Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, on May 8, 1884. He graduated from Independence High School but never attended college. He worked as a clerk and then served as an artillery officer in the U.S. Army during World War I. On his return from the war, Truman settled in Kansas City, Missouri, and opened a haberdashery. Active in the Democratic Party, Truman was elected as an administrator of Jackson County, Missouri, in 1922, a position he lost in the election of 1924 but regained two years later. In 1934 he ran for the U.S. Senate and won. During his tenure in the Senate, Truman developed a reputation as a reformer by opposing government waste and corruption. For the 1944 election, President Franklin D. Roosevelt chose Truman as his vice presidential running mate to replace the incumbent vice president, Henry Wallace. Wallace was thought to be too liberal by many, and in view of Roosevelt’s failing health, Wallace’s possible ascendancy to the presidency was considered a risk.