Cynthia writes:

> Hopefully, the following web site will answer the question of the "S." in
> Harry Truman's name. From the Truman Presidential Library itself:
>
>          http://www.trumanlibrary.org/speriod.htm
>
>  I've seen arguments both ways regarding the "S." Living in Independence,
>  MO, Truman's home town, I've see it both ways, with and without the period.
>  But the web site above gives a good explanation.

I knew what Denys was getting at when he wrote his comments, but an
individual is always the final arbiter of how his or her name is spelled or
pronounced. Anything else is revisionist history. The image I meant to relate
yesterday evening (but screwed up and inserted the wrong URL) is a bit of
Harry's own stationery that he used after he left office. It's at:

      http://www.whistlestop.org/study_collections/bomb/small/mb23.htm

Truman seemed consistent in the use of the period -- at least as consistent
as anyone is who writes his name. Where I'm required to write my initial(s),
I never put periods in them. But on all printed material, Harry always had
the period there. Besides, the "S" did stand for something: the given names
of his two grandfathers, Solomon and Shippe.

Wirt Atmar