Classmate of Truman
Has Graduation Photo

By ED WALL.
Herald Staff Writer

Out at 11305 N. EB, a pl. |
Mrs. E. Peterson has an old.book

she’ll never place on the curb
for a paper drive.:

‘It is “The Gleam,” published:

by the graduating class at In-
dependence High school, Inde-
pendence, Mo., in 1901.

On the first page Mrs._ Peter-
son, then Miss Gertrude Reyner,

 

 

is pictured with 33 of her class-
mates, including President Harry

§. Truman, Bessie Wallace and |

Sheree Ross.
~ Bessie Wallace is now ‘the

First Lady of the land’ and
, Charles Ross was recently ap-

pointed press and radio secre-
tary for the White House. In

 

1901 Ross was editor of “The |

Gleam.”

REMEMBERS HIM WELL

“I haven’t seen ‘Harry-Truman
since we left school all those
years ago,” Mrs. Peterson’ said,
“but I remember him very well.
I often walked home. from
classes with Bessie Wallace,
whom he later married.”

The 32nd President of the
United States was ‘always a

good student” in the two-story

brick schoolhouse in” Independ-
ence, ‘Mrs. ‘Peterson. recalled, but,
“just like everybody else, . was
herve

Bessie. Wallace was an Gnletic
girl, but “nice and refined” and
of a good Missouri family. Her
cousin, the school librarian, is
pictured in the yearbook with
long. skirts and stiff back.

ALWAYS TRUSTWORTHY
“All young folks were more

serious in those days,” Mrs.
Peterson observed, “but. I..don’t,

_ know that Harry was any more —
serious.than the rest of us... ...

“He. has. always been a. good, .
trustworthy - ‘person . ‘pnd.. has.
been well thought of in Mis-

' souri ever since he entered poli-

tics.’

Ross was the “brains” of the’
class, Mrs. Peterson said.

Mrs: Peterson’s daughter, now
Mrs. ‘Thelma Peters, was born
in Independence. Mrs. Peters is
head of the social science depart-

‘ment at Miami Edison High

school,