Henry Agard Wallace was the 33rd Vice President of the United States , the Secretary of Agriculture , and the Secretary of Commerce . Wallace was a strong supporter of New deal liberalism, rapid desegregation, and softer policies towards the Soviet Union. His public feuds with other officials caused significant controversy during his time as Vice President under Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the midst of World War II, and resulted in Democrats dropping him from the ticket in the 1944 election in favor of Senator Harry S. Truman. In the 1948 presidential election, Wallace left the Democratic Party to run unsuccessfully as the nominee of the Progressive Party against Truman, Republican Thomas E. Dewey, and States Rights Democrat Strom Thurmond. He won 2.4 of the popular vote and no electoral votes, and finished fourth.
Uncle Henrys son, and Henry A. Wallaces father, was Henry Cantwell Wallace, a farmer, newspaper editor, university professor and author who would serve as the Secretary of Agriculture in the Republican administrations of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. Henry Agard was born on October 7, 1888, at a farm near the village of Orient, Iowa, in Adair County, but the family later moved to Des Moines. Wallaces mother, ne May Brodhead, was deeply religious. She had been to college and was trained in music and art.
Source: Wikipedia