Charlotte’s hospitality matched her collectability. Returning from an evening’s late supper and tour of the Crossroads Art District in Kansas City, we found her waiting for us, having baked a fresh buttermilk pie.

The cornucopia of abundance continued with next morning’s breakfast of oatmeal soufflé, cinnamon rolls, hot stewed apples, bacon, juice and coffee.

It’s remarkable to think that weighty issues of the time such as slavery and frontier development were debated in a dimly lit 2-room log building. The 1827 structure (107 West Kansas, Tel 816-325-7111 for tours) was where Truman conducted business in the 1930s as a much larger county courthouse was being readied.

A Saturday morning art market was setting up in front of the Jackson County courthouse where Truman had an office in his early years. Ted Stilwell, one of the artists, told us a story. As a child, his school class had visited the Truman house to make some drawings. The teacher made it clear beforehand that this was an assignment to be handed in for grading. The students were completing their drawings when a car pulled out of the driveway, the window came down and President Truman himself enquired of Ted, who was nearest the car, what they were doing.

Seeing Ted’s work, he exclaimed it was the best picture he had ever seen of the house and asked if he might keep it. Ted complied, with unexpected consequences: he received a failing grade for not having artwork to hand in after the class outing. To this day he feels an injustice was done. Ted’s story convinced me that this really is (or was) the “Show me!” state.

Looking as though the welcoming crowds had left earlier in the day, this was the end of the line for Truman’s 1948 whistle stop campaign when he famously defeated Thomas Dewey --- an upset victory which had the embarassed Chicago Tribune eating its pre-printed “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline. That train ride of almost 22,000 miles won the campaign for Truman. And it was this depot to which he returned to waving local supporters after leaving the Presidency in 1953.

The Temple is headquarters of the Community of Christ, one of several Latter Day Saint groups with historical roots in the town. The building is a striking contrast to both Victorian and otherwise low-key architecture throughout Independence.

In keeping with sentiments of the man himself, the Presidential Library and Museum is a building of modest appearance, though once described by the Dallas Morning News as America’s “best presidential library”.