Our Man BY
IN KC
Damian Lair
dlair@inkansascity.com : @damianlair #OurManINKC
Wild About Harry
Y
ou don’t have to be a Kennedy, Bush, or Roosevelt to make an indelible mark on world history. You may just be a farmer from Grandview, Missouri. We were gathered at the very hotel (Marriott Muehlebach Downtown) where Harry Truman awaited the election results on November 2, 1948—the election that generated one of the most famous headlines ever: “Dewey Defeats Truman.” On this evening, I was the gracious guest of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum for their annual Wild About Harry event. One of just 15 Presidential Libraries (did you know that?) overseen by the National Archives, our library just underwent an Damian Lair with Maureen McMeel Carroll (left) and Suzanne McMeel Glynn at Wild About Harry. extensive renovation that began in 2019. I’m arranging a tour—but that’s another column for another day. Back to the party. Author of the just-released biography Director—but then again, the last in-person Bunni & Paul Copaken, Frank White, Mary The Trials of Harry S. Truman, Jeffrey Frank event hosted Secretary Madeline Albright. Kemper Wolf & Gary Wolf, David Campbell, provided a mesmeric keynote address that I’m especially glad I didn’t miss that one. It Patrick Ottensmeyer, Ursula Terrasi, buzzed through an impressive flurry of goes without saying that the Truman Library Madeleine McDonough, Petra Kralickova, Truman anecdotes and accounts surfolks have a pretty solid track record of Darcy Howe, Heidi Peter, Bob Green, Jamila rounding the extraordinary presidency attracting top speaker talent for this Weaver, Carolyn & David Fulk, Tom Mentzer of an ordinary man. event. Which is why—if you’re an Senator Roy Blunt was on enthusiast of history or politics (not hand to tout the $11.5 million the partisan kind)—I would enhe was instrumental in secourage you to consider this HOT curing for attending to the event when it rolls around GOSSIP: museum’s exterior grounds. again next spring. HisI HAD HEARD of Buttonwood Art Space, Who was busted for Blunt also introduced the tory has a unique way of located inside the Buttonwood Financial hooking up with her Truman Legacy of Leadproviding a lens through Group offices on Main Street, but I’d not yet ership Award recipient, which you can assess the visited. Thus, I was excited when my friend son’s friend while on CIA Director William present more clearly. Not Heidi Markle with KC Parks told me about his spring break? J. Burns. Director Burns’s many events do I leave feelan upcoming exhibition—and extended an experience as former U.S. ing much smarter—but this invite to the opening reception. Ambassador to Russia made his one, I always do. For those also uninitiated, the Butobservations about the current state tonwood Art Space occupies a significant of affairs eerily poignant. It’s not every day portion of the first floor within the wealth SPOTTED: Senator Jerry & Robba Moran, you get to sit in an audience with the CIA management firm’s offices and hosts exhibits Senator Roy Blunt, Marny & John Sherman,
KC ART FOR KC PARKS
MAY 2022 |
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