The papers of Frank W. Rucker consist mostly of his own memoirs and short stories, and some newspaper clippings of his editorials in the Independence Examiner. The papers also contain Rucker’s correspondence with President Harry S. Truman and White House Press Secretary Charles Ross.

Size: Less than one-half of one linear foot (about 200 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: No donation of copyright was received with this collection. Documents created by U.S. government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in any other documents in this collection presumably belongs to the creators of the documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Philip Nicolaus (2008) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

1886 (March 21)		Born
1908		Graduated from High School, began attending Illinois College
1912		Graduated from Illinois College, began attending the University of Missouri Journalism School in Columbia, Missouri, where Charles Ross was one of his professors.
1913		Graduated from the Journalism School, and began working with the Independence Examiner, in Independence, Missouri, where he became a Co-Publisher and General Manager.
1914 (July 23)		Married Esther Masters
1949		Aided in the transportation of Harry S. Truman’s Inaugural Bible from Independence, Mo., to Washington, D.C.
1975 (July)		Died, Springfield, Missouri

The papers of Frank W. Rucker mostly outline his life through his own writings. The collection includes some brief correspondence between Rucker and President Truman, as well as some brief correspondence between Rucker and Truman’s Press Secretary Charles Ross, who had been one of Rucker’s journalism professors at the University of Missouri. The collection also includes Rucker’s autobiographical memoir “Straight Shooting at Low Aim: How a Journalist Reached His Goal,” which tells the story of his life and relates how Rucker was chosen as one of the men who took the replica of the Gutenberg Bible from Independence, Missouri, to Washington, D.C. for Harry S. Truman’s 1949 Inauguration. The replica was a gift to President Truman from the people of Independence. The collection also contains two of Rucker’s short stories, and editorials he wrote about Truman in the Independence Examiner.

A portion of this collection was originally opened for research as part of the Miscellaneous Historical Documents Collection (MHDC 364).

More information about Frank W. Rucker can be found at the Truman Library in the papers of Harry S. Truman (President’s Personal File: PPF 433).

Container Nos.		Series
1		SUBJECT FILE, 1946-1968
		Correspondence, newspaper clippings, memoirs, and short stories. Arranged alphabetically.

SUBJECT FILE, 1946-1968

• Correspondence
• Newspaper Clippings
• “Straight Shooting at Low Aim: How a Journalist Reached His Goal”
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• "That Man on Horseback"
• "The Rescue of Little Jen"
• Truman, Harry S.

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