Elizabeth Ann, after her birth in
Asbury Park, New Jersey, was given to her aunt and uncle, Elizabeth and
Scott Willits of
Athens, Ohio, to be raised. The Willitses were both music professors at Ohio University. She lived in Athens for several years until she was taken back by Britton once Britton's book was published. Blaesing graduated from
Sullivan High School in the
Rogers Park neighborhood of
Chicago,
Illinois. Later she married Henry Edward Blaesing on September 18, 1938, in
Chicago. At the time Britton began a series of newspaper interviews discussing "Ann Harding" and her marriage, but refusing to provide the name of her husband. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ann, her husband, and her sons lived on Alderdale Street in
Downey, California. In the mid-1960s the family moved to
Glendale, California. In 1964, the matter of Harding's alleged paternity of Blaesing was again brought to the forefront when a series of lawsuits in Ohio involving the ownership of love letters written by Harding to his late mistress
Carrie Phillips were taking place. In an
Associated Press wire service article distributed in mid-July of that year, Blaesing confirmed publicly that in 1934 her mother had told her that
Warren G. Harding was her biological father. "It's not something that you bring up in casual conversation," she stated in the story. When contacted by Harding scholar
Robert Hugh Ferrell, author of
The Strange Deaths of President Harding and later by
John Dean, author of
Warren Harding, The American President Series, Blaesing refused interviews on the topic. Blaesing died in Oregon on November 17, 2005. The family did not make a public announcement, but her son, Thomas Blaesing, confirmed her death during an interview, according to the May 31, 2006, edition of the
Cleveland Plain Dealer. According to Blaesing's son, his mother was not interested in seeking
DNA evidence confirming paternity. Some scholars argued that the Blaesings had a "moral and civic responsibility" to provide their DNA for comparative purposes. == Paternity of President Harding ==