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