On November 21, 1945, on a stretch of U.S. Highway 80 east of Dallas, two hundred residents of a small Texas community christened the new highway sign with a bottle of milk, read aloud a congratulatory letter from the new president, and changed the town's name to Truman — for Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States. The community had been called Thin Gravy. Before that, Deanville. Before that, North Mesquite, and Mesquite Tap. When Vice President Truman succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, after Franklin D. Roosevelt's death, the two hundred residents of the East Dallas County crossroads put the question to a vote, and the highway sign that marked their place on the map became the announcement. Harry S. Truman never personally visited the town that named itself for him, as far as the record shows. But the letter he sent was read aloud at the christening, and his name went up over U.S. 80. He went on to serve through January 20, 1953 — presiding over the end of World War II in the Pacific, the founding of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan, the recognition of the State of Israel, the Berlin Airlift, the Truman Doctrine, and the desegregation of the United States Armed Forces. The small town named for him sat on the prairie east of Dallas, a few miles from the 1871 Florence Ranch and the farmstead today preserved as Opal Lawrence Historical Park — the older Mesquite prairie heritage that the U.S. Highway 80 era grew out of. In the 1950s the adjacent City of Mesquite absorbed the Truman community, and the name lived on as the neighborhood at the corner of the highway. In 2007 the City of Mesquite adopted the Truman Heights Neighborhood Plan, formally defining the surviving Truman footprint by its three borders — U.S. Highway 80 to the south, North Galloway Avenue to the east, and Hillcrest Street to the west — with Hillview Drive and Stephenson Drive running through the interior. The two hundred residents are gone. The milk bottle is gone. The highway sign has been replaced more than once. The name is still there.
Truman's lore keeps the milk-bottle christening story alive, retold beside coffee cups and reunion tables across the corner of Mesquite where North Galloway meets U.S. 80. Old-timers trade nicknames for the earlier settlements, recall hitching rides to the Mesquite square, and list the cafes that made a perfect pie. Storm talk returns each spring — hail dimpling hoods, creek water over culverts, and neighbors sweeping glass before church. Highway memories include roadside star cards, state trooper warnings, and hot tar under August sun. Myth and memory mingle in small gestures: a borrowed jack, a spare plug, a phone on the counter. The lesson is endurance plus humor, mile by mile.
Why People Visit Truman Texas
- Drive the old U.S. Highway 80 corridor through Truman Heights — the federal highway along which the November 21, 1945 christening took place, today the southern boundary of the neighborhood that carries the Truman name.
- Walk the Truman Heights corner — North Galloway Avenue at U.S. 80, Hillcrest Street at the western edge, Hillview Drive and Stephenson Drive through the interior. A pocket of postwar Mesquite at the spot where the milk bottle broke the sign.
- Tour Opal Lawrence Historical Park — the preserved Mesquite farmstead with National Register and Recorded Texas Historic Landmark status, the older prairie heritage that the U.S. 80 era grew out of.
- Visit Florence Ranch Homestead — the 1871 ranch homestead that anchors the pre-Truman East Dallas County prairie story.
- Walk historic downtown Mesquite around Front Street — the older Mesquite core a short drive from Truman Heights, with marker history including the 1878 Sam Bass train robbery commemoration on the larger Mesquite story that surrounds the smaller Truman one.
- Stop at Mesquite Arena — the rodeo and concert venue that anchors Mesquite's modern identity, near Rodeo Center Boulevard within a mile of Truman Heights.
- Visit Mesquite city facilities — City Lake Park, Paschall Park, the Florence Recreation Center — for the rec-center rhythm that fills neighborhood weekends.
- Run errands along Gus Thomasson Road, Gross Road, and North Town East Boulevard — the practical corridors that thread Truman Heights into the larger Mesquite map.
- Take a short drive west on U.S. 80 / I-30 into Dallas for the museum and restaurant scene — Truman Heights keeps the small-town corner; Dallas is one highway turn away.
