Lyman Field never gave up on Harry S. Truman.
At 84, Field's hair is silvery and his step is a bit slower than when he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1939. But his moment in history, 50 years ago, remains colorful and vivid.The young lawyer was the first to shake Truman's hand and wish him well after the Man from Independence won the Nov. 2, 1948, presidential election, in spite of polls and predictions that he was a political dead duck.
"He had staged one of the greatest political upsets in all of history, and that upset seems to grow in the national regard as the years go by," the 72-year-old Field recalled during a weekend interview at the Hotel Muehlebach, site of the handshake. "For me, it was really a great moment in history," Field said.
Loyally keeping watch at the Muehlebach's now-gutted penthouse presidential suite, Field and four other friends of Truman rejected predictions that the next president would be Thomas Dewey.
"Most of the faint-hearted had left. The five of us were happy to stay there," Field recalled with a smile.
Truman was in the next county, at The Elms resort in Excelsior Springs, sleeping after eating a ham sandwich and drinking a glass of buttermilk. He woke up early and turned on the radio.
Hearing just before daybreak that he had taken California - and the election - the president had told his Secret Service agents, "Let's go to Kansas City!"
"The black Ford pulled in front of the Muehlebach a few minutes before six o'clock, just as it was getting light. The streets were empty," wrote historian David McCullough in his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, "Truman."
Truman strolled, unshaven but bright-eyed, into the suite and saw the five supporters.
"Truman found only four who were up and about - Matt Con-nel-ly, Bill Boyle, and two Kansas City attorneys, Jerome Walsh and young Lyman Field, who had been barnstorming for Truman on his own all across Missouri, and who now, as the one nearest the door, had the honor of being the first to shake the president's hand and wish him congratulations," McCullough wrote.
Half a century after Truman's upset victory, Field is back at the Muehlebach to promote the Truman Foundation, which honors national figures with its annual Good Neighbor Award.
A steak-and-salmon banquet is expected to attract several hundred people Wednesday, the day after Field will again remember Truman's handshake as he casts his own ballot.