Harry Truman as a young father with his infant daughter, Margaret (photo courtesy The Truman Library)
From Chris
Shortly after hearing about his daughter’s engagement, former President Harry Truman wrote to his friend and former secretary of state, Dean Acheson. “As every old man who had a daughter feels, I’m worried and hope things will work out all right,” Truman fretted good-naturedly. “Can’t you give me some consolation?”
“Consolation is just what I can give,” Acheson replied with equal good humor:
Now as to the behavior of daughters and the position of the father of the bride. Daughters, I have found, take this business of marriage into their own hands and do as they please. So do sons—or perhaps someone else’s daughter decides for them. . . . All in all, the father of the bride is a pitiable creature. No one bothers with him at all. He is always in the way—a sort of backward child—humored but not participating in the big decisions. His only comforter is a bottle of good bourbon. Have you plenty on hand?
Margaret Truman married New York Times correspondent Clifton Daniel on April 21, 1956. According to historian David McCullough, Daniel thought Truman was the ideal father-in-law. “‘Give-’em-Hell Harry’ didn’t give anybody hell at home,” Daniel said.