President’s Day and Key West’s ‘Little White House’ in Truman Annex
It’s President’s Day. Thinking about how Harry S. Truman loved Key West so much that he created the ‘Little White House’ for working vacations during his 1945-1953 administration; and then how in the legacy of Harry S. Truman inspired the creation of the beautiful ‘Truman Annex’ neighborhood in 1986 by developer Pritam Singh, where the ‘Little White House’ is now a celebrated museum.
Some would consider this stately historic manor the ultimate Key West vacation home. Indeed, many former U.S. presidents have been vacationing guests at the ‘The Little White House,’ including Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. Descendants of former U.S. presidents are also among distinguished guests who visit the museum and vacation in Key West.
During the weekend of President’s Day, 2013, a number of presidential descendants gathered at the “Little White House’ to chat about what it was like for them to live growing up as family members of a U.S. president. The guests list was varied from the legacies of many different presidents with different ideologies and crossing generations, including: Clifton Truman Daniel (Harry S. Truman’s grandson), Susan Ford Bales (Gerald Ford’s daughter), Margaret Hoover (Herbert Hoover’s great-granddaughter), and Donald Nixon (Richard Nixon’s nephew). A major challenge they share in common is maintaining a level of individuality and privacy in their lives. Sentiment was epitomized in a statement by Truman’s grandson, Clifton Truman Daniel, “My grandfather said presidents shouldn’t have descendants, because they’ll spend their lives being expected to live up to them.”
Whatever the challenges they share as descendants of presidents, there are most definitely advantages. And one of them was to be invited as distinguished guests at the ‘Little White House’ museum. For what’s not to love about Key West’s pristine Truman Annex neighborhood, the laid back life-style of Key West, and some of the finest tropical winter weather on the planet.
