- NAME – Warren Gamaliel Harding
Library of Congress - NICKNAME(S) – Wobbly Warren / President Hardly / Winnie (as a child)
- BIRTH / DEATH – Nov. 2, 1865 Blooming Grove, Ohio / San Francisco (age – 57)
- FATHER – doctor, newspaper owner
- MOTHER – doctor
- COLLEGE – Ohio Central College
- WIFE – Florence King (the Duchess)
- KIDS – none (officially) / one stepson
- PETS – Airedale (Laddie Boy); bulldog (Od Boy); canary (Petey)
- RELIGION – Baptist
- ANCESTRY – English – Dutch
- AGE – 55
FIRSTS:
– first to talk on the radio
– first to ride in a car for his inauguration
– first to visit Canada and Alaska
– first to be survived by his father
– first speech on the radio
– first elected while serving in the Senate
– first to learn to drive a car
MA AND PA: His father was a college graduate. He became a teacher, but it did not agree with him. Before going off to fight in the Civil War towards the end, he snuck off with a local beauty and they got married. They kept it a secret as he went off to war and she returned to her parents. They did not find out until he returned from the war with typhoid fever. His big moment in the war was when he and two comrades walked into the White House and asked to see President Lincoln. After one hour of waiting they were shown in and Lincoln thanked them for their service and jovially shook hands with them. After the war he studied medicine and became a country doctor. Prosperity did not come with the job and bad investments did not help. However, he did become part owner of a newspaper called The Marion Star. His son would work there and eventually run it. He was not above trying to make money off his son’s political success and loved the limelight of being the President’s father. After Phoebe died in 1910, he remarried to a woman 25 years younger. When that ended in divorce, he married a woman 26 years younger who gave birth to Warren. Some historians blame Harding’s incompetence as President on his free-spirited mother who was too permissive. Parents
BACKGROUND:
– oldest of 8 kids
– ran the Marion Star newspaper
– elected to the Ohio legislature
– Lieutenant Governor of Ohio
– lost election for Governor
– Senator
FIRST LADY: Florence often told reporters: “I have only one hobby – my husband”. She was the daughter of the richest man in her home town. Her first marriage ended in divorce. She had a son from that marriage. She basically ran the business end of the newspaper and made it profitable. He called her “The Duchess”. She suspiciously burned most of his papers after his death. Kelly 331
Library of Congress
DEATH:
– personal doctor diagnosed food poisoning and refused to let other doctors examine him for a heart attack
– his wife was reading him an article when his last words were: “That’s good. Go on. Read some more.”
– his wife refused to allow an autopsy which fueled suspicion that she might have poisoned him
TRIVIA:
– he played the cornet
– his wife destroyed most of his papers and correspondence after his death
– he had the largest feet of any President – size 14
– lost a set of White House china in a poker game
– from ages 22-35, he suffered five nervous breakdowns and spent time in Dr. Kellogg’s famous sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan Weird 268
– as President he would sneak into burlesque shows
– his fifteen year affair with Carrie Phillips (a friend’s wife) was a secret until love letters were discovered in the 1964; the Republican National Committee paid her $20,000 plus $2,000 to keep quiet and sent her and her husband on an all-expenses paid trip to Europe. They did not return until after his death. Weird 255-6
– coined the word “bloviating” which he defined as saying a lot, meaning little
– golfed twice a week as President
– suffered a nervous breakdown at age 24 and spent time in a sanitarium run by J.H. Kellogg of cereal fame
– he made the Marion Star a success by insisting on having the names of every person in town appear in the paper at least once a year
ANECDOTES:
NAN BRITTON – Harding’s most famous affair was with a young woman named Nan Britton. According to her, Harding found out about her obsession with him when she was thirteen and they began exchanging secret letters at age sixteen. The affair began when she was 20 and he was a 51 year-old Senator. Before he was President they would meet in cheap hotels, but they also made love in the Senate Office Building. In Feb., 1919, she told him she was pregnant. She refused Warren’s urging of an abortion. Harding paid her $500 per month for child support. Five months into the relationship, Harding gave her a valuable sapphire ring and pledged undying love. The affair continued after she gave birth and after he became President. They would meet in a White House closet for privacy. After his death, she wrote a book entitled The President’s Daughter. The baby grew up and graduated from high school under the name Elizabeth Ann Harding. DNA testing in 2015 proved Elizabeth was Harding’s child. maroon 107 / Weird 255-6
LADDIE BOY – Harding had a pet Airedale named Laddie Boy that became a celebrity. The dog would sit in on cabinet meetings in his own chair. He was once interviewed by a newspaper. Because Harding was an ex-newspaperman, after his death newspaper boys took up a collection to create a statue of Laddie Boy. Each boy was asked to donate a penny. 19,134 pennies were collected and molded into the statue that was placed in the Smithsonian Institute. Kelly 159