The Truman Library honors former President Harry S. Truman’s 140th birthday
By Martin Augustine
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INDEPENDENCE, Missouri (KMBC) — The Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, commemorated the 140th anniversary of former President Harry Truman’s birth on Wednesday with a special ceremony
The event highlighted Truman’s significant impact on the 20th century.
The ceremony was held at his gravesite, featuring the color guard from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth. Brigadier General Bob Payne and Command Sergeant Major Rob Koelling of the Missouri National Guard laid a wreath at Truman’s gravesite.
“People like Truman and Churchill are the architects of that,” Truman Library Director Kurt Graham said. “That’s why they’ll always be remembered. Because you can’t undo a period like the one we’ve just experienced.”
The ceremony was brief and somber. Attendees suggested this was probably just how Truman would have liked it.
“But it’s important as we move further away from his presidency in history to always remember what an important man he was and how so much of what the United States and much of the world have enjoyed in the post-war era falls at his feet,” Graham said.
This ceremony was the first of several planned to honor Truman’s life. Multiple organizations from across the Kansas City region will place wreaths at the site.
The Harry S. Truman Library is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
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