Presidential Progeny Meet At Truman Little White Houses

 

By Mark Howell

 

Margaret Hoover, great-granddaughter of President Herbert Hoover, brought along her new baby boy, Jack, to the latest episode in the Presidential Family Series held on the north lawn at the Harry S. Truman Little White House on Saturday, Feb. 15.

 

 

 

Margaret, 36, a news panelist on Fox TV, was not this time accompanied by her husband, John Avlon of CNN (they’ve both attended these Presidents in Paradise gatherings in the past) but instead she was joined by her father Andrew — “the only Andy in the family” — grandson of Herbert Hoover.

 

 

 

They, and at one point the baby, gathered with Clifton Daniel, grandson of President Truman, and Susan Bales, granddaughter of President Gerald Ford, in an outdoor discussion about presidential vacations and retreats, moderated by Bob Wolz, executive director at the Little White House, to a fascinated crowd.

 

 

 

It was a special pleasure spending the early evening in the exact spot under the great mahogany and gumbo limbo trees where President Truman held his weekly barbecues for the press corps and gave his daily press conferences.

 

 

 

By way of introduction, Wolz explained that Washington, D.C., was originally a swamp (“maybe it still is,” he quipped) where the presidents would spend the winters but found it too mosquito-infested in the summers and so looked for alternatives to vacation in. President Lincoln spent the summer months visiting soldiers’ homes. Teddy Roosevelt, on the other hand, repaired to his own estate and Franklin Roosevelt to his family home.

 

 

 

It was only in the 20th Century that the summer retreats became more deliberate, the only rule being that it had to be within three-and-a-half miles distance from the capital.

 

 

 

Herbert Hoover found a 164-acre plot of land in the Shenandoah Valley, 300 feet above sea level and with a good trout stream. He set about building an estate with a total of 13 buildings that Andy Hoover recalls as “informal and warm.” The land was donated by the National Parks Service and the buildings constructed by members of the Marines. To deflect public opinion during the height of the Depression, Hoover pointed out that he was paying the Marines out of pocket. When asked whether his children would be attending local schools, it was realized there was no school in the area so he built one and personally funded its teachers.

 

 

 

Hoover also spent time in the Florida Keys because he was an avid fisherman, bringing his family by the railroad to Craig Key, next to what is now Ocean Reef. Hoover became president of the Key Largo Anglers Club when Key Largo was just a dock, a diner, a store and a hotel.

 

 

 

Margaret Hoover explained that fishing was a second religion to the Hoovers who, as Quakers, felt it taught patience (although she admitted co-religionists were “moved by the spirit” to denounce the president’s policies).

 

 

 

Hoover learned all about fishing from a visit he made to as a young man to Scotland, where fishing attire has always been rather formal. From his retirement to his death at 90, the former president continued to dress in distinguished attire when going fishing. “Like in ‘Downton Abbey,’” said Margaret. “Do you know what ‘Downton Abbey’ is?” She asked her dad. “Oh yes,” said Andy. Margaret explained she’d herself began watching the BBC series during her maternity leave.

 

 

 

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to the Keys through several winters. In 1921, after he developed polio, he and his family stayed on a houseboat that was eventually destroyed by what became known as the Okeechobee hurricane. FDR returned to southern Florida for the formal opening of the highway to Key West.

 

 

 

Susan Bales Ford, born in 1957, spent many of her youthful winters at Camp David, chosen by President Gerald Ford as the family’s escape to Shangri La. “It was so beautiful there,” she recalled. “I went with girlfriends from college, our dates in one cabin, my friends and me in another. There was a trampoline there. And snowmobiles. It was paradise. You could be yourself without being in the public eye and our dad would be there as well.”

 

 

 

The Ford family later purchased a condo in Vail, Colo., which is still in the family.

 

Clifton Truman Daniel, also born in 1957 (he was 15 when is grandfather died), mentioned to the audience that two years ago he attended the 67th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and laid a wreath at a memorial in the reborn city. He promised to tell more about that on his next visit to Key West.

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