Presidential Families Weekend is a series of events throughout President's Day weekend, running Thursday through Monday in Key West.
The event is presented by the Key West Harry S. Truman Foundation in partnership with the Society of Presidential Descendants and takes place at the Harry S Truman Little White House, Florida's only presidential museum.
"And you know, a great location to to celebrate the American Presidency," says Clinton Curry, executive director of the foundation and one of the founders of Presidential Weekend 15 years ago.
"It was the brainchild of Clifton Truman Daniel and Margaret Hoover," said Curry.
Daniel is the grandson of President Harry Truman.
Events include a happy hour at Harry's, with presidential trivia games on Thursday, Curry said.
"And then Saturday, of course, that is the Presidential Families Forum and this year's type of topic is historic preservation," he said.
The descendants will share information on their families, how they worked to preserve certain artifacts or helped cultural information about the about the nation's history.
On Sunday and Monday, Daniel will perform the play "Give 'Em Hell, Harry."
"It's an acclaimed long-running stage production returning here," said Curry. "It's described as a faithful and often humorous portrayal of a one-man-show celebrating the unique persona of President Harry S Truman."
Daniel, a retired journalist, found a copy of the play at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, and started learning it.
"It's the weirdest retirement program anybody's ever come up with," said Daniel, of his portrayal of his grandfather. "People started telling me I looked like my grandfather and that there was a play out there called 'Give 'Em Hell, Harry.
"It's great to be able to step into his shoes — to dress as him and do the show in the place where he spent 175 days living and working during his presidency."
Daniel is also one of the founders of Presidential Families Weekend and one of the founders of the Presidential Descendants Society. He is instrumental in bringing in the various descendants to the weekend celebration every year.
In addition to Daniel, the descendents are:
- James Carter, grandson of Jimmy Carter.
- Ulysses Grant Dietz, great-great-grandson of Ulysses S. Grant (the first president to visit Key West).
- Mary Jean Eisenhower, granddaughter Dwight D. Eisenhower.
- Massee McKinley, great-great grandson of Grover Cleveland, and great-great nephew of William McKinley.
- Tweed Roosevelt, great-grandson of Theodore Roosevelt.
- Patricia Taft, great-granddaughter of William Howard Taft.
"For me, the best thing about being related to a president is that you know other people related to presidents. We geek out over each other as much as anybody else might geek out over us," said Daniel.
"The fun part for the folks that come to the to Presidential Families Weekend is that you just can hang around and talk to people descended from presidents. And they love it. They have a good time, and they're all lovely folks to talk to. So that's a lot of fun. You know, return seven of us loose on the crowd, too."
For tickets and information, visit trumanlittlewhitehouse.org/foundation/events.
Copyright 2025 WGCU
