Florence Harding was a spouse who supported the political and professional ambitions of her husband, the 29th President of the United States Warren Harding, and went out of her way to advance his career.
A new era for American women began in 1920. It was the first year that women were allowed to vote in a presidential election. In the 1920s, more females were holding professional jobs and living independently, and Florence Harding fit the image.
Background
Born in Marion, Ohio, in 1860, Florence Kling grew up in a wealthy household. Her father, Amos Kling, was a banker and the richest man in town. Florence developed confidence and independence while she was growing up and working with her father, who taught her how to manage his business and how to communicate effectively with men and women, employees and customers.
Career
Harding became more active in politics soon after they were married, and Florence took over the day-to- day operations of the Marion Star, supervising circulation and bookkeeping. The newspaper flourished, and Harding became an important political figure in the state of Ohio. As he advanced through Ohio politics and on to the U.S. Senate, hardworking Florence was always by his side.
Politics
When Harding was nominated for president in 1920, Florence courted the newspapers and all different types of media, including news highlights that were shown in movie theaters, which were becoming common. She endeared herself to female voters by speaking out strongly on womens rights.
Both the White House and its grounds had been dosed to the public while President Woodrow Wilson was seriously ill during the last year of his term. After Harding was elected, Florence reopened the place and again held garden parties on the White House lawn, many of them for veterans of World War I. The festivities were well covered by the media, and newspapers printed her remarks in favor of women competing in sports and tunning their own businesses. Behind the scenes, she encouraged her husband to speak more forcefully on the issue as well as on racial equality and religious tolerance.
Mrs. Harding encouraged the appointment ot female federal employees, contributed her views to some of Hardings most important domestic and foreign accomplishments, and occasionally even gave speeches when her husband was ill or delayed. Editorial cartoons called her “Chief Executive” and praised her new style of leadership as first lady, but she wasn’t flattered by the attention. More than almost anyone else, she knew that it was the changing times and not the force of her personality that was making the difference. The new opportunities open to women also changed the role of America’s first lady.
Some of Florence Harding’s contributions to her husband’s presidency were not quite so praiseworthy. She mixed and served alcoholic beverages to White House guests, even though Prohibition, by constitutional amendment, had made alcohol illegal in the United States. She also strongly recommended the Hardings’ friend Charles Forbes to head the newly created Veterans’ Bureau, and he was eventually convicted and imprisoned for defrauding the bureau of millions of dollars.
Mrs. Harding insisted that her husband’s health be supervised by a personal physician she chose for him, and when he collapsed during a national tour, that same physician wouldn’t allow any other doctors to examine him, insisting that it was a case of food poisoning and nothing more. Harding in fact was more likely suffering from heart problems, and he died slightly more than halfway through his presidency on August 2,1923.
By that time, Mrs. Harding was aware that several massive scandals were about to undermine her husband’s presidency. No one would have known that she was bur¬dened by this information as she accompanied Harding’s body back to Washington, D.C., on a train that was greet¬ed by many thousands of mourners. In his biography of Mrs. Harding, Florence Harding: The First Lady, the Jazz Age, and the Death of America’s Most Scandalous President, Carl Sferrazza Anthony asserts that the first lady quickly burned many of her husband’s personal papers that might have involved him in the scandals.
Views
The relationship between father and daughter became strained when, as a teenager, Florence became pregnant and left town with Henry De Wolfe, the baby’s father. No legal records have ever turned up to show that he and Florence ever got married, but De Wolfe was a chronic alcoholic who couldn’t earn a living. Florence was able to get a divorce, possibly based on the fact that they had lived together long enough to qualify as common-law man and wife.
As a single mother who needed to earn a living, Florence gave piano lessons, until she was able to patch things up with her father and go back to Marion.
She met Warren G. Harding after he became the owner of the Marion Star newspaper in the late 1880s. Harding made the newspaper popular and attracted a substantial political following. Handsome and respected in the community, Harding was considered Marion’s most eligible bachelor. Florence captured him, and they were married in 1891.
Because Florence was five years older than her husband and an heiress to a fortune, there was some talk over backyard clotheslines that their relationship was a marriage of convenience, a business and political partnership. That view gained further support years later when evidence of Warren Harding’s extramarital affairs was made public. Still, a wealth of stories and memoirs from their friends and neighbors shows that Florence Harding was deeply in love with her husband when she married him and deeply hurt when she discovered his infidelity.
Harding became more active in politics soon after they were married, and Florence took over the day-to- day operations of the Marion Star, supervising circulation and bookkeeping. The newspaper flourished, and Harding became an important political figure in the state of Ohio. As he advanced through Ohio politics and on to the U.S. Senate, hardworking Florence was always by his side. She expressed her opinion on issues and helped him deal with negative press reports. She was so effective in keeping his extramarital affairs private that most people had no idea that he had been unfaithful until after he died. Meanwhile, she began suffering from chronic kidney problems, which would sideline her for a time.
Quotations:
"If the career is the husband’s, the wife can merge it with her own."