 1896 - 1991 (94 years) Submit Photo / Document
Has 2 ancestors and one descendant in this family tree.
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| Name |
Nanna Popham Britton |
| Nickname |
Nan |
| Birth |
9 Nov 1896 |
Marion, Marion, Ohio, United States  |
| Gender |
Female |
| Death |
21 Mar 1991 |
Sandy, Clackamas, Oregon, United States |
| Initiatory (LDS) |
19 Aug 2015 |
HAWAI |
| FamilySearch ID |
L2FW-HHQ |
| Burial |
Howard, Knox, Ohio, United States |
| Headstones |
 Submit Headstone Photo |
| Person ID |
I93149 |
mytree |
| Last Modified |
25 Feb 2024 |
| Father |
Samuel Herbert Britton, b. 29 Jul 1859, Union Township, Knox, Ohio, United States d. 28 Jun 1913, Marion, Marion, Ohio, United States (Age 53 years) |
| Mother |
Mary Lee Williams, b. 11 Nov 1871, Goshen, Tuscarawas, Ohio, United States d. 14 Aug 1950, Los Angeles, California, United States (Age 78 years) |
| Marriage |
20 Sep 1892 |
Marion, Ohio, United States |
| Family ID |
F30454 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
President Warren Gamaliel Harding, b. 2 Nov 1865, Blooming Grove, Morrow, Ohio, United States d. 2 Aug 1923, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States (Age 57 years) |
| Children |
| | 1. Elizabeth Ann Britton, b. 22 Oct 1919, Asbury Park, Monmouth, New Jersey, United States d. 17 Nov 2005, Welches, Clackamas, Oregon, United States (Age 86 years) |
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| Family ID |
F30449 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
21 Apr 2024 |
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| Notes |
- Nan's father, Dr. Britton, spoke to Harding about his daughter's infatua t ion, and Harding met with her, claiming he told her that someday she wo ul d find the man of her dreams. At the time, Harding was already involve d i n a passionate affair with Carrie Fulton Phillips, wife of James Phil lips , co-owner of a local department store. After she graduated from hig h sch ool in 1914, Britton moved to New York City, to begin a career a s a secre tary. However, she claimed she also began an intimate relations hip with H arding.
Following Harding's death, Britton wrote what is considered to be the fi r st kiss-and-tell book. In The President's Daughter, published in 1928 , sh e claimed she had been Harding's mistress all during his presidency , nami ng him as the father of her daughter, Elizabeth Ann (1919-2005). O ne famo us passage told of their making love in a coat closet in the exec utive of fice of the White House.
According to Britton, Harding had promised to support their daughter, b u t after his sudden death in 1923, his wife refused to honor the obligat io n. Britton insisted she wrote the book to earn money to the support he r d aughter and to champion the rights of illegitimate children. She brou gh t a lawsuit (Britton v. Klunk), but she was unable to provide any conc ret e evidence and was shaken by the vicious personal attacks made by Con gres sman Grant Mouser during the cross examination, which cost her the c ase.
Britton's memoirs seem sincere, but her portrayal of Harding and his col l oquialisms paints a picture of a crude womanizer. In his 1931 book Onl y Y esterday: An Informal History of the 1920s, Frederick Lewis Allen wro te t hat on the testimony of Britton's book, Harding's private life was " one o f cheap sex episodes" and that "one sees with deadly clarity the es sentia l ordinariness of the man, the commonness of his 'Gee dearie' an d 'Say, y ou darling'." Britton's book was among those irreverently revie wed by Dor othy Parker for The New Yorker magazine as part of her famou s Constant Re ader column, under the title "An American DuBarry."
In 1964, the "discovery of more than 250 love letters that Mr. Harding h a d written to Mrs. James Phillips of Marion Ohio, between 1909 and 1920 " g ave further support to Britton's own claims. Journalist R.W. Apple fo un d Britton, who had long lived in seclusion, but was refused an intervi ew . At the time, she was living in the Chicago area. Even at this time , ove r a generation later, her daughter and grandchildren would "occasio nall y be hounded by hateful skeptics" with threats and other unwanted at tenti on that seemed to intensify during presidential elections.
In the 1980s, Britton and her extended family moved to Oregon, where h e r three grandchildren currently live.
Nan Britton died in 1991 in Sandy, Oregon, where she had lived during t h e last years of her life. She insisted until her death that Harding wa s h er daughter's father, a fact that was confirmed by DNA testing decade s la ter, in 2015.
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Submit Photo / Document
Has 2 ancestors and one descendant in this family tree.
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