July 8, 1891
Warren Harding & Florence Kling DeWolfe

Their story makes you wish William Shakespeare had been alive at the time to write.

The son of a poor doctor meets the daughter of the town’s wealthiest banker and they immediately fall in love. Did I mention that this poor doctor’s son is also a journalist whose worst enemy is the banker?

Well, that’s how the relationship of President Warren Harding and Florence Kling DeWolfe started. And that was just the beginning.

As their courtship progressed, Florence pressured Harding into proposing to her. When her father heard the news, he was furious. Florence’s father forbade her mother from attending and did not speak to his daughter or son-in-law for eight years.

The couple’s relationship appeared strong in the beginning. Mrs. Harding encouraged her husband’s political career and it’s been said that he would never have become president without her.

However, Harding had a political reputation for saying yes to everyone and that reputation followed him into the bedroom. Harding engaged in several extramarital affairs and had at least one with illegitimate child (with his wife’s best friend, no less!).

In 1923, a doctor saw that they were both under a lot of physical and mental stress and suggested that the two take a trip together.

They set off for Alaska. On the way, they stopped in San Francisco and Harding mysteriously died.

Among the theories surrounding the president’s passing is the idea that the first lady committed murder. Before his funeral, she destroyed several presidential documents and his love letters.

Was she protecting her husband or covering up for herself? The world will never know. Mrs. Florence Harding passed away a year later and is buried next to her husband in Marion, Ohio.