The royals - Kitty Kelley [53]
“Are you smiling enough, dear?” asked the Queen.
“Oh, Mother!” said her daughter. “I seem to be smiling all the time!”
Afterward she said Canada was “a country which has become a second home in every sense.” Philip pronounced the country “a good investment.”
When the royal couple arrived in Washington, D.C., for their two-day visit, President Harry S Truman greeted them at the airport. Such a gesture was unusual for the President of the United States, but Truman was grateful to the “fairy Princess,” as he called Elizabeth, for entertaining his daughter, Margaret, in London. His only child had been received by the royal family at Buckingham Palace, so he reciprocated by welcoming Elizabeth with open arms. When she came down the mobile stairway, he was waiting for her. Ignoring royal protocol, he addressed her affectionately as “my dear” and casually waylaid her at the foot of the airplane for ten minutes so photographers could take pictures. While she and her husband waited, Truman told jokes.
“Hundreds of police were milling about,” recalled John Dean. “They told me they were amazed that the Princess and the Duke traveled with so little protection. I shall never forget the ride [we] were given to Blair House… for on our high-speed drive we were escorted by motorcycle police, with sirens blaring all the time.”
Lines of uniformed police surrounded the President and guarded his armor-plated limousine. Jerking his thumb toward the security force, Truman said, “I suppose you haven’t got the tradition of nuts that we’ve got.” Knowing that Puerto Rican nationalists had tried to assassinate the President the year before, Elizabeth and Philip appreciated Truman’s humor. When he stood with them in a receiving line, he announced they were ready by telling his aide, “Bring in the customers.” The royal couple’s smiling faces appeared in the next day’s newspapers, and the President sent the photographs to the King. In his handwritten letter, Truman pronounced the trip a resounding success: “We’ve just had a visit from a lovely young lady and her personable husband,” wrote the President. “They went to the hearts of all the citizens of the United States…. As one father to another, we can be very proud of our daughters. You have the better of me—because you have two!”
The King responded to the expression of paternal love by sending a cable from Buckingham Palace: “The Queen and I would like you to know how touched we are to hear of the friendly welcome given to our daughter and son-in-law in Washington. Our thoughts go back to our own visit in 1939 of which we have such happy memories. We are so grateful to you, Mr. President, for your kindness and hospitality to our children.”
With the White House under renovation, Bess Truman tried to spruce up Blair House across the street. She had removed all the air conditioners, as the royal couple had requested, and although surprised by their desire for separate bedrooms, she prepared a suite for Princess Elizabeth and moved in the blue damask four-poster canopy bed that the Trumans shared. The First Lady also hung flowered curtains from the presidential bedroom in the Princess’s guest room and prepared an adjoining green