Armed With History
"You get instincts that come with reading so much history," says Skelton, who returns to the example of his home state hero, whose wife, Bess, endorsed him in appreciation of the support Skelton's father had provided her husband in a tough race. "Harry Truman seemed to see around corners, but that's because he read history," says Skelton. "We just think he made the right decisions. At the time, they were horrendously difficult."
And so Skelton keeps reading-and hopes others will do the same. The book he most often returns to these days is Perils of Amateur Strategy, a 1926 account of the disastrous Allied campaign on the Turkish peninsula of Gallipoli during World War I. "I sometimes wonder," the soft-spoken country lawyer and seasoned political veteran says, "whether the administration isn't laying the groundwork for the sequel. It's that old saying: History doesn't repeat itself, but it sure rhymes a lot."
Born: Dec. 20, 1931. Family: Wife Susan (Susie) died in 2005, after 44 years of marriage. Three sons-two currently serving in the military. Education: Bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Public service: Eagle Scout, elder of the First Christian Church, Missouri state attorney general 1961-1963.
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