• Elizabeth (Bess) Wallace Truman
    Martha Greta Kempton
    official portrait
    This oil on canvas portrait of First Lady Bess Wallace Truman was painted by Martha Greta Kempton. As a child, Mrs. Truman led an active life and played a wide range of sports. She and Harry Truman met during their early childhood education, became engaged right before he left to fight in World War I, and married when he returned home. She found the lack of privacy in political life distasteful, but faithfully fulfilled the social obligations of a first lady throughout her husband's time in office, which ran from April 12, 1945 until January 20, 1953.
  • Harry S. Truman
    Martha Greta Kempton
    official portrait
    This oil on canvas portrait of President Harry Truman was painted by Martha Greta Kempton. As vice president during President Franklin Roosevelt's fourth term, he became president when Roosevelt died in office in 1945. He was elected president in his own right during the 1948 election, serving until January 20, 1953. During his second term, Truman was the target of an assassination attempt while living in Blair House during a major White House renovation. He served in the Senate prior to his years in the White House.