Florence Harding

Our book group members each chose a First Lady for our book selections in September. I didn't want the obvious; I tend to like the obscure. Somehow I ended up settling on Florence Harding, wife of one of America's most scandalous presidents.

Florence was everything I hoped for in a First Lady. She had scandals of her own; she was the daughter of a rich but abusive father, had an illegitimate son early in life, and fell hard for the ladies'-man-of-ladies'-man Warren G. Harding. Florence was brutally ambitious for her man Warren, and it was she more than he who pushed Harding to the White House. Warren couldn't keep his hands off the women, and again and again he found himself lolling in bed (or on the couch or even—believe it or not—in the White House) with ladies who were not his wife. Warren surrounded himself with greedy and unscrupulous people.

Florence was ahead of her time, advising her husband about policy decisions, advocating for women's rights, befriending people of color, working hard to help veterans of WWI. She, like Warren, had shady friends, however, and she was taken advantage of again and again. She sought the guidance of spiritualists and quack doctors rather than more knowledgable and upstanding citizens, and she was greatly condemned after her death for these flaws instead of being remembered for her great achievements.