[AdvisorB]

While visiting the Harding house in Marion last year, I saw the pictures of his grandparents hanging in the hallway on the second floor. Looking at the one picture, one could only conclude that his paternal grandfather was black.

[AnAmericanMother]

Yep, the original AH article had lots of pictures (the onlive archive is simply text, scanned in and not proofread too carefully), including of Harding's paternal grandparents. It was that grandfather's mother who was rumored to be "a full-blooded African," as they said in those days.

Harding was not of particularly good family - his dad was an itinerant patent medicine salesman who anointed himself a doctor after a stint as a vet . . . . it was his social climbing, predatory wife who pushed him into the presidency. If W.G. had had his way, he would have spent his life as a newspaper editor in Blooming Grove, playing poker with the boys and living it up.

Ike Hoover, who as head usher in the White House for almost 40 years saw a lot of life, said that Taft was a ladies' man, but Harding was "a sporting ladies' man."

[savedbygrace]

I saw the pictures of his grandparents hanging in the hallway on the second floor

His grandparents were hung in the hallway? That's cruel.

;-)