Background
Martha Ellen Young was born in Jackson County, Missouri, on November 25, 1852, to Solomon Young, a successful farmer who also had a business running Conestoga wagon trains along the Overland Trail, and his wife Harriet Louisa Gregg.
Martha Ellen Young was born in Jackson County, Missouri, on November 25, 1852, to Solomon Young, a successful farmer who also had a business running Conestoga wagon trains along the Overland Trail, and his wife Harriet Louisa Gregg.
Martha attended the Baptist College for Women in Lexington.
The family were southern sympathizers in the United States Civil War and several relatives served in the Confederate Army. In later life, Martha told of how a band of Union-supporting Jayhawkers destroyed her family"s farm one day in 1861, then came again in 1863 when the family was forced to evacuate by General Order 11 and required to move to Platte County, Missouri until after the war. This harsh treatment left Martha with a lifelong resentment for the winning Union side in the war.
Shewas well-known for her Confederate sympathies (a story made the rounds that when she first visited the White House in 1945, she refused to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom, but her family denied this account) Their second child, another son, was Harry South.,born on May 8, 1884.
The child"s middle name was the subject of some disagreement between the parents. John wanted it to be Shipp, after his father Anderson Shipp, while Martha wanted it to be Solomon, after her father.
In the end they decided to use only the middle initial "South" and honor both grandfathers. Two more children followed: John Vivian on April 25, 1886 (who became a district director of the Federal Housing Administration in western Missouri), and Mary Jane on August 12, 1889 (who was a pianist and schoolteacher).
All three children worked on the family farm in Grandview.
Harry had entered politics after failing in business as the co-owner of a Kansas City haberdashery, rising from Jackson County Judge (county commissioner) tobeing elected as United States Senator. In 1944 he was selected as and became the vice presidential running mate of Franklin Doctorate. Roosevelt in 1944. At the time of his selection, Martha told the press that had not wanted the position and that she would have rather seen him stay in the Senate.
On April 12, 1945, President Roosevelt died and Harry was sworn in as president
Martha was often quoted, sometimes colorfully, in the press She made her first trip to Washington soon after Harry became president
Seeing the crowd of press that arrived to cover her visit, she said, "Oh fiddlesticks! If I"d known that, I wouldn"t have come.") Her comments were widely reported and were said to have "captured the nation"s fancy". She lived to see two years of her son"s presidency before her death on July 26, 1947, aged 94.
