Irwin H. “Ike” Hoover, the Chief Usher at the White House for more than forty years described the private Harding as a ladies’ man – but a “sporting ladies man.” It is a term few have used in the last half century, but the idea needs no explanation. Harding liked fast trotters from the beginning.

Warren G. Harding and his Duchess

Historians have always wondered why Warren G. Harding ever married Florence Kling DeWolfe. She wasn’t bad looking, but she was no beauty. She was the daughter of a wealthy man, but they were estranged. She was five years his senior and a divorcée in a time when divorce was stigmatic. And she is said to have had a whining and unpleasant voice.

It is easier to understand why she married him. He was not only a good looking, well-built fellow of twenty-five, but he was also one of the most popular men in town. He had a genial, hail-fellow-well-met personality, and made friends easily. His father once said of him, that “it was a good thing Warren wasn’t a woman or he would always be in the family way.” He couldn’t say no. Florence pursued. He couldn’t say no. Or if he could, he didn’t.