Charles Skelton: “I am pleased that H.R. 3639 has come before the House. This bill, which I introduced along with my fellow Missourian…”

“I am pleased that H.R. 3639 has come before the House. This bill, which I introduced along with my fellow Missourian (Mr. Blunt), would name the State Department Headquarters Building in honor of our 33rd President, Harry S. Truman. I especially thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) for bringing this bill to the floor. I came to personally know President Truman through my father, Ike Skelton, Sr., who developed a friendship with him some 71 years ago at the dedication of the Pioneer Mother Statue, the Madonna of the Trail, located in my hometown of Lexington, Missouri. Through the years, I developed my own friendship with this genuinely nice person we call the ``Man From Independence.'' President Truman was a man of strong personal character who held deep regard for his country and for the American people. He was a man of great devotion to his wife and life-long sweetheart Bess and to his daughter Margaret Truman Daniel. He was politically courageous, and during the critical years that ended and followed World War II, Harry Truman was faced with many difficult and often politically unpopular decisions. However, he faced these obstacles head on and established a foreign policy that guided the United States of America through the duration of the cold war.”