Jewell Receives Truman Collection

Story by Carolyn Chapman

Jack Capps and Harry Truman had several things in common: they were both farm boys from Missouri, they both served as Field Artillerymen in the United States Army and they shared a fond association with William Jewell College. Capps attended the college during the 1943-1944 academic year before entering the U.S. Military Academy; Truman spoke at the college during commencement ceremonies in 1946 and again at opening convocation in 1964.

Marie and Jack Capps

So when Capps was looking for a repository for some treasured personal mementos from the former president, he decided to donate 43 letters he and his father had received from Truman to the place that mattered to them both: William Jewell College. The college is displaying the Truman memorabilia in Curry Library. The collection includes six autographed first or early editions of books authored by Truman, along with 76 associated volumes. The gift was made in memory of Capps’ sister, Willellen Capps Campbell, William Jewell class of 1943.

To enter the academy, applicants usually solicit nomination from a senator or congressman. Seeking such an appointment, Capps first contacted Truman in 1942 when Truman was a U.S. Senator. In a letter dated January 1944, Senator Truman notified Capps that he was pleased to nominate him for admission. By the time official acceptance came from the Academy, Capps had enlisted in one of the Navy “V” programs, but by mid-July 1944, he had been separated from the Navy and was in cadet basic training at West Point.

Throughout Capps’ cadetship, Truman kept tabs on him, inquiring “How’s our boy doing?” in his correspondence with Capps’ father, Ernest Capps, a Clay County turkey farmer and chairman of the Clay County Democratic Party. Every Christmas, the Capps family would deliver a holiday turkey to the Truman home in Independence. “When I made the news as ‘the cadet who delivered a turkey to the President of the United States,’ I took a lot of ribbing back at West Point,” Capps remembers.

On one early morning delivery, Capps recalls: “The President answered the door and invited my father and me in to chat a bit. On our way to the kitchen with the turkey, the president asked if I had ever met Mrs. Truman. I told him that I hadn’t, and he attended to that when we encountered her in her wrapper busily fixing breakfast: Jack, this is Mrs. Truman. Bess, this is Jack Capps from over at Liberty; you know his Dad of course. Now where do you want us to put this turkey?

Reference librarian Kenette Harder arranged a display of Truman memorabilia in Curry Library.

On a later occasion, while Truman was in the White House, Capps delivered the West Point yearbook to the Commander-in-Chief at the Oval Office. A photograph taken on that occasion is included in the Jewell collection.

Capps married Marie Pappas Drury at West Point in 1953, and when his parents hosted a reception at the farm south of Liberty, Mr. and Mrs. Truman stopped by to wish the couple well.

In addition to the 43 letters from Harry Truman, the Jewell collection includes 12 holograph letters from Mrs. Truman which are of great interest because of their rarity. Capps noted that those letters usually included some appreciation of “those delicious turkeys.”

After graduating from West Point, Capps served worldwide posts in such countries as Germany, Ethiopia, Lebanon and England.  Truman kept track of Capps’ service career. He was particularly interested in accounts of occupation duty in Germany, the missile defense of Chicago during the Cold War, and the mission to establish a military academy for Haile Selassie.

After being selected to serve on the West Point faculty, Capps earned master’s and doctorate degrees in literature at the University of Pennsylvania. He remained with the U.S.M.A. Department of English for 29 years. Following a year’s interruption to attend the Command and General Staff College, Capps accepted a tenured professorship and eventually headed the English Department for 11 years. In 1988, Capps was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and retired at the grade of Brigadier General.

Capps’ connection to Harry Truman came to the attention of biographer David McCullough when McCullough was at West Point to examine material for his book The Path Between the Seas. He mentioned to Marie Capps, then serving as the Academy’s map and manuscript librarian, that the Truman biography was in progress. At her suggestion, he later called to ask for details of Capps’ relationship to the former president.

In addition to the historically significant gift of the Truman memorabilia, Capps and his wife, Marie, have also established the Capps Family Endowed Scholarship at William Jewell. The scholarship will be awarded to a deserving upper-class English or political science major at the college.

Capps, now in his 80s, enjoys reflecting on his rich life. “William Jewell has always been a part of my life,” he says. “I remember Barry Road as nothing but thin gravel, impassable during a heavy rain. But while so much around the college changes and the campus evolves, the influence of William Jewell and her principles remains constant.”