Scott Willetts was a prominent violin teacher with the American Conservatory of Music

American Conservatory of Music

The American Conservatory of Music was a major American school of music founded in 1886 by John James Hattstaedt . The conservatory was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit corporation. It was located in Chicago until 1991 when its Board of Trustees — chaired by Frederic Wilbur Hickman...

 in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 who coached many members of Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...

 from 1940 through 1974. He was a student and friend of Otakar Ševčík

Otakar Ševcík

Otakar Ševčík was a Czech violinist and influential teacher. He was known as a soloist and an ensemble player, including his occasional performances with Eugène Ysaÿe.-Biography:...

 who created a leading pedagogical method for teaching violin that is still widely used today.

Scott Willetts is noted in The Strange Deaths of President Harding as having helped raise
Elizabeth Ann Blaesing

Elizabeth Ann Blaesing

Elizabeth Ann Britton Harding Blaesing was the alleged illegitimate daughter of Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States, and Nan Britton, a native of Marion, Ohio....

, rumored to be the daughter of the Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding

Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...

, the 29th president

President

A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

 of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Mr. Willetts, in recounting how he became guardian for Elizabeth Ann Britton told a student that he was summoned to the White House by President Harding. As he told one of his students, "When the President of the United States asks for your help, you don't say 'no' "

Sources

• Associated Press Wire Service. Secret Kept for Twenty Years: California Woman Says She is Daughter of Harding. Tri-City Herald, Pasco, Washington, p.15, July 17, 1964.
• Dean, John; Schlesinger, Arthur M. Warren Harding (The American President Series), Times Books, 2004. ISBN 0-8050-6956-9
• Ferrell, Robert H. The Strange Deaths of President Harding. University of Missouri Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8262-1202-6
• Mee, Charles Jr. The Ohio Gang: The World of Warren G. Harding: A Historical Entertainment M. Evans & Company, 1983. ISBN 0-87131-340-5
• Presidential mystery stays unsolved. Sloat, Bill. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio, May 31, 2006.
• Private Interview with former students, Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Covey, 1970