what's in a name

what's in a name

fiction
edward w pritchard


The virtue of long resting anonymity after one is gone is sweet reward. Too be forgotten by those scurrying about their lives after one's race is over is the final tribute for a quiet humble life well spent.

Case in point American twenty ninth President Warren G. Harding. Upon his death in 1923 he was initially remembered as a good man who worked hard at success in life who loved Marion, Ohio the small town he grew up in as a boy pursuing the Horatio Alger walk to success and through grit became successful and in the end President. Cheered at his funeral soon Warren G. Harding's memory was tainted with incrimination.

The cronyism of the Tea Pot Dome scandal, the nefarious affairs with his plain looking secret mistress Nan Britton and a child out of wedlock. Oh the infamy that has branded Harding the worst of the American Presidents.

And what of the poor students at the High School in Ravenna, Ohio named after Warren G. Harding?

Warren G, Harding high school in Northern Ohio has a nice stadium and a marred name that the students and teachers are forever burdened with.

Oh the infamy of having an affair with a plain looking woman.