David Frederick Wallace

David Frederick "Fred" Wallace (January 7, 1900 – September 30, 1957) was an architect and brother of First Lady of the United States Bess Truman.

David Frederick "Fred" Wallace was born on January 7, 1900 in Independence, Missouri to parents David Willock Wallace and Margaret Elizabeth Gates. Fred was the youngest of four children, including Elizabeth Virginia "Bess" Wallace, Frank Gates Wallace, and George Porterfield Wallace. His sister Bess married Harry S. Truman.

As the baby boy of the family, Fred Wallace had a very close relationship with his mother. He was known for his love of a good party, and he bore a close resemblance to his father. Fred graduated from William Chrisman High School in Independence in 1918. He attended the University of Missouri for two years around 1919-1920, and he joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity during his time at the university. By his late 20s, it had become clear that Fred had inherited his father's weakness for liquor. His friends were known to carry him home and leave him on the porch of the family's Independence home after a night of drinking.

Fred Wallace worked as an architect for Kansas City, Missouri real estate developer J.C. Nichols in the 1920s. In 1928 prominent Columbia, Missouri civic leader Frederick W. Niedermeyer selected Wallace to serve as architect for construction of an apartment building in Columbia. Wallace was a fraternity brother of Niedermeyer's youngest son Pierce. The Classical Revival style Frederick Apartments building was completed in 1928 at a cost of approximately $200,000.

In May 1928, Jackson County, Missouri voters approved a bond issue that provided funding for a major road project and construction of a new county hospital. Fred was having difficulty maintaining successful employment as an architect, so his sister Bess Truman persuaded Judge Harry Truman to put Fred on the country payroll as an architect supervising construction of the new hospital. Construction of the new hospital was completed in 1930; however, Fred's drinking and general irresponsibility brought difficulty to the project and stress on his family. Judge Truman was quoted as saying "The hospital is up at less cost than any similar institution in spite of my drunken brother-in-law, whom I had to employ on the job to keep peace in the family. I've had to run the hospital job myself and pay him for it."

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