Girl for simon and shooter, the first chronicling of jack and bouquets life from 1950 to 1954, when she worked as a newspaper columnist and writer and met and married future president john f. Kennedy. Welcome, carl. Thank you. I appreciate so much being able to join the White House Historical association today, and im very honored to give you a little bit of a background about Florence Harding and the book. I have to tell you, as is often said, apparent should not really have a favorite child and i think in author perhaps should not have a favorite book, but i will say that this research of this book, and then the unique promotion that i did for the book, will always be a very important part of my life. I started researching this book at a time when the sun was just setting on the last generation of people who knew the hardings firsthand. Of course, they had been young children. Then at the end of the process, the 75th anniversary of the death of president hardening, and of course he died in 1923, so this was in 1998. I retraced the hardings western tour. The vast Continental Railroad trip in the blistering summer of 1923, and all the stops along the way. Then i even went up to alaska and the hardings had gone up to alaska and the president had driven the golden spike that completed the Alaska Railroad. As a guest of the Alaska Railroad i was brought up, and there was an elderly man there who had been at that original ceremony, then in his nineties, and he really did that little bit of the striking of the golden spike with a second golden spike. So this story has a lot of personal residents for me. I would also say that Florence Harding has a lot of personal residence for me, because she, well, i so often will happen, we had many great first ladies who were married to president s who were not always remembered quite so kindly. But would ends up happening so often is these women really are forgotten. They are oftentimes turned into caricatures and nobody really gives them much attention. And i always detected something about mrs. Harding that i thought was as where the and important as Eleanor Roosevelt was to the role of first lady. And as i began doing the research over a long period of years, starting when i was in college, i really felt the full measure of her greatness. Florence harding had been born to a very successful small tyrone in central ohio man who traded real estate, owned a Hardware Store, started modestly. She was born above the Hardware Store on the second floor. The eldest of three, her father had hoped she would be a boy so he sort of raised her as he would have a son. Teaching her all of those things that at that time, with so much of a conscious, you know, notion of what gender should or shouldnt be doing, he sort of ignore that. She rode forces. She had great physical strength. They were close. But he was rather tyrannical. Her mother was a bit passive. As time went on, and she began developing more of a sense of what she wanted to do with her life, which was to be a serious musician, and she sent her to the cincinnati conservatory of music, there were a lot of arguments. Ultimately, she ran away with a neighborhood boy. There is no proof of there being a legal marriage. They held themselves out as married, and recognized as a common law marriage. She had a son. Unfortunately, her companion abandoned her. And she had to come back to the small town of marion, where she broke into a house that she knew was abandoned for the winter. And from, there really continue to struggle. Ultimately her father meet sort of a deal with her in which she would take her son in and raise him as her own. She begins piano lessons. One of her student is a student by the name of james hurting, interested and journalism. He buys a small local paper, and florence really goes after him. Hes five years younger than her. But they really form a great business partnership, and she becomes the Business Manager of the newspaper. And she ends up turning into one of the most successful daily papers in the state. And it was not only, didnt require a great deal of business acclimate but also a great deal of personal, skills as well as a sense of what made a great story. She was working with journalists. Hes elected lieutenant governor. And, then makes a run for the u. S. Senate and florence was really behind him on this. He formed a friendship with a powerful lobbyist by the name of harry, and he and florence became sort of coat managers of hurtings career. And she comes to washington as the senate wife. And even though she was sort of a big fish in a small pot in ohio she is now just the senate wife. Doesnt really know anybody, hurting becomes friends ahead of time with nicholas, of course Nicholas Long worth married roosevelt, and already established, washington is sort of the hostess and they are the famous poker games began. But they also include a man by the name of dead maclean. Macleans father owned the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Washington Post, and his wife who was a great friend of elizabeth, owned the hope diamond. She and miss hoarding, despite their 30 year age difference became instant friends and innocence more than friends. They became great confidants. Evelyn and she were excited to discover that they not only shared a common bond in their love and respect for animals. For all living beings. But also for astrology. And a belief in various forms of spiritualism. And miss mcclain took miss hurting to her fortune teller which was apparently everyone in washington, including edith wilson. A woman by the name of madam marcia. Madam marcia did carrot kurt readings an astrology readings for miss hurting about her husband and she predicted in the winter of 1920 right as the republican president ial primaries were beginning she predicted that if hurting ran he would be elected, but that he would die of sudden peculiar violent death by poison. Whats interested is that the seams were reported in the newspaper at the time. In fact, at the june 1920 convention in chicago, miss harding spoke openly about them. Saying she saw one word above her husbands head selected, that word was tragedy. What was also going on at that point of time was the 19th amendment was on the verge of being ratified. Mrs. Hurting had always been a suffer just. She always believed in the quality of women. And during that summer campaign, he began to give interviews with reporters, which candidates usually didnt, and rather unusually, announced the fact that she didnt were a wedding ring. She wasnt allowed to cook. Her interests were mostly in business. She addressed some of the hot political issues of the day. For, example very much against league of nations. And integrity u. S. And any overseas obligations. This of course coming on the heels of world war i. And hurting is elected. In no small part because of florence is management of particularly in the area of press relations. Kind of like Jacqueline Kennedy in terms of having a strong sense of how to frame her husband as the ideal president ial candidate. Both in terms of his words and deeds. But also in terms of his appearance. The abolition of media is very crucial at this time, because although we dont yet have sandra courtings, the sophistication of news reels and official recordings is great. And the hurtings are really the first couple to have their images proliferate across all media, both, imprint newspapers, and magazines, but also in newsrooms that often play in the middle of, when people went to the theater at the time and watched silent films they would watch newsreels which of course had text, because there was no audio recording describing the scenes. So the country was exposed to florence hurting and a way that they had never been before, to any other first lady. And as first lady, she gets on to the steps integration day, white house, she turns to her husband and says i got to the presidency. Now what are you going to do with that . Once they are in the white house, later that, day he tells the servants to open all the windows. Republican looking and. Because she says its their white house. She came to the role of first lady with a very strong sense of public duty, that the public was and a sense her constituency. This is and similarity to Eleanor Roosevelt, and its not something often seen by any of her predecessors. We know that the first ladies before her always so the role of the upkeep of the house, the entertaining, at that point, traditional feminine roll, womens role in american society. But Florence Ardern really expanded that. She felt a sense of great civic responsibility. And this manifested primarily with three constituencies. One was the wounded and disabled veterans who were returning from world war i. And in fact, when hoarding helps to establish the newly formed more veterans bureau, its mrs. Hurting that we see in unfortunately on charles to head. That he was a friend of hers. She gets involved, in bureau affairs. And when scandals begin to break, shes on it very quickly. The second area she really concentrated on was economic and political, and professional equity for women. She encouraged meant to seek Higher Education. She supported it. A ban on sugar, when sugar prices became too exorbitant, she talked about how the housewife could have power. And she encouraged women to become more involved in the political process now that they have the vote. She said its not a question of if. Its a fact. Women should become better educated. Although she was a republican, she supported with many at the time in the democratic and Republican Party saw as a potential threat to their loyal members by the creation of International Womens party. Mrs. Hurting supported the National Womens party and theyre successful effort to have a of law trisha mott, susan b anthony, and i just forgot the fourth name. Anyway, the third area she focused on was animal rights. She was radical. She didnt even support the use of animals and any kind of experimentation for development of products that would be that humans would use. And she was very engaging. Very friendly. But also very blunt. Sometimes she would rub people the wrong way. They tributed that to her small town ways. Even though she was older, then many of the first ladies had been when they assumed that position. She was very much in touch with current popular culture. For example, she is the first to use film, movies, a silent film, where the sound of which was provided by a life orchestra. She use that as after dinner entertainment in the white house. She was fascinated by the movie cameras. Evelyn mcclain, she got to know w. Griffith and the sisters came to visit the hearties in the white house. She brought the first radio into the white house. And although she tried her best to stick to the tradition of first lady not speaking on the record with reporters, she couldnt help herself. So she really was in a very short period of time a very dynamic women, and a very honest woman. Everybody also wonders about the scandals. The fact of the matter is as far as personal life goes, we know from letters released that warrant hurting had a full blown love affair with a woman who had been his wifes best friend. We also know because of dna the very young and i think she was 40 years younger than hurting, and passionately in love with him, had a child by him. The degree to which mrs. Hoarding knew about the affair was not entirely clear. Although there is some suggestion that she suspected something. But she certainly knew about the Gary Phillips incident. In a other entirely different dimension, parties love each other. When mrs. Hearting almost died in 1922 because of kidney ailment the president was really beside himself and love the interdependence that they had on each other. It really emerged from firsthand accounts at that time. As part of her sort of spiritual relief, mrs. Hoarding was always rather almost obsessed with this vision she had for many decades of going to alaska. She felt somehow it was part of some mission. She had to complete. So even though the president s health is beginning to deteriorate, and hes looked over by frankly a incompetent home you path for their hometown, who actually has mrs. Hardings full trust because she really sees the only person who can safer. And in fact when the brothers come and is almost tying in the white house, it is only a little talk soy or who is able to save her. Through the notes of the second in command, the position, we know that sawyer was bright incompetent. During this trip out west, he was doing things that were worsening would boon you to be a very bad heart condition. Ultimately, president harding died in mrs. Hardings presence in San Francisco on august 2nd, 1923 in the palace hotel in San Francisco. So ultimately, rumors began that she had poisoned him and there are some suggested, even by her good friend, that perhaps the power of suggestion, mrs. Harding believed it was a fait accompli that the president would die. But later, a book came out which said she poisoned him was utter fiction. But the book was well crafted in that it took what were known truths and sort of spun a web around those. So ultimately, mrs. Harding was for many years remembered, if ever remembered, as the first lady rumored to have poisoned the president. Im also being i want to be conscious of the time here. I want to make sure im not speaking too long. And so do give me an indication if im doing okay or if im going over the time. You are doing great. I believe we also may have some photos to share. Maybe we can get those up. Yes, this is the home in marion, ohio where florence parting grew up. It was the home of her father. Many times, she would learn how to slip out of the window and runoff with dewolfe, henry dewolfe, the man she had her first common law marriage with. That is a bulldog. Since i have two dogs, im very happy she had a bulldog. But i believe his name was bully boy. I cant confirm that 100 . But the more famous one was the aaron dale called laddie boy. Many times, mrs. Harding would let laddie boy go to serve as a host, if you will, for a lot of Animal Rescue and Animal Protection fundraisers. Here is mrs. Harding with a group of women she loved meeting at the white house with a ride variety of women activists. Whether they were professional organizations or, even in the case of a delegation of filipino women who came seeking support for filipino for the independence of the philippine islands, she particularly and especially wanted to encourage groups of graduating classes of women because she so believed in the need for Higher Education for women. Here she is after the election, but before the inauguration, at a senate lives luncheon honoring her. The woman with the white feathered hat on one side is evelyn to claim. On the other is lowest, who was the outgoing Vice President s wife. Evelyn mcclain left us some wonderful and colorful and vivid recollections of those years. The most famous up which poses mrs. Harding after the body of the president has been brought back to the white house in the coffin, asking the coffin to be opened and then speaking to him and telling him the trip has not hurt you a bit and expressing the feeling that, and this is sort of wet helps lead to these rumors, now that its all over im beginning to think it was all for the best. And here is mrs. Hardening, interested in and fascinated by the new technology of film. And motion picture. Here she is winding a camera on the lawn of the white house. I believe the group was a group of amateur women, camera people i guess you would call them, or camera women as i think they were called. But in many ways, florence parting really developed the notion of the photo op that both president s and first ladies used. She would pose in a group. She would participate by holding something that was symbolic of it. She never, she was very self conscious of her physicality posing for images , she was uncomfortable posing for images. But nonetheless, she always did it as part of what she thought was her public duty as first lady. This is after her recovery from her illness in march of 1923. This was before they head down to florida for their annual winter vacation. At this point in the spring of 1923, so many of their friends, close personal friends, helped our in the administration and the scandals were beginning. So albert fall, who they known in and the senate, a senator from mexico, appointed the secretary of interior. The secret leasing of oil, federal oil reserves and teapot dome. It begins to raise the eyebrows. The veteran scandal breaks in february. And just two months after this trip, shes taken with the attorney general, and smith who was a dollar a year man at the justice department. It is discovered that smith was involved in the illegal trafficking of confiscated liquor during prohibition. Then he commits suicide. He was a very close friend of there is. So you can understand that by the time they are leaving a month later for alaska, mrs. Harding has a lot of dark clouds over her. Here she is at a fair helping to promote some of the textiles that were made by the disabled veterans up at walter reed. Miss Evelyn Mcclain actually, who first introduced mrs. Harding to the men returning from the front who were being treated at walter reed. Here she is at walter reed with, i believe he was a blind veteran of that first world war. She referred to them as my boys and, tying in with the squalls, mrs. Harding started big garden parties every spring. She had a series of them. One of the biggest and most important to her was the garden party for the wounded veterans, the wounded and disabled deterrence from walter reed. Hundreds would come down to the white house and that is where those squall drinks were served. But that remains a tradition. It did during the coolidge and hoover and truman. A then up through the eisenhower years. Those white house garden parties for veterans were held. Sorry about that. All right, so let us transition into our q and a. We have a bunch of great answers for you tonight. Unfortunately, i dont know if we will be able to get through all of them, but lets see. All right, first question. We have a question from denise from ohio. She says on the anniversary of 9 11, i was reminded about how First Lady Laura Bush was a terrific first lady in our history. And what ways do you think points parting was or wasnt the best fit for her time . I think she was the best possible fit because, even though she was an older woman, she embodied authentically the notion of the new woman. Sometimes caricatured as the flapper. She even wore shorter dresses and styles, maybe not necessarily the most flattering to her, but representing a certain sense of liberation. She also had a navy combo that performed jazz music for the first time at the white house. So in so many ways culturally, but also politically, i think she really was one of those who ideally fits the times. A lot of people want to know, do you believe the alleged abuse that florence poisoned her husband, and that is really what led to president hardings death . No, i dont believe that she did. Im convinced absolutely that she did not. However, i think what happened was, because this guy, dr. Sawyer, the way i put it i think she was in unwitting accomplice to a negligent homicide. I think that had doctor boone prevailed, that the president s might have been saved, but that with the sort of 90 concoctions and things that doctor sawyer was doing, and that because soy are saved her life, she had implicit belief in him. He was a bit like a rasputin to her. Jim ramsey from washington d. C. Asks, given mrs. Harding savvy with the media, why is she not better known in our u. S. History and culture as was Eleanor Roosevelt . Well, the main thing is something that ive always said. No matter how much good a first lady does, it can never overcome the perceived damage or harm or failure of her husband. We always have to keep that in mind when we are talking about first ladies. I mean, i always say it may be true that we would never know about these women had they not been married to those men. The flip side of that is, had these men not been married to these women, we may never have heard of these men. She died only about a year and two months after the president had died. As a widow, while the teapot dome trials are going on and other scandals are coming out, she is still there, but shes a little paranoid. Thinking her phone is tapped and so forth. Theres even a move to get her to run for governor. She wants to write a book. She wants to write a book about her husband. I suppose that, in some ways, it would have served as an autobiography. The truth is she never got her version of her life out. The hardening papers were closed because doctor sawyer and his son were very possessive and very territorial. The hardings having children, of course, and the sawyers really being in there and controlling everything. They kept those papers locked up for some 40 or so years. So really, its more a matter of the fact that she never had a chance to tell their story. Bill from San Francisco asks, and this is in a similar vein as the last question. Was Florence Harding vilified like Eleanor Roosevelt was sort of usurping her husbands role as president , or did his death . Interesting question. Two things. Because there was such a new attitude in the country with women voting, not only the reality of it, but sort of the perception of it. Mrs. Harding being sometimes referred to as, there was a cartoon that showed the hardings together. It said the president and mr. Hearting. And so there were a lot of jokes, a lot of references. She was not anyway really attack to criticize. There were a couple of little things. One was her being held responsible for the appointment of a woman in california to a federal position where the womans questions the womans qualifications were questioned. The other thing is she sent money to help save the life of a very elderly work horse in connecticut. This is a timely question or typical question for martin in bc. He asks what do you think of a request of descendants of to disinter hurting in the industry. I dont know enough and havent given him enough thought but i know that he is a nice guy. A very wonderful guy. He believed strongly and very much loved his grand father, and always defended, her believed in, her his mother, elizabeth, who was the daughter of president hurting was actually a little bit more removed from that cool thing. I think as a young woman growing up you can imagine that it was more difficult for her to deal with it. It was her mothers big issue. But the dna has of course unequivocally proven that his grandfather is president harding. When you asked publicly harding was a supporter of civil rights, he supported the antilynching bill in 1920, but a third hand account says that he was a member of the klan, what was first lady hurtings position on civil rights . Harding was not a member of the client and he spoke out against. It whats happened was there was a convergence in washington of the ku klux klan at the very same time that there was a convergence of one of the secret sort of vaguely secret watches, of the masons, and they had different paths that werent by any stretch of the imagination anything similar. Sort of a ceremonial hat that the members war. And the hoardings welcomed them in the white house. It seems to me that the two stories have become completed. Mrs. Harding very strongly condemned racism, and in fact, when a woman, a member of the Republican Party of florida, state party, was trying to get a letter to the president that wasnt being answered, and then wrote to mrs. Harding to use her influence and a way that was a strike against equal rights for people of color in florida, mrs. Harding respond very sharply, and said, if these are your views, and what you are advocating, i would ask you to no longer right to either my husband or myself. Because this doesnt represent our views. So you know, its interesting because like the roosevelts, there is still sort of this adherence to the way things were. Me there were people of color who largely served in domestic roles. There was a limited number of those who had achieved a level of National Prominence that they were welcomed at the white house. I dont find a record of any prominent people of color being welcomed at the white house. But in terms of correspondents, and in terms of what you said publicly, mrs. Harding advocated civil rights. Whats interesting to, when she went to alaska, as far as i was able to determine, shes the first figure of National Prominence or associated with the federal government, who advocates statehood for florida. And is very engaged and interested in the native culture of alaska. And speaking of them as full americans. So we only have time for a couple more questions. I have a few more. A lot of people want to know a little more about what mrs. Harding lightfoot looked like after her husbands death. I think her legacy was more muted because he died in office, she died a year later. And really, its only mcclain, as the wife of the editor and owner of the Washington Post who is at that point writing very positive things about her. But when you look at how she is really the first first lady to feel a sense of commitment to the public, that the American Public was her constituency, that the first lady had a responsibility to answer the needs of the american people. So you have her weighing in on immigrants. Running for help. You have her helping small individual cases of people who need help. And referencing those letters to the different departments and agencies. Very much like Eleanor Roosevelt did. In the past, you might have a first lady like miss cleveland who got involved in a local charity. Or for example mrs. Taft who had a vision for the city, and sheet for example got involved in legislation that ended up in the first health and Safety Measures and standards in the federal workplace. But it was all still related to life in washington. Or life within the federal government. Eleanor wilson again, the whole issue of her seeking to read the city of what was deplorable housing without providing housing for the displaced people of color. You know there were those before her undertook these private mrs. Harding had a national view. She saw the entire nation as her constituency. Even when they made the western tour across the country and alaska, she began to speak and deliver informal speeches from the back of the train to the public. So she saw the first lady as a public role. Thats her most important legacy. Excellent. Just for a final question. What specific impacted he maybe have on future first ladies . Im not so sure she did because i think it was largely forgotten. Eleanor roosevelt, i came across a thing where it was about knew that misses harding had a very close friendship with a couple of reporters, female reporters, because some of those women reporters who cover mrs. Harding ten years later covered mrs. Roosevelt. So they spoke to her about that. But i think you know, to my knowledge, no other first lady has gotten involved in animal rights. But certainly in terms of advocating economic, political education and professional equity of women, you see Eleanor Roosevelt doing that. And lady bird johnson. And mrs. , carter misses, clinton and then laura bush. You see also the care of the veterans particularly. I think thats were her great legacy is. Many first ladies became advocates for the disabled and wounded veterans of world war ii. Of the korean war, the vietnam war, right up to mrs. Obama working with then second lady, joe biden, creating a program simply and directly to help active military, and their families. So i think thats a big part of it. This is linking a little part of that. For example, except for you know, when they cross the path of a individual veteran, of the civil war, first ladies from mrs. Lincoln to mrs. Harding really didnt focus on that. So if anything that is maybe where she laid groundwork. Excellent. Thank you crawl for your wonderful presentation this evening. And 16, 20 the mayflower traveled from plymouth england to america. And the pilgrims settled the pilgrim county on the coast of massachusetts. Thanksgiving morning on American History tv a conversation with robert stone about the virtual mayflower project which uses Virtual Reality to recreate the ship and the harbor which is set sail. Professor stone describes what life couldve been like for the pilgrims and crew. Thursday starting 8 am eastern on cspan threes American History tv. Next on American History tv. Stephanie joins rogers details her research into southern white woman slave owners who she calculates comprised