Florence Harding with Laddie Boy

Born Marion, Ohio First Lady 1921–1923

In 1891, Florence Mabel Kling DeWolffe (1860–1924) was a divorcée and a single mother who was supporting herself as a piano teacher when she married Warren Harding, a newspaper publisher five years her junior. During her husband’s presidential campaign, she led the press to believe that she had been a widow when they married. She also refused to issue a statement in response to public speculation that candidate Harding had African American ancestors.

This photograph shows Florence Harding in the uniform of the Girls Scouts of America, an organization she strongly supported. Laddie Boy, the first White House celebrity pet, accompanies her. Both Florence Harding and the Airedale terrier had their own chairs to sit in during cabinet meetings. After President Harding’s death in office, the Roosevelt Newsboys’ Association commissioned a sculpture of Laddie Boy as a memorial to him. It is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.

National First Ladies’ Library