Presidents in Retirement: Harry Truman
Harry Truman was not a wealthy man before becoming President, and his economic fortunes did not improve much while in elected office. Before holding any elected office, Truman had earned little money, and was in debt from the failure of his haberdashery business. Even though he made more money while holding elected office, the need to maintain two homes, with one in expensive Washington, as well as his having to pay for his daughter Margaret's college expenses, all left the Trumans with little extra money. The presidency paid him a salary of $75,000 (equivalent to $1,269,000 in 2023), and in 1949 this was increased to $100,000 (equivalent to $1,281,000 in 2023.) At the time Joe DiMaggio was the only Major League Baseball player who made more than this in his last two seasons (1950 and 1951.) Beginning in 1949, the president was also granted a $50,000 (equivalent to $640,000 in 2023) expense allowance, which was initially tax-free, and did not have to be accounted for, though this allowance became taxable later in Truman's presidency.
Upon leaving the presidency, Truman returned home to Independence, Missouri. He lived at the home that he and his wife Bess had shared for years with her mother. Truman's only income was his army pension of $112.56 per month and otherwise he lived of of what he had saved from his salary as president.
In February 1953, Truman signed a book deal for his memoirs. Writing the book was difficult for Truman, but when finally completed, Truman received a payment of $670,000 (equivalent to $7,620,522 in 2023) for the memoirs. They were a commercial and critical success and were published in two volumes: Memoirs by Harry S. Truman: Year of Decisions (1955) and Memoirs by Harry S. Truman: Years of Trial and Hope (1956).
Former members of Congress and the federal courts received a federal retirement package, but there was no such benefit package for former presidents. Congressional pensions were not approved until 1946, after Truman had left the Senate, so he received no pension for his Senate service. Truman quietly lobbied for a pension, writing to congressional leaders that he would be broke, but for the sale of family farmlands. In a February 1958 televised interview that aired on CBS, Truman claimed that "If I hadn't inherited some property that finally paid things through, I'd be on relief right now." So later that year, Congress passed the Former President Act, giving an annual pension of $25,000 (equivalent to $264,014 in 2023) to each former president. The only other living former president at the time was Herbert Hoover. Hoover also took the pension, even though he did not need the money; reportedly, he did so to avoid embarrassing Truman.
Truman's and his siblings sold most of the family farm to a Kansas City real estate developer in 1958. The Trumans always lived modestly in Independence, and when Bess Truman died in 1982, the house was found to be in poor condition due to deferred maintenance.
Franklin D. Roosevelt had organized his own presidential library, but when Truman left the White House, there was no legislation to enable future presidents to do something similar. Truman worked to solicit private donations to build a presidential library, which he donated to the federal government to maintain and operate-a practice adopted by his successors. He also testified before Congress to have money appropriated for Presidential libraries, and he was pleased when the bill passed.
Truman taught occasional courses at universities such as Yale, where he was a visiting lecturer in 1958. In 1962, Truman was a visiting lecturer at Canisius College.
Truman supported Adlai Stevenson's second bid for the White House in 1956, although he had initially hoped that Democratic New York Governor W. Averell Harriman would win the nomination. He campaigned for a number of Democratic senatorial candidate. In 1960 Truman publicly announced that he would not attend the 1960 Democratic Convention because he did not like the way that the supporters of John F. Kennedy had gained control of the nominating process. He called on Kennedy to forgo the nomination for that year. Kennedy responded with a press conference where he rejected Truman's accusations.
Truman was critical of the 1960's civil right movement. He said that he believed the sit-in movement was part of a Soviet plot. This was met with a response from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who wrote a letter to the Truman, demanding a public apology. Truman would not apologize, and he later criticized King after the Selma March in 1965, calling the protest "silly" and saying that it "can't accomplish a darn thing except to attract attention." In 1963, Truman expressed his opposition to interracial marriage, stating that he did not believe that that daughters of white people would ever love someone of an opposite color.
Truman turned 80 in 1964 and his birthday was celebrated in Washington, where he addressed the Senate, availing himself of a new rule that allowed former presidents to be granted privilege of the Senate floor. That same year, Truman took a fall in his home and his physical condition declined. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Medicare bill at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum. Johnson gave the first two Medicare cards to Truman and his wife Bess to honor Truman for his fight for government health care while in office.
On December 5, 1972, Truman was admitted to Kansas City's Research Hospital and Medical Center to be treated for pneumonia. While in hospital he developed multiple organ failure and fell into a coma. Truman died at 7:50 a.m. on December 26, at the age of 88.
Bess Truman decided that her husband would have a simple private service at the library rather than a state funeral in Washington. A week after the funeral, foreign dignitaries and Washington officials attended a memorial service for Truman at Washington National Cathedral. Bess Truman died in 1982. She and her husband are buried next to one another at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri.