St. Joseph News-Press file photo

Harry S. Truman and his daughter, Margaret Truman, campaign for Adlai Stevenson on a whistlestop in St. Joseph, Oct. 8, 1952.

The Jackson County judge spent the eve of his 49th birthday in the Hotel Robidoux, having come to St. Joseph to attend an American Legion function. He left fellow veterans to their revelry and, instead, composed a letter to his wife.

“It was a good party but I had to leave it,” the man wrote. “As usual they got too rough, and I’m still in politics.”

In the letter, written 76 years ago this week, Harry S. Truman professed devotion to his beloved Bess and called himself, in the aftermath of successes and failures, an “idealist.” He speculated on a soft job to take him into the future, unable to know the next year would take him to the U.S. Senate and later to the vice presidency. History would ultimately put him in the White House.

As celebrations commence this week to mark the 125th anniversary of Mr. Truman’s birth, people in Northwest Missouri have special cause for reflection. The state’s only native president spent considerable time in the region before and after his time in Washington.

“I was overwhelmed by how gracious he was,” said Bob Slater, a St. Joseph man who was around Mr. Truman at least eight times. “He always remembered his friends.”

Mr. Slater’s father, Harold, a longtime newsman for the News-Press, met the future president in May 1934 in the lobby of the St. Francis Hotel at the corner of Sixth and Francis streets.

The two men maintained a friendship throughout the rest of their lives, and Bob Slater feels fortunate to have tagged along.

As a college junior, Bob Slater and two friends hitchhiked from Atchison to St. Joseph to see Mr. Truman campaign for Adlai Stevenson, the Democrat hoping to succeed him. It was Oct. 8, 1952, and the president’s train arrived at about 4 p.m. at the Union Depot on Sixth Street.

“The reason I am emphasizing the farm so much in this neighborhood is because St. Joseph and Kansas City and Omaha depend absolutely on the prosperity of agriculture for their own prosperity,” the president said from the train’s rear platform. The speech is among the public papers at the Truman Library in Independence, Mo.

Afterward, Harold Slater waved his son onto the train, where they chatted with the president. Told the boys had hitchhiked to see the event, Mr. Truman summoned a police sergeant. According to Bob Slater, “He said, ‘Take these boys over to the highway to Atchison, and the first big car that’s not full, stop it and tell them the president would like them taken back to St. Benedict’s College.’”

While the whistlestop might have been Mr. Truman’s only St. Joseph visit during his presidency, he frequented the city and region during his Senate run and after returning to private life in 1953.

In an oral history provided to the Truman Library, the late Harold Slater recalled Mr. Truman playing poker at St. Joseph’s Democratic Club, the Elks Lodge and the American Legion. In 1956, he came to the city for a Democratic rally and, the next year, for a gathering of the Missouri Police Chiefs Association. Elsewhere, he dedicated an armory (1955) and post office (1962) in Maryville, Mo.

St. Joseph also figured in Mr. Truman’s appointments during his presidency. Visitors to Washington included newspaper publisher Henry Bradley in May 1945, Mayor Phil J. Welch in December 1945 and police chief Croy Keller in March 1948, according to Truman Library materials.

On June 19, 1952, Mr. Truman hosted representatives from the National 4-H Congress. Dick DeShon of St. Joseph was in that group.

The president awarded the teenagers Liberty Bells mounted on walnut stands, Mr. DeShon remembers. “We were from Missouri so we were the ones that got recognized there,” he said. “We were from the right state at the right time.”

Mr. Truman’s time in office went far beyond the ceremonial. Robert Dewhirst, who teaches presidential history at Northwest Missouri State University, regards the Truman years as active ones.

In addition to ordering the use of atomic bombs to end World War II, the Missouri-born president signed the United Nations charter, helped found NATO and SEATO, stewarded the Marshall Plan to save Europe, committed troops to deter invaders in South Korea, recognized Israel and ended racial segregation in the military.

“He didn’t serve a full two terms, but, my gosh, he packed in a lot,” Dr. Dewhirst said.

Though Mr. Truman’s approval ratings hit record lows (21 percent) while in office, modern candidates of every stripe invoke his name. Democrat Barack Obama did. So did Republican Sarah Palin.

Dr. Dewhirst said the cross-party appeal comes from the president shattering a stereotype of politicians telling voters only what they want to hear.

“He has a legacy of saying exactly what he thought, even though it might take paint off at about 10 feet,” the professor said. “No one ever called him a phony, and no one ever called him shy.”

Buchanan County Democrat Bill Caldwell said Mr. Truman’s appeal endures because of his common qualities.

“A lot of people like to associate themselves with the average, everyday person,” he said. “He was not a blue blood or high brow. He prided himself on his native intelligence and his common sense.”

Bob Slater agreed.

“My guess is he never paid attention to a poll in his life. He was a man of his own convictions,” Mr. Slater said. “People could look at him and say, ‘Hey, that could be me.’”

Ken Newton can be reached at kenn@npgco.com.