Daughter of the
richest man in a small town--Amos Kling, a successful businessman--Florence
Mabel Kling was born in Marion, Ohio, in 1860, to grow up in a setting of
wealth, position, and privilege. Much like her strong-willed father in
temperament, she developed a self-reliance rare in girls of that era.
A music course at the Cincinnati Conservatory completed her education. When
only 19, she eloped with Henry De Wolfe, a neighbor two years her senior. He
proved a spendthrift and a heavy drinker who soon deserted her, so she returned
to Marion with her baby son. Refusing to live at home, she rented rooms and
earned her own money by giving piano lessons to children of the neighborhood.
She divorced De Wolfe in 1886 and resumed her maiden name; he died at age 35.
Warren G. Harding had come to Marion when only 16 and, showing a flair
for newspaper work, had managed to buy the little Daily Star. When he
met Florence a courtship quickly developed. Over Amos Kling's angry opposition
they were married in 1891, in a house that Harding had planned, and this
remained their home for the rest of their lives. (They had no children.)
Mrs. Harding soon took over the Star's circulation department,
spanking newsboys when necessary. "No pennies escaped her," a friend recalled,
and the paper prospered while its owner's political success increased. As he
rose through Ohio politics and became a United States Senator, his wife
directed all her acumen to his career. He became Republican nominee for
President in 1920 and "the Duchess," as he called her, worked tirelessly for
his election. In her own words: "I have only one real hobby--my husband."
She had never been a guest at the White House; and former President
Taft, meeting the President-elect and Mrs. Harding, discussed its social
customs with her and stressed the value of ceremony. Writing to Nellie, he
concluded that the new First Lady was "a nice woman" and would "readily adapt
herself."
When Mrs. Harding moved into the White House, she opened
mansion and grounds to the public again--both had been closed through President
Wilson's illness. She herself suffered from a chronic kidney ailment, but she
threw herself into the job of First Lady with energy and willpower. Garden
parties for veterans were regular events on a crowded social calendar. The
President and his wife relaxed at poker parties in the White House library,
where liquor was available although the Eighteenth Amendment made it
illegal.
Mrs. Harding always liked to travel with her husband. She was
with him in the summer of 1923 when he died unexpectedly in California, shortly
before the public learned of the major scandals facing his administration.
With astonishing fortitude she endured the long train ride to
Washington with the President's body, the state funeral at the Capitol, the
last service and burial at Marion. She died in Marion on November 21, 1924,
surviving Warren Harding by little more than a year of illness and sorrow.
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