Nov. 8th - Truman Makes His 5th Visit to Key West to Record Crowds - a podcast by 43 Keys Media

Today in Key West history, we're talking about the focal point of one of Harry Truman's visits to Key West and it was the Truman Little White House.

Now, if you'll remember correctly, the Truman Little White House was originally built as officers quarters for the submarine base on the Naval Air Station here in Key West. And it was much later that it was actually converted into a single family home, which is where Truman and all of his entourage always stayed when they came to Key West. Now, Truman began coming to Key West in 1946, and began establishing a pattern of coming every November and December. And then he would come again in February and March. So today, November 7th, in Key West history, Harry Truman arrived for his fifth visit to the Truman White House, the little white house, I should say. It was the Key West place where he felt that he could relax. It was just after he won re-election to the presidency. He had a hard fought campaign and he needed some rest and relaxation. And after he first came to Key West in 1946, he vowed that he would get back as often as he could when he needed rest. So he came and he had a entourage with him. He stayed at the Truman Little White House, and that this morning in 1948, November 8, 1948,

He got up about 7:30 and had breakfast and then he went out onto the South Porch to read the morning newspaper. And he did that for a little while. And about 9:50 in the morning, according to the Presidential logs, he left the Little White House and he went down to visit some places in Key West so he went to the enlisted mens beach at the Naval Air Station. And it's funny because if you read in the Presidential logs, and I'll just read this on this particular visit to Key West, there were three automobiles that were sent down to Key West specifically for the visit of President Truman. One was a Lincoln convertible and two of them or Lincoln sedans, and they had been sent to Key West from Jacksonville, Florida, by the Ford Motor Company. And they were to be used for the presidential party while they were in Key West. And then any supplemental type of transportation would then be provided by the Naval Air Base. So they rode around in the convertibles and did whatever they needed to do with those vehicles provided by Ford - because they were Lincoln's. Now, in the early morning hours of the eighth of November, Truman and all his entourage went to the enlisted mens beach down at the Naval Air Station, and all of the army type equipment and all of the you know, type of clutter that would normally have been there would have been moved away so that they could have a very attractive view for their beach visit.

So the weather was ideal. It was bright and sunny, approximately 80 degrees is what we see the recorded temperature the party quickly got into their bathing trunks. I don't know how long they were, but they were trunks and they spent the next two hours loafing around in the sun some exercise by tossing softballs and footballs. And the President and several other people were also swimming and taking a dip in the surf. Now, you know, there's not a lot of surf here. So I'm sure they were just kind of chilling out in the water. And it was pretty much what they did every morning whenever they were here on the beach. And so they left about just before lunchtime, about 11:40 and went back to the President's quarters at Truman's Little White House and had lunch and then after that, they walked down to the Naval Station. The funny thing is that while he was walking down around the Naval Air Station, he walked in unannounced to the press headquarters at one of the buildings and he walked in on a bunch of newspaper men that were watching a pool game between several of the photographers. So the President just explained they didn't have any news. He wasn't there to give any breaking news because he needed anything but he just wanted to see if they were comfortably accommodated. So...

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