II.

Early Career

Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, on May 8, 1884, the son of a livestock trader and farmer. He attended high school in Independence, near Kansas City, held odd jobs and farmed for a time, and served in France during World War I as an artillery battery commander. Returning to the Kansas City area after the war, he married Elizabeth Virginia (“Bess”) Wallace and opened a men's clothing store, which failed in the post-war depression. In 1922 he entered local Democratic politics and was elected judge (commissioner) of Jackson County. With the support of the influential political leader Thomas J. Pendergast he was elected to the US Senate in 1934, where he voted consistently for New Deal legislation. During World War II he came to national prominence as chairman of a Senate investigating committee exposing waste in the war effort. President Roosevelt chose him as his running mate in 1944.