Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip

by Matthew Algeo

  Of course, the title also noted the vehicle’s serial number: 7232332.

  I walked over to the car and, with some difficulty, pulled open the driver’s door. Attached to the doorframe was a small rectangular metal plate. My heart began to beat a bit faster than usual as I bent down to read it: VEHICLE NO. 7232332.

  Bingo! It was Harry’s car.

  Carey had other papers detailing much of the car’s provenance. Harry assigned the title back to the Haines dealership in 1955 when he traded in the New Yorker for a newer version of the same model. This time, Harry signed the document himself, with his inimitable slashing signature. Later that year, Haines sold the car to a Kansas City lawyer named Sam Silverman. (According to a report in a 1955 issue of Billboard magazine, Silverman represented a Kansas City company that claimed to have invented “a new chicken stick for the drive-in trade … on the order of the fish stick”—an early version of chicken fingers, perhaps?)

  The ownership trail goes cold until one morning in 1973, when Bob Creason’s son-in-law, Reed Whittaker, was taking a break at work. With him in the break room was a coworker who knew that Reed’s father-in-law collected old cars. The coworker was browsing some classified ads when he noticed one for a 1953 Chrysler New Yorker. The ad mentioned that the car had once been owned by Harry Truman.

  “There’s a Truman car for sale,” the coworker said to Reed. “I bet your father-in-law would be interested in that.”

  Reed immediately called Bob and told him about the car. Although Bob preferred to purchase vehicles manufactured before World War II, Truman’s New Yorker intrigued him. “Dad was a big history buff,” Carey Creason explained. “He liked to know the stories behind the cars.” Bob also had a soft spot for Chryslers, since Gladys’s father had worked for the company as a parts manager. He also had a soft spot for Truman, for whom Bob had voted in 1948, the first presidential election in which he’d ever cast a ballot. And Harry had just passed away the previous winter.

  Bob wanted that car. But he was busy that day, so he asked Reed to go buy it for him. Reed called the number in the ad. The seller lived in Riverside, Missouri, just north of Kansas City. He said he’d recently bought the car from a local dealership. Reed told his boss he was taking the afternoon off and hurried up to Riverside.

  The purchase price was eight hundred dollars.

  After the car was driven back to Bob’s farm, it was parked outside. As far as anybody knows, it hasn’t been driven since that day. “Dad planned to restore it,” Carey said, “but he never got around to it because of the time and money it would have taken.”

  Apparently the Chrysler had been in at least one accident since Harry owned it, because both front fenders had been replaced. The new fenders were white, which gave it the appearance of a police car since the rest of the car was still black. Carey recalled how, when she was a little girl, she would play Dukes of Hazzard, with Harry Truman’s New Yorker standing in for Sheriff Rosco’s cruiser and a 1936 DeSoto substituting for Bo and Luke’s Dodge Charger, the General Lee.

  For twenty-five years the car sat outside, exposed to the harsh Kansas elements. In 1998, Bob built a new barn and towed the Chrysler inside it. The car hasn’t moved since then.

  Harry Truman’s 1953 Chrysler New Yorker as it appeared in 1973, the year Bob Creason bought it (left), and as it appeared in 2010 (right).

  After confirming the vehicle’s authenticity, I began to examine it more closely. It took several tries, but Carey finally managed to open the hood, exposing the car’s formerly state-of-the-art V-8 Hemi engine, which was now a dormant hulk. Also exposed was a large quantity of what Carey determined to be raccoon poop. “Oh my,” she said. “I’m very glad he wasn’t in there when I opened it.”

  The chrome wire wheels were still intact, though badly corroded. The once-luxuriant tan velour interior was crumbling, the upholstery literally turning to dust. On a hunch we checked the glove compartment, but we found nothing. We weren’t able to get the trunk open, so if Harry stashed anything incriminating in there, it remains to be discovered.

  I later posted photos of the car on the Internet and was contacted by a Chrysler enthusiast, who pointed out something unusual about the car: the hardware on the doors was from a top-of-the-line Imperial, not a New Yorker. Harry had thought the Imperial was “too swanky,” but Chrysler included some elements of it on his car anyway.

  Carey told me she doesn’t know what her family will eventually do with the car. The cost of restoring it is prohibitive. But she assured me that, ultimately, the family will find a buyer who will appreciate and honor the car’s historic lineage. In a small way, this battered Chrysler connects her family to Harry Truman, and she would like to preserve that connection.

  I asked Carey if I could sit in the driver’s seat. “Of course,” she said, and she fetched me a blanket to cover the deteriorating bench seat. “I probably should have told you not to wear good clothes.” (Not that my clothes were that good anyway.) I lowered myself into the car, barely squeezing behind the big three-spoke steering wheel. The headliner had fallen, and I had to hold it up with one hand. With my other hand I grabbed the wheel. Above it was the same half-circle speedometer I’d seen in the 1953 New Yorker that Alan Hais had let me drive. I pressed the ring on the wheel that sounded the horn, but I heard nothing. I ran my fingers over the buttons on the radio. Dangling by some wires from the door was a gadget with a single row of four buttons. I hadn’t known that Harry’s Chrysler came equipped with power windows.

  I was sitting exactly where Harry sat when he and Bess drove themselves halfway across the country and back in the summer of 1953. It wasn’t exactly an existential experience; Harry Truman’s Chrysler New Yorker was not my Holy Grail.

  But, boy, it did feel pretty cool.

  Acknowledgments

  On my travels I was blessed with an abundance of hospitality, helpfulness, and humor. Thank you Daniel Barber, Nancy and Norman Barter, James Blauvelt, Steve Chou, Jim Clark, Murray Clark, Jill Cordes and Phil Johnston, Carey Creason, Clifton Truman Daniel, Jim Grass, Mary Griffin, Bill Herman, the Hohman family, Elise and Robert Kauzlaric, Carroll Kehne Jr., Rodney Manfredi, DiAnne McDaniel, Frank McKinney III, Martin Rothstein, Jim Schneithorst Sr., Judy Sherrow, Max Skidmore, Lynn Smith, Christopher Squire, Scott Strong, Harvey Sunday, Mitch Teich, Doug Tucker, Richard Weingroff, Randall Wight, Lowell Wilson, Herbert Zearing, and Floyd Zerfowski.

  The following institutions provided invaluable support: Allegany County Library, Cumberland, Maryland; Citizens Library, Washington, Pennsylvania; Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, Ohio; Decatur Adult Transition Center, Decatur, Illinois; Decatur Public Library, Decatur, Illinois; District of Columbia Public Library, Washington, D.C.; Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.; Frederick County Public Library, Frederick, Maryland; Hannibal Free Public Library, Hannibal, Missouri; Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, Independence, Missouri; Harry S Truman National Historic Site, Independence, Missouri; Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, West Branch, Iowa; Historical Society of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania; Historical Society of Frederick County, Maryland; Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis, Indiana; Indianapolis—Marion County Public Library, Indianapolis, Indiana; Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri; Leland Residence, Richmond, Indiana; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Mid-Continent Public Library, Independence, Missouri; Morrisson-Reeves Library, Richmond, Indiana; Office of the Senate Curator, Washington, D.C.; Ohio County Public Library, Wheeling, West Virginia; Pennsylvania State Police Historical, Educational & Memorial Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania; St. Louis Mercantile Library, St. Louis, Missouri; State Library of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, New York; Washington County Historical Society, Washington, Pennsylvania; and Wayne County Historical Museum, Richmond, Indiana.

  Special thanks to Liz Safly and her colleagues at the Truman Library, who
made my time there so productive and pleasurable, as well as to my friends in Bamako, who suffered my Truman tales with good humor for two years.

  For going above and beyond the call of duty, I am especially indebted to Claire McKinney Clark, Alan Hais, George W. Pappas, Manley Stampler, and Toni Walker.

  To my parents, Tracy and Jim Algeo, as well as my brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews: I couldn’t have picked a better family. Same goes for my in-laws, Gigi and Frank McCollum.

  To my agent, Jane Dystel: you’re an all-star in my book. To my editor, Jerome Pohlen, and everyone at Chicago Review Press, thank you for your kind support, superior advice, and constant encouragement.

  Allyson, grazie amore mio.

  Lastly, thank you Harry and Bess Truman. You have been wonderful traveling companions.

  Sources

  My account of Harry and Bess Truman’s 1953 road trip is based on contemporaneous newspaper reports, interviews with surviving witnesses, previously published accounts, and material on file at the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, particularly the post-presidential papers and oral history interviews.

  * * *

  Eyewitness Interviews

  Most eyewitnesses were interviewed multiple times. Interviews were conducted in person, over the phone, and by e-mail.

  Claire McKinney Clark (saw the Trumans in Indianapolis)

  Mary Griffin (Hannibal, Missouri)

  Bill Herman (Indianapolis, Indiana)

  Carroll Kehne Jr. (Frederick, Maryland)

  George Pappas Jr. (Frostburg, Maryland)

  Martin “Doc” Rothstein (Frostburg, Maryland)

  Manley Stampler (near Bedford, Pennsylvania)

  Harvey Sunday (New Kingstown, Pennsylvania)

  Toni Walker (Hannibal, Missouri)

  Randall Wight (Bethesda, Maryland)

  Lowell Wilson (Richmond, Indiana)

  Floyd Zerfowski (Decatur, Illinois)

  * * *

  Newspapers

  Bedford (Pennsylvania) Gazette

  Columbus (Ohio) Citizen-Journal

  Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch

  Cumberland (Maryland) Evening Times

  Decatur (Illinois) Herald

  Decatur (Illinois) Review

  Frederick (Maryland) News

  Frederick (Maryland) Post

  Hannibal (Missouri) Courier-Post

  Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Evening News

  Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Patriot

  Independence (Missouri) Examiner

  Indianapolis News

  Indianapolis Star

  Indianapolis Times

  New York Daily Mirror

  New York Herald Tribune

  New York Journal-American

  New York Post

  New York Times

  New York World-Telegram and Sun

  Ohio State Journal (Columbus, Ohio)

  Philadelphia Daily News

  Philadelphia Evening Bulletin

  Philadelphia Inquirer

  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

  Pittsburgh Press

  Richmond (Indiana) Palladium-Item

  Richmond (Indiana) Palladium-Item and Sun-Telegram

  St. Louis Globe-Democrat

  St. Louis Post-Dispatch

  Washington Daily News

  Washington Evening Star

  Washington Post

  Washington Times-Herald

  Washington (Pennsylvania) Observer

  Washington (Pennsylvania) Reporter

  Wheeling (West Virginia) Intelligencer

  Wheeling (West Virginia) News-Register

  * * *

  Oral History Interviews

  Almost since its inception, the Truman Library has been recording and transcribing interviews with people associated with Harry and Bess Truman. Now numbering around five hundred, these interviews are a priceless resource for researchers.

  Floyd M. Boring

  William J. Bray

  Matthew Connelly

  E. Clifton Daniel

  Mildred Lee Dryden

  Stanley R. Fike

  Edgar G. Hinde

  Frank Holeman

  Robert B. Landry

  Charles S. Murphy

  Robert G. Nixon

  Mize Peters

  Harold M. Slater

  Isaac N. P. Stokes

  James L. Sundquist

  Harry H. Vaughan

  Nathan Thomas (Tom) Veatch

  Paul Mike Westwood

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