PRESIDENT WARREN G. HARDING - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 09/12/1922 - HFSID 27653

WARREN G. HARDING
The President appreciates "kindly things" said about his wife, who was stricken with kidney problems that eventually killed her.
Typed Letter Sigend: "Warren G. Harding" as 29th U.S. President, 1p, 7x8¾. The White House, Washington, 1922 September 12. To Mrs. Charles L. Bird, Overmoor, Peterborough, N.H. In full: "I want you to pardon a dictated acknowledgment to your very thoughtful note so that I may personally make reply. I greatly appreciated your kind and sympathetic expressions and I very much like what you said concerning Mrs. Harding. I really think she deserves the kindly things you said concerning her. We did pass three or four exceedingly anxious days and the one great comfort that came during that time was found in the expressions of sympathetic and encouraging friends." In 1905, Florence Kling Harding was stricken with a near fatal kidney ailment that resulted in the removal of one kidney. In 1922, she was again stricken with kidney problems and the President wrote this letter acknowledging Mrs. Bird's note about her health. Ironically, Mrs. Harding would outlive her seemingly robust husband. Although not in good health, she accompanied Harding on a goodwill tour to the West Coast and Alaska. On August 2, 1923, on the return trip, 57-year-old President Harding died suddenly in San Francisco. A year later, on November 21, 1924, 64-year-old Mrs. Harding succumbed to kidney disease. Fine condition.