Margaret Truman Daniel died on Tuesday after a brief illness. Here’s how some major papers sum up her life:
“Margaret Truman Daniel, 83, President Harry Truman’s only child, a mystery novelist whose early efforts as a singer famously led her father to threaten an unkind critic with a punch to the nose…” –The Chicago Tribune
“Margaret Truman Daniel, the only child of former president and famously proud father Harry Truman who became an author of popular murder mysteries…” –Reuters
“Margaret Truman Daniel, the president’s daughter whose achievements as a concert singer, radio and television host, and author of best-selling biographies and mysteries won her renown in her own right…” –The New York Times
The Truman Library has a nice biography of Margaret. The Kansas City Star has a nifty slideshow.
Here’s the text of Harry Truman‘s famous letter to Washington Post critic Paul Hume after Hume panned Margaret’s singing in 1950. (“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.” Yow!)
That incident became so famous that it led Hume’s own obituary in 2001.