INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- Bess Truman's close friends and family gathered at the historic Truman home Tuesday to mourn the former first lady and arrange for her burial beside her famous husband, the nation's 33rd president.
Among the telephone callers expressing sympathy for the family was President Reagan, who Monday eulogized Mrs. Truman as embodying 'the basic decency of America.'
Margaret Truman Daniel, Harry and Bess Truman's only child, held a news conference on the Truman front lawn and told reporters the Thursday funeral would primarily be a private affair for the family and a few close friends.
'Services will be by invitation only,' she said.
But Mrs. Daniel added that invitations had been issued to President and Mrs. Reagan and all former presidents and first ladies.
Clifton Daniel, who stood by his wife during the brief news conference, said former first lady Rosalyn Carter had indicated she would attend the services, but that President Reagan had expressed doubt that he could make it.
The exact funeral plans won't be finalized until late Tuesday, Mrs. Daniel said. But she described it as 'a traditional Episcopal burial service.'
'It will not be anything unusual. It will be very traditional,' she said.
The travel-fatigued Mrs. Daniel arrived late Monday with her husband from a European tour in connection with the 100th anniversary of the birth ofPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt -- the man who picked her father to be his vice president. She was joined later in the day by her four sons.
The family met briefly at the home with the Rev. Robert L. Hart, rector of the Trinity Episcopal Church, and with officials from the Carson and Son Funeral Home to discuss funeral arrangements for her mother, who died Monday of heart failure.
A Carson spokesman said tentative arrangements called for the funeral to begin at 11 a.m. CDT Thursday at the small, red-brick, Gothic-style church where Mrs. Truman was married in 1919. Burial will follow at the Harry S. Truman Library.
A memorial service is planned for the same time as the private services, a few blocks away at the First Presbyterian Church. The memorial service held by the Independence Ministerial Alliance will be open to the public.
Mrs. Truman, who President Reagan eulogized as embodying 'the basic decency of America,' will be buried beside her husband in a flower and tree-lined courtyard of the library, located on a grassy hilltop overlooking Independence and near the Trumans' white-frame home.
President Truman's will directed that his wife's grave be covered with a marble slab similar to his that has, in addition to her name and other pertinent facts, the inscription: 'First Lady, the United States of America, April 12, 1945-Jan. 20, 1953.'
'She will be remembered as a very gracious lady, and a very smart one too,' Mrs. Daniel said.
At 97, Mrs. Truman, called 'the most beautiful blue-eyed girl in Missouri' by the late president, had lived longer than any previous first lady. Edith Wilson, wife of Woodrow Wilson, was 89 at her death in 1961.
