He was a student and "first American Representative" of Otakar Ševčík who created a leading pedagogical method for teaching violin that is still widely used today.

On November 21, 1917, Willits married Elizabeth Blanch Britton who was the sister of Nan Britton and aunt of Elizabeth Ann Blaesing, the illegitimate daughter of Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States.

The Willits' role as adoptive parents was documented in The Strange Deaths of President Harding.

Willits, in recounting how he became guardian for Britton, told a student that he was summoned to the White House by President Harding.

In 2015, the New York Times reported that genetic testing by AncestryDNA, a division of Ancestry.com, confirmed Harding was Blaesing's biological father.