Charles E . Sawyer Charles Elmer Sawyer , also known as Dr . C . E . Sawyer ( January 24 , 1860 – September 23 , 1924 ) , was a homeopathic physician who is blamed for giving a false diagnosis of U . S . President Warren G . Harding that led to Harding ' s premature death . Education and private practice . Sawyer was born near Nevada , Ohio in Wyandot County . He married May E . ( Elizabeth ) Barron , ( 1859 – 1945 ) . He died in Marion County , Ohio . Dr . Sawyer was an 1881 graduate of the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital College , Cleveland , Ohio , earning his degree in homeopathy , and began his practice outside of LaRue , Ohio in western Marion County , Ohio . Following a brief stint in Indianapolis , Indiana , the Sawyers returned to Marion where Dr . Sawyer began the construction of a modern sanatorium for the treatment of medical and emotional maladies . This building was built in three stages and is currently located on South Main Street in Marion , Ohio ; the building is currently known as the Elite ( E - light ) Apartments . Sawyer also operated the Parkview Sanatorium in Columbus , Ohio . In the early years of the 20th century , Dr . Sawyer expanded his practice with the construction of the White Oaks Sanatorium immediately south of Marion , Ohio . The sanatorium ’ s name was derived from the White Oaks Farm , which the Sawyers purchased and used as the location of their new facility . It was here , in Rose Cottage , that former First Lady Florence Kling Harding spent time near the end of her life . She then returned to live in Sawyer ' s former home at 1201 Bellefontaine Avenue in Marion , where she died in November 1924 . The home on Bellefontaine Avenue , often claimed to still contain the ghost of Florence Harding ( with many eyewitness accounts ) , was destroyed by fire on August 19 , 2010 . This institution continued to operate until the late 1960s . The site is now known as Sawyer Ludwig Park and is operated by the Marion , Ohio Department of Parks and Recreation . Dr . Sawyer ’ s relationship with the family of Warren G . Harding ’ s parents began when Sawyer stepped forward to save the reputation of Harding ’ s mother , Dr . Phoebe Dickerson Harding . Harding ’ s mother had been caring for a sick child and provided a prescription for the child , which unknown to her also contained an opiate ; the child died from the drug . Sawyer stepped forward to validate Phoebe Harding ’ s diagnosis and treatment , thus saving her career . President Harding ' s death . Dr . Sawyer acted as the personal physician to Warren G . Harding and to Florence Harding as well . He never accepted payment from them for his services ; in doing so he felt that he provided himself a level of protection in the event that either died while under his care . Sawyer diagnosed and successfully treated Mrs . Harding ’ s " floating kidney " condition , the first doctor to do so , and thus gained her loyalty . Harding gave Sawyer the rank of Brigadier General in the Army Medical Corps . Sawyer ’ s reliance on dated medical practices resulted in the misdiagnosis of the President ’ s coronary condition that led to the President ’ s death in San Francisco in 1923 . Joel Boone , M . D . , the Vice Admiral in the United States Naval Medical Corps , had diagnosed the condition while Harding was on tour in Alaska . Sawyer deferred to the attending physician ; however , Harding insisted on finishing the trip . It has even been speculated that Sawyer ' s use of harsh purgative s was the cause of Harding ' s fatal heart attack . The nursing notes from President Harding ' s medical records do not support this contention . At Sawyer ’ s recommendation , Mrs . Harding did not have an autopsy performed . Following the President ’ s death , Dr . Sawyer resigned his commission , and focused his attention on the formation of the Harding Memorial Association , to which the task of designing and building the Harding Memorial in Marion . Sawyer died within a month of the announcement that a location had been secured , which delayed completion of the marble memorial until December 1927 . The memorial was dedicated in 1931 by President Herbert Hoover . Dr . Sawyer ’ s practice and leadership within the Harding Memorial Association fell to his son , Dr . Carl Sawyer , who ruled both organizations with an iron fist until his death in the late 1960s . In the 1980s , the Harding Memorial and the Harding Home were transferred to the Ohio Historical Society .