Career
After operatic vocal training, Truman's singing career began with a debut radio recital in March 1947. Reviewers were not always kind, but her father was fiercely protective: when in 1950 Washington Post music critic Paul Hume wrote that Truman was “extremely attractive on the stage... cannot sing very well. She is flat a good deal of the time. And still cannot sing with anything approaching professional finish,” President Truman wrote to Hume, "Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!" A 1951 Time Magazine cover featured Truman with a single musical note floating by her head. She performed on stage, radio, and television until the mid-1950s.
Truman also performed on the NBC Radio program The Big Show. There she met writer Goodman Ace who gave her advice and pointers; Ace became a lifelong friend, advising Truman even after The Big Show. She became part of the team of NBC Radio's Weekday show that premiered in 1955, shortly after its Monitor program made its debut. Paired with Mike Wallace, she presented news and interviews aimed at a female listening audience.
She appeared several times as a panelist (and once as a mystery guest) on the game show What's My Line? and guest-starred more than once on NBC's The Martha Raye Show. In 1957, she sang and played piano on The Gisele MacKenzie Show
Truman's full-length biography of her father, published shortly before his death, was critically acclaimed. She also wrote a personal biography of her mother, histories of the White House and its inhabitants (including first ladies and pets), and a series of murder mysteries set in and around Washington, D.C. (though there have been denied allegations these mysteries were ghostwritten, perhaps by Donald Bain or William Harrington).
Truman published regularly into her eighties. She also served on the Board of Directors for the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum and the Board of Governors of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.
Read more about this topic: Margaret Truman
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