Thelma Catherine Nixon (de soltera Ryan ; 16 de marzo de 1912-22 de junio de 1993), también conocida comúnmente como Patricia Nixon , fue una educadora estadounidense y esposa de Richard Nixon , el 37 ° presidente de los Estados Unidos . Durante sus más de 30 años en la vida pública, se desempeñó como Segunda (1953-1961) y Primera Dama de los Estados Unidos (1969-1974).
Patricia Nixon | |
---|---|
Primera Dama de los Estados Unidos | |
En papel 20 de enero de 1969 - 9 de agosto de 1974 | |
presidente | Richard Nixon |
Precedido por | Lady Bird Johnson |
Sucesor | Betty Ford |
Segunda Dama de los Estados Unidos | |
En papel 20 de enero de 1953-20 de enero de 1961 | |
Vicepresidente | Richard Nixon |
Precedido por | Jane Barkley |
Sucesor | Lady Bird Johnson |
Detalles personales | |
Nació | Thelma Catherine Ryan 16 de marzo de 1912 Ely, Nevada , EE. UU. |
Fallecido | 22 de junio de 1993 Park Ridge, Nueva Jersey , EE. UU. | (81 años)
Lugar de descanso | Biblioteca y Museo Presidencial Richard Nixon |
Partido político | Republicano |
Esposos) | |
Niños | |
Educación | Fullerton College de la Universidad del Sur de California ( BS ) |
Firma |
Nacida en Ely, Nevada , creció con sus dos hermanos en lo que ahora es Cerritos, California , y se graduó de la escuela secundaria en 1929. Asistió a Fullerton Junior College y más tarde a la Universidad del Sur de California . Pagó sus estudios trabajando en varios trabajos, entre ellos, gerente de farmacia, mecanógrafa, radiógrafa y empleada minorista. En 1940, se casó con el abogado Richard Nixon y tuvieron dos hijas, Tricia y Julie . Apodado el "equipo de Nixon", Richard y Pat Nixon hicieron campaña juntos en sus exitosas campañas para el Congreso de 1946 y 1948. Richard Nixon fue elegido vicepresidente en 1952 junto con el general Dwight D. Eisenhower , tras lo cual Pat se convirtió en Segunda Dama. Pat Nixon hizo mucho para agregar sustancia al papel de la esposa del vicepresidente, insistiendo en visitar escuelas, orfanatos, hospitales y mercados de pueblos mientras realizaba muchas misiones de buena voluntad en todo el mundo.
Como Primera Dama, Pat Nixon promovió una serie de causas benéficas, incluido el voluntariado. Supervisó la colección de más de 600 piezas de arte histórico y mobiliario para la Casa Blanca , una adquisición más grande que la de cualquier otra administración. Fue la Primera Dama más viajada en la historia de Estados Unidos, un récord sin igual hasta veinticinco años después. Acompañó al presidente como la primera primera dama en visitar China y la Unión Soviética, y fue la primera esposa del presidente en ser designada oficialmente representante de los Estados Unidos en sus viajes en solitario a África y América del Sur , que le valieron el reconocimiento como "Madame Embajador"; también fue la primera Primera Dama en entrar en una zona de combate. Su mandato como Primera Dama terminó cuando, después de ser reelegido con una victoria aplastante en 1972 , el presidente Nixon renunció dos años después en medio del escándalo de Watergate .
Sus apariciones públicas se volvieron cada vez más raras en el futuro. Ella y su esposo se establecieron en San Clemente , California, y luego se mudaron a Nueva Jersey . Sufrió dos accidentes cerebrovasculares, uno en 1976 y otro en 1983, y le diagnosticaron cáncer de pulmón en 1992. Murió en 1993, a los 81 años.
Vida temprana
Thelma Catherine Ryan nació en 1912 en el pequeño pueblo minero de Ely, Nevada . [1] Su padre, William M. Ryan Sr., era un marinero, minero de oro y granjero de camiones de ascendencia irlandesa; su madre, Katherine Halberstadt, era una inmigrante alemana. [1] El apodo de "Pat" le fue dado por su padre, debido a su nacimiento el día antes del Día de San Patricio y su ascendencia irlandesa. [1] Al inscribirse en la universidad en 1931, dejó de usar el nombre Thelma, reemplazándolo por Pat y ocasionalmente usando el nombre Patricia. Sin embargo, el cambio de nombre no fue una acción legal; simplemente uno de preferencia. [2] [3]
Después de su nacimiento, la familia Ryan se mudó a California y en 1914 se instaló en una pequeña granja de camiones en Artesia (actual Cerritos ). [4] La página del anuario de la escuela secundaria de Thelma Ryan le da el apodo de "Buddy" y su ambición de administrar una pensión. [5]
Trabajó en la granja familiar y también en un banco local como conserje y contable. Su madre murió de cáncer en 1924. [6] Pat, que solo tenía 12 años, asumió todas las tareas domésticas de su padre (que murió él mismo de silicosis 5 años después) y sus dos hermanos mayores, William Jr. (1910-1997). y Thomas (1911-1992). También tuvo una media hermana, Neva Bender (1909-1981), y un medio hermano, Matthew Bender (1907-1973), del primer matrimonio de su madre; [1] El primer marido de su madre había muerto durante una inundación repentina en Dakota del Sur. [1]
Educación y carrera
Se ha dicho que pocas, si es que hubo alguna, Primera Dama trabajaron tan consistentemente antes de casarse como lo hizo Pat Nixon. [1] Como le dijo a la escritora Gloria Steinem durante la campaña presidencial de 1968, "Nunca tuve tiempo para pensar en cosas así: quién quería ser, o a quién admiraba, o tener ideas. Nunca tuve tiempo para soñar sobre ser cualquier otra persona. Tenía que trabajar ". [7]
Después de graduarse de Excelsior High School en 1929, asistió a Fullerton College . Pagó su educación realizando trabajos ocasionales, incluso como conductora, gerente de farmacia, telefonista y mecanógrafa. [1] También ganó dinero barriendo los pisos de un banco local, [1] y desde 1930 hasta 1931, vivió en la ciudad de Nueva York, trabajando como secretaria y también como radiógrafa . [6]
Decidida a "hacer algo conmigo misma", [8] se matriculó en 1931 en la Universidad del Sur de California (USC), donde se especializó en merchandising. Una ex profesora señaló que ella "se destacaba de las pequeñas hermanitas de esa época con la cabeza hueca y demasiado vestida como una buena pieza de literatura en un estante de libros de bolsillo baratos". [9] Trabajó a tiempo parcial en el campus, trabajó como vendedora en los grandes almacenes Bullock's-Wilshire , [10] y enseñó mecanografía táctil y taquigrafía en una escuela secundaria. [6] También complementó sus ingresos trabajando como una jugadora extra y pequeña en la industria del cine, [11] [12] para lo cual tomó varias pruebas de pantalla . [13] En esta capacidad, hizo breves apariciones en películas como Becky Sharp (1935), The Great Ziegfeld (1936) y Small Town Girl (1936). [13] [14] En algunos casos terminó en el piso de la sala de montaje , como con sus líneas habladas en Becky Sharp . [13] [15] Ella le dijo a la columnista de Hollywood Erskine Johnson en 1959 que su tiempo en el cine era "demasiado fugaz incluso para los recuerdos embellecidos por los años" y que "mi elección de carrera era enseñar en la escuela y los muchos trabajos que perseguía eran simplemente para ayudar con los gastos universitarios ". [15]
En 1937, la patente de Ryan graduó cum laude de la USC con una Licenciatura en Ciencias grado en merchandising, [1] junto con un certificado para enseñar en la escuela secundaria nivel, que USC considera equivalente a un grado de maestría . [16] Pat aceptó un puesto como profesora de secundaria en Whittier, California . [11]
Matrimonio y familia, primeras campañas
Mientras estaba en Whittier, Pat Ryan conoció a Richard Nixon , un joven abogado que se había graduado recientemente de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Duke . Los dos se conocieron en un grupo de Little Theatre cuando fueron elegidos juntos en The Dark Tower . [6] Conocido como Dick, le pidió a Pat que se casara con él la primera noche que salieron. "¡Pensé que estaba loco o algo así!" ella recordó. [17] Cortejó a la pelirroja a la que llamaba su "gitana irlandesa salvaje" durante dos años, [18] incluso llevándola hacia y desde sus citas con otros hombres. [8]
Finalmente se casaron el 21 de junio de 1940 en Mission Inn en Riverside, California . [19] Dijo que se había sentido atraída por el joven Nixon porque "iba a lugares, era vital y ambicioso ... siempre estaba haciendo cosas". [8] Más tarde, refiriéndose a Richard Nixon, dijo: "¡Oh, pero no te das cuenta de lo divertido que es! ¡Es tan divertido!". [20] Después de una breve luna de miel en México, los dos vivieron en un pequeño apartamento en Whittier. [19] Cuando comenzó la participación de Estados Unidos en la Segunda Guerra Mundial , la pareja se mudó a Washington, DC, y Richard ocupó un puesto como abogado de la Oficina de Administración de Precios (OPA); Pat trabajó como secretaria de la Cruz Roja Estadounidense , pero también calificó como analista de precios para la OPA. [19] Luego se unió a la Armada de los Estados Unidos , y mientras estuvo destinado en San Francisco, ella reanudó su trabajo para la OPA como analista económica. [19]
La veterana reportera de la UPI , Helen Thomas, sugirió que en público, los Nixon "se movían por la vida de manera ritual", pero en privado, sin embargo, eran "muy cercanos". [21] En privado, Richard Nixon fue descrito como "descaradamente sentimental", a menudo alabando a Pat por su trabajo, recordando aniversarios y sorprendiéndola con frecuentes obsequios. [21] Durante las cenas de estado, ordenó que se cambiara el protocolo para que Pat pudiera ser atendido primero. [22] Pat, a su vez, sintió que su esposo era vulnerable y trató de protegerlo. [22] De sus críticos, ella dijo que "Lincoln tenía peores críticos. Era lo suficientemente grande como para no dejar que eso le molestara. Así es mi marido". [22]
Pat hizo campaña al lado de su esposo en 1946 cuando él entró en política y se postuló con éxito para un escaño en la Cámara de Representantes de los Estados Unidos . Ese mismo año, dio a luz a una hija y tocaya, Patricia , conocida como Tricia. En 1948, Pat tuvo su segundo y último hijo, Julie . Cuando se le preguntó sobre la carrera de su esposo, Pat dijo una vez: "Lo único que podía hacer era ayudarlo, pero [la política] no era una vida que hubiera elegido". [23] Pat participó en la campaña investigando sobre su oponente, el titular Jerry Voorhis . [1] Ella también escribió y distribuyó literatura de campaña. [24] Nixon fue elegido en su primera campaña para representar al duodécimo distrito del Congreso de California . Durante los próximos seis años, Pat vio a su marido pasar de la Cámara de Representantes al Senado de los Estados Unidos , y luego ser nominado como Dwight D. Eisenhower 's vicepresidencia candidato.
Aunque Pat Nixon era metodista , ella y su esposo asistieron a la iglesia protestante más cercana a su hogar, especialmente después de mudarse a Washington. Ellos asistieron a la Iglesia Metodista Memorial Metropolitana, ya que patrocinó tropa Brownie, de vez en cuando sus hijas Bautista servicios con el Reverendo Dr. Billy Graham , y Norman Vincent Peale 's Marble Collegiate Church . [25]
Segunda Dama de los Estados Unidos, 1953–1961
En el momento en que su esposo fue considerado para la nominación a la vicepresidencia, Pat Nixon estaba en contra de que su esposo aceptara la selección, ya que despreciaba las campañas y se sentía aliviada de que, como senador recién elegido, no tendría otro en seis años. [26] Ella pensó que había prevalecido al convencerlo, hasta que escuchó el anuncio de la elección en un boletín de noticias mientras estaba en la Convención Nacional Republicana de 1952 . [26] Durante la campaña presidencial de 1952 , la actitud de Pat Nixon hacia la política cambió cuando su esposo fue acusado de aceptar contribuciones ilegales a la campaña. Pat lo animó a luchar contra los cargos, y lo hizo pronunciando el famoso " discurso de las damas ", llamado así por el perro de la familia, un cocker spaniel que les regaló un partidario político. Esta fue la primera aparición de Pat en la televisión nacional, y ella, sus hijas y el perro fueron destacados. Defendiéndose como un hombre del pueblo, Nixon enfatizó las habilidades de su esposa como taquígrafa, [7] luego dijo: "Debería decir esto, que Pat no tiene un abrigo de visón. Pero sí tiene un abrigo de tela republicano respetable, y siempre le digo que se vería bien en cualquier cosa ". [27] [28]
Pat Nixon acompañó a su esposo al extranjero durante sus años de vicepresidente. Viajó a 53 países, a menudo pasando por alto almuerzos y tés y, en cambio, visitó hospitales, orfanatos e incluso una colonia de leprosos en Panamá . [1] En un viaje a Venezuela , la limusina de los Nixon fue arrojada con piedras y la pareja fue escupida como representantes del gobierno de Estados Unidos. [9]
Un artículo del 1 de noviembre de 1958 en The Seattle Times era típico de la cobertura favorable de los medios de comunicación de la futura Primera Dama, afirmando que "la Sra. Nixon siempre se dice que es amable y amistosa. Y seguro que es amistosa. Saluda a un extraño como una amiga. No solo da la mano, sino que toma la mano de un visitante con ambas manos. Su manera es directa ... La Sra. Nixon también mantuvo su reputación de verse siempre ordenada, sin importar cuánto haya sido su día ". Un año y medio después, durante la campaña de su marido para la presidencia, The New York Times la llamó "un modelo de virtudes esposas" cuya "eficiencia hace que otras mujeres se sientan perezosas y sin talento". [29]
Pat Nixon was named Outstanding Homemaker of the Year (1953), Mother of the Year (1955), and the Nation's Ideal Housewife (1957), and once admitted that she pressed all of her husband's suits one evening.[8] "Of course, I didn't have to," she told The New York Times, "But when I don't have work to do, I just think up some new project."
Las campañas de su marido: 1960, 1962 y 1968
In the 1960 election, Vice President Nixon ran for president of the United States against Democratic opponent Senator John F. Kennedy. Pat was featured prominently in the effort; an entire advertising campaign was built around the slogan "Pat for First Lady".[1] Nixon conceded the election to Kennedy, although the race was very close and there were allegations of voter fraud. Pat had urged her husband to demand a recount of votes, though Nixon declined.[20] Pat was most upset about the television cameras, which recorded her reaction when her husband lost—"millions of television viewers witnessed her desperate fight to hold a smile upon her lips as her face came apart and the bitter tears flowed from her eyes", as one reporter put it.[8] This permanently dimmed Pat Nixon's view of politics.[1]
In 1962, the Nixons embarked on another campaign, this time for Governor of California. Prior to Richard Nixon's announcement of his candidacy, Pat's brother Tom Ryan said, "Pat told me that if Dick ran for governor she was going to take her shoe to him."[30] She eventually agreed to another run, citing that it meant a great deal to her husband,[30] but Richard Nixon lost the gubernatorial election to Pat Brown.
Six years later, Richard Nixon ran again for the presidency. Pat was reluctant to face another campaign, her eighth since 1946.[31] Her husband was a deeply controversial figure in American politics,[32] and Pat had witnessed and shared the praise and vilification he had received without having established an independent public identity for herself.[7] Although she supported him in his career, she feared another "1960", when Nixon lost to Kennedy.[31] She consented, however, and participated in the campaign by traveling on campaign trips with her husband.[33] Richard Nixon made a political comeback with his presidential victory of 1968 over Vice-President Hubert Humphrey—and the country had a new First Lady.
Primera Dama de los Estados Unidos, 1969-1974
Major initiatives
Pat Nixon felt that the First Lady should always set a public example of high virtue as a symbol of dignity, but she refused to revel in the trappings of the position.[34] When considering ideas for a project as First Lady, Pat refused to do (or be) something simply to emulate her predecessor, Lady Bird Johnson.[35] She decided to continue what she called "personal diplomacy", which meant traveling and visiting people in other states or other nations.[36]
One of her major initiatives as First Lady was the promotion of volunteerism, in which she encouraged Americans to address social problems at the local level through volunteering at hospitals, civic organizations, and rehabilitation centers.[37] She stated, "Our success as a nation depends on our willingness to give generously of ourselves for the welfare and enrichment of the lives of others."[38] She undertook a "Vest Pockets for Volunteerism" trip, where she visited ten different volunteer programs.[38] Susan Porter, in charge of the First Lady's scheduling, noted that Pat "saw volunteers as unsung heroes who hadn't been encouraged or given credit for their sacrifices and who needed to be".[38] Her second volunteerism tour—she traveled 4,130 miles (6,647 km) within the United States—helped to boost the notion that not all students were protesting the Vietnam War.[39] She herself belonged to several volunteer groups, including Women in Community Services and Urban Services League,[38] and was an advocate of the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973,[1] a bill that encouraged volunteerism by providing benefits to a number of volunteer organizations.[40] Some reporters viewed her choice of volunteerism as safe and dull compared to the initiatives undertaken by Lady Bird Johnson and Jacqueline Kennedy.[41]
Pat Nixon became involved in the development of recreation areas and parkland, was a member of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, and lent her support to organizations dedicated to improving the lives of handicapped children.[1] For her first Thanksgiving in the White House, Pat organized a meal for 225 senior citizens who did not have families.[42] The following year, she invited wounded servicemen to a second annual Thanksgiving meal in the White House.[42] Though presidents since George Washington had been issuing Thanksgiving proclamations, Pat became the only First Lady to issue one.[42]
Life in the White House
After her husband was elected president in 1968, Pat Nixon met with the outgoing First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson. Together, they toured the private quarters of the White House on December 12.[43] She eventually asked Sarah Jackson Doyle, an interior decorator who had worked for the Nixons since 1965 and who decorated the family's 10-room apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York with French and English antiques, to serve as a design consultant.[44] She hired Clement Conger from the State Department to be the Executive Mansion's new curator, replacing James Ketchum, who had been hired by Jacqueline Kennedy.[45]
Pat Nixon developed and led a coordinated effort to improve the authenticity of the White House as an historic residence and museum. She added more than 600 paintings, antiques and furnishings to the Executive Mansion and its collections, the largest number of acquisitions by any administration;[1] this greatly, and dramatically, expanded upon Jacqueline Kennedy's more publicized efforts. She created the Map Room and renovated the China room, and refurbished nine other rooms, including the Red Room, Blue Room and Green Room.[46] She worked with engineers to develop an exterior lighting system for the entire White House, literally making it glow a soft white.[46] She ordered the American flag atop the White House flown day and night, even when the president was not in residence.[46]
She ordered pamphlets describing the rooms of the house for tourists so they could understand everything, and had them translated into Spanish, French, Italian and Russian for foreigners.[46] She had ramps installed for the handicapped and physically disabled. She instructed the police who served as tour guides to attend sessions at the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library (to learn how tours were guided "in a real museum"),[46] and arranged for them to wear less menacing uniforms, with their guns hidden underneath.[46] The tour guides were to speak slowly to deaf groups, to help those who lip-read, and Pat ordered that the blind be able to touch the antiques.[46]
The First Lady had long been irritated by the perception that the White House and access to the President and First Lady were exclusively for the wealthy and famous;[46] she routinely came down from the family quarters to greet tourists, shake hands, sign autographs, and pose for photos.[47] Her daughter Julie Eisenhower reflected, "she invited so many groups to the White House to give them recognition, not famous ones, but little-known organizations..."[48]
She invited former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and her children Caroline and John Jr. to dine with her family and view the White House's official portraits of her and her husband, the late President Kennedy.[49] It was the first time that the three Kennedys had returned to the White House since the president's assassination eight years earlier.[50][51] Pat had ordered the visit to be kept secret from the media until after the trip's conclusion in an attempt to maintain privacy for the Kennedys. She also invited President Kennedy's mother Rose Kennedy to see her son's official portrait.[49]
She opened the White House for evening tours so that the public could see the interior design work that had been implemented. The tours that were conducted in December displayed the White House's Christmas decor. In addition, she instituted a series of performances by artists at the White House in varied American traditions, from opera to bluegrass; among the guests were The Carpenters in 1972. These events were described as ranging from "creative to indifferent, to downright embarrassing".[8] When they entered the White House in 1969, the Nixons began inviting families to non-denominational Sunday church services in the East Room of the White House.[46] She also oversaw the White House wedding of her daughter, Tricia, to Edward Ridley Finch Cox in 1971.[52]
In October 1969, she announced her appointment of Constance Stuart as her staff director and press secretary.[53] To the White House residence staff, the Nixons were perceived as more stiff and formal than other first families, but nonetheless kind.[54]
She spoke out in favor of women running for political office and encouraged her husband to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court, saying "woman power is unbeatable; I've seen it all across this country".[55] She was the first of the American First Ladies to publicly support the Equal Rights Amendment,[56] though her views on abortion were mixed. Following the Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, Pat stated she was pro-choice.[1] However, in 1972, she said, "I'm really not for abortion. I think it's a personal thing. I mean abortion on demand—wholesale."[57]
In 1972, she became the first Republican First Lady to address a national convention.[1] Her efforts in the 1972 reelection campaign—traveling across the country and speaking on behalf of her husband—were copied by future candidates' spouses.[1]
Travels
Pat Nixon held the record as the most-traveled First Lady until her mark was surpassed by Hillary Rodham Clinton.[1] In President Nixon's first term, Pat traveled to 39 of 50 states, and in the first year alone, shook hands with a quarter of a million people.[58] She undertook many missions of goodwill to foreign nations as well. Her first foreign trip took in Guam, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan, Romania, and England.[59] On such trips, Pat refused to be serviced by an entourage, feeling that they were an unnecessary barrier and a burden for taxpayers.[59] Soon after, during a trip to South Vietnam, Pat became the first First Lady to enter a combat zone.[1] She had tea with the wife of President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu in a palace, visited an orphanage, and lifted off in an open-door helicopter—armed by military guards with machine guns—to witness U.S. troops fighting in a jungle below.[59] She later admitted to experiencing a "moment of fear going into a battle zone", because, as author and historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony noted, "Pat Nixon was literally in a line of fire."[59] She later visited an army hospital, where, for two hours, she walked through the wards and spoke with each wounded patient.[21] The First Lady of South Vietnam, Madame Thieu, said Pat Nixon's trip "intensified our morale".[21]
After hearing about the Great Peruvian earthquake of 1970, which caused an avalanche and additional destruction, Pat initiated a "volunteer American relief drive" and flew to the country, where she aided in taking relief supplies to earthquake victims.[60] She toured damaged regions and embraced homeless townspeople; they trailed her as she climbed up hills of rubble and under fallen beams.[61] Her trip was heralded in newspapers around the world for her acts of compassion and disregard for her personal safety or comfort,[8] and her presence was a direct boost to political relations. One Peruvian official commented: "Her coming here meant more than anything else President Nixon could have done,"[47] and an editorial in Peru's Lima Prensa said that Peruvians could never forget Pat Nixon.[47] Fran Lewine of the Associated Press wrote that no First Lady had ever undertaken a "mercy mission" resulting in such "diplomatic side effects".[47] On the trip, the Peruvian government presented her with the Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun, the highest Peruvian distinction and the oldest such honor in the Americas.[1]
She became the first First Lady to visit Africa in 1972, on a 10,000-mile (16,093 km), eight-day journey to Ghana, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast.[62] Upon arrival in Liberia, Pat was honored with a 19-gun salute, a tribute reserved only for heads of government, and she reviewed troops.[62] She later donned a traditional native costume and danced with locals. She was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Most Venerable Order of Knighthood, Liberia's highest honor.[62] In Ghana, she again danced with local residents, and addressed the nation's Parliament.[62] In the Ivory Coast, she was met by a quarter of a million people shouting "Vive Madame Nixon!"[62] She conferred with leaders of all three African nations.[62] Upon her return home, White House staffer Charles Colson sent a memo to the President reading in part, "Mrs. Nixon has now broken through where we have failed ... People—men and women—identify with her, and in return with you."[63]
Another notable journey was the Nixons' historic visit to the People's Republic of China in 1972. While President Nixon was in meetings, Pat toured through Peking in her red coat. According to Carl Sferrazza Anthony, China was Pat Nixon's "moment", her turning point as an acclaimed First Lady in the United States.[64] She accompanied her husband to the Nixon–Brezhnev summit meetings in the Soviet Union later in the year. Though security constraints left her unable to walk freely through the streets as she did in China, Pat was still able to visit with children and walk arm-in-arm with Soviet First Lady Viktoria Brezhneva.[64] Later, she visited Brazil and Venezuela in 1974 with the unique diplomatic standing of personal representative of the president. The Nixons' last major trip was in June 1974, to Austria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Israel, and Jordan.[65]
Fashion and style
The traditional role of a First Lady as the nation's hostess puts her personal appearance and style under scrutiny, and the attention to Pat was lively. Women's Wear Daily stated that Pat had a "good figure and good posture", as well as "the best-looking legs of any woman in public life today".[66] Some fashion writers tended to have a lackluster opinion of her well tailored, but nondescript, American-made clothes. "I consider it my duty to use American designers", she said,[67] and favored them because, "they are now using so many materials which are great for traveling because they're non crushable".[68] She preferred to buy readymade garments rather than made-to-order outfits. "I'm a size 10," she told The New York Times. "I can just walk in and buy. I've bought things in various stores in various cities. Only some of my clothes are by designers."[55] She did, however, wear the custom work of some well-known talents, notably Geoffrey Beene, at the suggestion of Clara Treyz, her personal shopper.[55] Many fashion observers concluded that Pat Nixon did not greatly advance the cause of American fashion. Nixon's yellow-satin inaugural gown by Harvey Berin was criticized as "a schoolteacher on her night out", but Treyz defended her wardrobe selections by saying, "Mrs. Nixon must be ladylike."[69][70]
Nixon did not sport the outrageous fashions of the 1970s, because she was concerned about appearing conservatively dressed, especially as her husband's political star rose. "Always before, it was sort of fun to get some ... thing that was completely different, high-style", she told a reporter. "But this is not appropriate now. I avoid the spectacular."[71]
Watergate
At the time the Watergate scandal broke to the media, Nixon "barely noticed" the reports of a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.[72] Later, when asked by the press about Watergate, she replied curtly, "I know only what I read in the newspapers."[73] In 1974, when a reporter asked "Is the press the cause of the president's problems?", she shot back, "What problems?"[74] Privately, she felt that the power of her husband's staff was increasing, and President Nixon was becoming more removed from what was occurring in the administration.[73]
Pat Nixon did not know of the secret tape recordings her husband had made. Julie Nixon Eisenhower stated that the First Lady would have ordered the tapes destroyed immediately, had she known of their existence.[75] Once she did learn of the tapes, she vigorously opposed making them public, and compared them to "private love letters—for one person alone".[76] Believing in her husband's innocence, she also encouraged him not to resign and instead fight all the impeachment charges that were eventually leveled against him. She said to her friend Helene Drown, "Dick has done so much for the country. Why is this happening?"[65]
After President Nixon told his family he would resign the office of the presidency, she replied "But why?"[77] She contacted White House curator Clement Conger to cancel any further development of a new official china pattern from the Lenox China Company, and began supervising the packing of the family's personal belongings.[78] On August 7, 1974, the family met in the solarium of the White House for their last dinner. Pat sat on the edge of a couch and held her chin high, a sign of tension to her husband.[79] When the president walked in, she threw her arms around him, kissed him, and said, "We're all very proud of you, Daddy."[79] Later Pat Nixon said of the photographs taken that evening, "Our hearts were breaking and there we are smiling."[80]
On the morning of August 9 in the East Room, Nixon gave a televised 20-minute farewell speech to the White House staff, during which time he read from Theodore Roosevelt's biography and praised his own parents.[81] The First Lady could hardly contain her tears; she was most upset about the cameras, because they recorded her anguish, as they had during the 1960 election defeat. The Nixons walked onto the Executive Mansion's South Lawn with Vice President Gerald Ford and Betty Ford. The outgoing president departed from the White House on Marine One. As the family walked towards the helicopter, Pat, with one arm around her husband's waist and one around Betty's, said to Betty "You'll see many of these red carpets, and you'll get so you hate 'em."[82] The helicopter transported them to Andrews Air Force Base; from there they flew to California.[83]
Pat Nixon later told her daughter Julie, "Watergate is the only crisis that ever got me down ... And I know I will never live to see the vindication."[84]
Percepción pública
Historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony noted that ordinary citizens responded to, and identified with, Pat Nixon.[47] When a group of people from a rural community visited the White House to present a quilt to the First Lady, many were overcome with nervousness; upon hearing their weeping, Pat hugged each individual tightly, and the tension dissipated.[47] When a young boy doubted that the Executive Mansion was her house because he could not see her washing machine, Pat led him through the halls and up an elevator, into the family quarters and the laundry room.[47] She mixed well with people of different races, and made no distinctions on that basis.[63] During the Nixons' trip to China in 1972, foreign minister Zhou En-lai was sufficiently smitten with her so as to give two rare giant pandas to the United States as a gift from China.[64]
Pat Nixon was listed on the Gallup Organization's top-ten list of the most admired women fourteen times, from 1959 to 1962 and 1968 to 1979.[85] She was ranked third in 1969, second in 1970 and 1971, and first in 1972. She remained on the top-ten list until 1979, five years after her husband left office.[85] To many, she was seen as an example of the "American Dream," having risen from a poor background, with her greatest popularity among the "great silent majority" of voters.[72] Mary Brooks, the director of the United States Mint and a long-time friend of Pat's, illustrated some of the cultural divides present at the time when she described the First Lady as "a good example to the women of this country–if they're not part of those Women's Liberation groups".[8] Additionally, it was the view of veteran UPI correspondent Helen Thomas that Pat "was the warmest First Lady I covered and the one who loved people the most. I think newspeople who covered her saw a woman who was sharp, responsive, sensitive."[86]
Press accounts framed Pat Nixon as an embodiment of Cold War domesticity, in stark contrast to the second-wave feminism of the time.[87] Journalists often portrayed her as dutiful and selfless[88] and seeing herself as a wife first and individual second.[41] Time magazine described her as "the perfect wife and mother–pressing [her husband's] pants, making dresses for daughters Tricia and Julie, doing her own housework even as the Vice President's wife".[89] In the early years of her tenure as First Lady she was tagged "Plastic Pat," a derogatory nickname applied because, according to critics, she was always smiling while her face rarely expressed emotion[90][91] and her body language made her seem reserved, and at times, artificial.[92] Some observers described Pat Nixon as "a paper doll, a Barbie doll–plastic, antiseptic, unalive" and that she "put every bit of the energy and drive of her youth into playing a role, and she may no longer recognize it as such".[8]
As for the criticisms, she said, "I am who I am and I will continue to be."[8] She unguardedly revealed some of her opinions of her own life in a 1968 interview aboard a campaign plane with Gloria Steinem: "Now, I have friends in all the countries of the world. I haven't just sat back and thought of myself or my ideas or what I wanted to do. Oh no, I've stayed interested in people. I've kept working. Right here in the plane I keep this case with me, and the minute I sit down, I write my thank you notes. Nobody gets by without a personal note. I don't have time to worry about who I admire or who I identify with. I've never had it easy. I'm not like all you ... all those people who had it easy."[7]
Despite her largely demure public persona as a traditional wife and homemaker, she was not as self-effacing and timid as her critics often claimed. When a news photographer wanted her to strike yet another pose while wearing an apron, she firmly responded, "I think we've had enough of this kitchen thing, don't you?"[93] Some journalists, such as columnist and White House Correspondent Robert Thompson, felt that Pat was an ideal balance for the 1970s; Thompson wrote that she proved that "women can play a vital role in world affairs" while still retaining a "feminine manner".[72] Other journalists felt that Pat represented the failings of the feminine mystique, and portrayed her as being out of step with her times.[88] Those who opposed the Vietnam War identified her with the Nixon administration's policies, and, as a result, occasionally picketed her speaking events. After she had spoken to some of them in one instance in 1970, however, one of the students told the press that "she wanted to listen. I felt like this is a woman who really cares about what we are doing. I was surprised."[94] Veteran CBS correspondent Mike Wallace expressed regret that the one major interview he was never able to conduct was that of Pat Nixon.[95]
Vida posterior
After returning to San Clemente, California, in 1974 and settling into the Nixons' home, La Casa Pacifica, Pat Nixon rarely appeared in public and only granted occasional interviews to the press. In late May 1975, Pat went to her girlhood hometown of Artesia to dedicate the Patricia Nixon Elementary School.[96] In her remarks, she said, "I'm proud to have the school carry my name. I always thought that only those who have gone had schools named after them. I am happy to tell you that I'm not gone—I mean, not really gone."[96] It was Pat's only solo public appearance in five and a half years in California.[96]
On July 7, 1976, at La Casa Pacifica, Nixon suffered a stroke, which resulted in the paralysis of her entire left side. Physical therapy enabled her to eventually regain all movement.[1] She said that her recovery was "the hardest thing I have ever done physically".[97] In 1979, she and her husband moved to a townhouse on East 65th Street in Manhattan, New York.[98] They lived there only briefly and in 1981 moved to a 6,000 square feet (557 m2) house in Saddle River, New Jersey.[98] This gave the couple additional space, and enabled them to be near their children and grandchildren.[98] Pat, however, sustained another stroke in 1983[99] and two lung infections the following year.[100]
Appearing "frail and slightly bent",[101] she appeared in public for the opening of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace (now Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum) in Yorba Linda, California, on July 19, 1990. The dedication ceremony included 50,000 friends and well-wishers, as well as former Presidents Ford, Reagan, and Bush and their wives.[102] The library includes a Pat Nixon room, a Pat Nixon amphitheater, and rose gardens planted with the red-black Pat Nixon Rose developed by a French company in 1972, when she was first lady.[103] Pat also attended the opening of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, in November 1991. Former First Lady Barbara Bush reflected, "I loved Pat Nixon, who was a sensational, gracious, and thoughtful First Lady",[104] and at the dedication of the Reagan Library, Bush remembered, "There was one sad thing. Pat Nixon did not look well at all. Through her smile you could see that she was in great pain and having a terrible time getting air into her lungs."[105]
The Nixons moved to a gated complex in Park Ridge, New Jersey, in 1991. Pat's health was failing, and the house was smaller and contained an elevator.[98] A heavy smoker most of her adult life who nevertheless never allowed herself to be seen with a cigarette in public,[103] she eventually endured bouts of oral cancer,[106] emphysema, and ultimately lung cancer, with which she was diagnosed in December 1992 while hospitalized with respiratory problems.[6]
Muerte y funeral
Pat Nixon died at her Park Ridge, New Jersey, home at 5:45 a.m. on June 22, 1993, the day after her fifty-third wedding anniversary. She was 81 years old. Her daughters and husband were by her side.
The funeral service for Pat Nixon took place on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda on June 26, 1993. Speakers at the ceremony, including California Governor Pete Wilson, Kansas senator Bob Dole, and the Reverend Dr. Billy Graham, eulogized the former First Lady. In addition to her husband and immediate family, former presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford and their wives, Nancy and Betty, were also in attendance.[107] Lady Bird Johnson was unable to attend because she was in the hospital recovering from a stroke, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis did not attend either.[107] President Nixon sobbed openly, profusely, and at times uncontrollably during the ceremony. It was a rare display of emotion from the former president, and Helen McCain Smith said that she had never seen him more distraught.[108]
Nixon's tombstone gives her name as "Patricia Ryan Nixon", the name by which she was popularly known. Her husband survived her by ten months, dying on April 22, 1994. He was also 81.[109] Her epitaph reads:
Even when people can't speak your language, they can tell if you have love in your heart.
Impacto de la cultura popular
In 1994, the Pat Nixon Park was established in Cerritos, California. The site where her girlhood home stood is on the property.[37] The Cerritos City Council voted in April 1996 to erect a statue of the former first lady, one of the few statues created in the image of a first lady.[110]
Pat has been portrayed by Joan Allen in the 1995 film Nixon, Patty McCormack in the 2008 film Frost/Nixon and Nicole Sullivan in the 2009 film Black Dynamite. She was sung by soprano Carolann Page in John Adams' opera Nixon in China 1987 world premiere in Houston, Texas; a New York Times critic noted that the performance captured "the First Lady's shy mannerisms" while one from the Los Angeles Times described the subject as the "chronically demure First Lady".[111][112] The part was later sung by Scottish soprano Janis Kelly in the 2011 Metropolitan Opera premiere in New York. This New York Times critic wrote that Kelly "was wonderful as Pat Nixon. During the affecting Act II scene in which she is guided by Chinese escorts and journalists to a glass factory, a people's commune and a health clinic, she is finally taken to a school. She speaks of coming from a poor family and tells the obliging children that for a while she was a schoolteacher. In Mr. Adams's tender music, as sung by Ms. Kelly, you sense Mrs. Nixon wistfully pondering the much different life she might have had."[113]
Notas al pie
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w "First Lady Biography: Pat Nixon". The National First Ladies Library. 2005. Retrieved August 15, 2007.
- ^ Halloran, Richard (March 16, 1972). "First Lady of the Land at 60: Thelma Catherine Ryan Nixon, Woman in the News". The New York Times.
- ^ Kinnard, Judith M. (August 20, 1971). "Thelma Ryan's Rise: From White Frame to White House". The New York Times.
- ^ "First Lady Hailed on Return 'Home'". The New York Times. September 6, 1969. p. 18.
- ^ Illustration in a New York Times article by Judith M. Kinnard, entitled "Thelma Ryan's Rise: From White Frame to White House" (August 20, 1971).
- ^ a b c d e "Pat Nixon, Former First Lady, Dies at 81". The New York Times. July 23, 1993. p. D22. Retrieved November 9, 2007.
- ^ a b c d Steinem, Gloria (October 28, 1968). "In Your Heart You Know He's Nixon". New York. Retrieved May 16, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Viorst, Judith (September 13, 1970). "Pat Nixon Is the Ultimate Good Sport". The New York Times. p. SM13.
- ^ a b "The Silent Partner". Time. February 29, 1960. Retrieved November 9, 2007.
- ^ Roderick, Kevin; Lynxwiler, J. Eric (2005). Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles. Angel City Press. p. 75. ISBN 1-883318-55-6.
- ^ a b "Patricia Ryan Nixon". The White House. Retrieved August 1, 2008.
- ^ Thurman, Judith (November 7, 2011). "Pat and Edith: A Fashionable Footnote". The New Yorker.
- ^ a b c Swift (2014), p. 15
- ^ David 1978, p. 41.
- ^ a b Johnson, Erskine (October 6, 1959). "Hollywood Today". Park City Daily News. Bowling Green, Kentucky. Newspaper Enterprise Association. p. 4.
- ^ Eisenhower (1986), p. 48.
- ^ "Diplomat in High Heels: Thelma Ryan Nixon". The New York Times. July 28, 1959. p. 11.
- ^ Marton (2001), p. 173.
- ^ a b c d Sferrazza, "Thelma Catherine (Patricia) Ryan Nixon", p. 353.
- ^ a b O'Brien & Suteski (2005), p. 234
- ^ a b c d Anthony (1991), p. 172
- ^ a b c Anthony (1991), p. 173
- ^ "Pat Nixon: Steel and Sorrow". Time. August 19, 2008. Retrieved August 18, 2008.
- ^ "The American Presidency". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007.
- ^ "A Worshiper in the White House". Time. December 6, 1968. pp. 1–2. Retrieved October 8, 2007.
- ^ a b Ambrose, Stephen E. (1988). Nixon Volume I: The Education of a Politician 1913–1962. Simon & Schuster. p. 264. ISBN 978-0671657222.
- ^ "Richard Nixon's Checkers Speech". PBS. 2002–2003. Archived from the original on November 9, 2007. Retrieved November 5, 2007.
- ^ In 1968, however, a fashion writer of The New York Times noted that Pat Nixon had purchased a coat made of blonde mink and one of brown-and-black Persian lamb by the furrier Sidney Fink of Blum & Fink. Curtis, Charlotte (December 21, 1968). "Fashion Spotlight Turns to New First Family". The New York Times.
- ^ Bender, Marylin (July 28, 1960). "Pat Nixon: A Diplomat in High Heels". The New York Times. p. 31.
- ^ a b Eisenhower (1986), pp. 205–206
- ^ a b Eisenhower (1986), pp. 235, 237
- ^ Mason, Robert (2004). Richard Nixon and the Quest for a New Majority. UNC Press. p. 25. ISBN 0-8078-2905-6.
- ^ Eisenhower (1986), p. 236.
- ^ Anthony (1991), p. 165
- ^ Anthony (1991), p. 168.
- ^ Eisenhower (1986), p. 254.
- ^ a b "Biography of First Lady Pat Nixon". Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation. 2005. Retrieved October 8, 2007.
- ^ a b c d Anthony (1991), p. 177
- ^ Anthony (1991), p. 181.
- ^ "Richard Nixon: Statement on Signing the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973". The American Presidency Project. October 1, 1973. Retrieved August 19, 2008.
- ^ a b Burns (2008), p. 125
- ^ a b c Anthony (1991), p. 178
- ^ Eisenhower (1986), pp. 260, 264.
- ^ Reif, Rita (November 30, 1968). "A Decorator for Nixons Gives Julie A Bit of Help". The New York Times.
- ^ Eisenhower (1986), pp. 261, 263.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Anthony (1991), p. 188
- ^ a b c d e f g Anthony (1991), p. 187
- ^ David (1978), p. 128.
- ^ a b Nixon, Richard (2013). RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon. Simon & Schuster. pp. 502–503.
- ^ Seelye, Katherine Q. (July 22, 1999). "Clinton Mistily Recalls Kennedy's White House Visit". The New York Times.
- ^ Weisman, Jonathan (July 24, 1999). "JFK Jr. visited White House at invitation of Nixon, Reagan". The Baltimore Sun.
- ^ Krebs, Alvin (May 11, 1972). "More on the Wedding". The New York Times.
- ^ "Pat Nixon Hires New Press Aid". Chicago Tribune. October 24, 1969.
- ^ Brower (2015), pp. 155–156.
- ^ a b c Curtis, Charlotte (July 3, 1968). "Pat Nixon: 'Creature Comforts Don't Matter'". The New York Times.
- ^ Anthony (1991), p. 194.
- ^ "Mrs. Nixon Asserts Jane Fonda Should Bid Hanoi End War". The New York Times. August 9, 1972.
- ^ O'Brien & Suteski (2005), p. 239.
- ^ a b c d Anthony (1991), p. 171
- ^ Anthony (1991), p. 185.
- ^ Anthony (1991), p. 186.
- ^ a b c d e f Anthony (1991), p. 196
- ^ a b Anthony (1991), p. 197
- ^ a b c Anthony (1991), pp. 199–200
- ^ a b Anthony (1991), p. 215
- ^ "Redoing Pat". Time. January 24, 1969. Retrieved July 25, 2008.
- ^ Weinman, Martha (September 11, 1960). "First Ladies—In Fashion, Too?". The New York Times.
- ^ Anthony (1991), p. 192.
- ^ "Pat's Wardrobe Mistress". Time. January 12, 1970. Retrieved November 9, 2007.
- ^ Nixon also frequently wore wigs that replicated her short blonde hairstyle, especially on political trips when access to a hairdresser was difficult. Curtis, Charlotte (July 3, 1968). "Pat Nixon: 'Creature Comforts Don't Matter'". The New York Times.
- ^ Eisenhower (1986), p. 187.
- ^ a b c Anthony (1991), p. 201
- ^ a b Anthony (1991), p. 203
- ^ Anthony, C. S. (1991), p. 210
- ^ Eisenhower (1986), pp. 409–410.
- ^ Anthony (1991), p. 214.
- ^ Anthony (1991), p. 216.
- ^ Eisenhower (1986), pp. 417–419.
- ^ a b Anthony (1991), p. 217
- ^ Eisenhower (1986), p. 424.
- ^ "Richard M. Nixon: White House Farewell". The History Place. Retrieved September 23, 2007.
- ^ Anthony (1991), p. 218.
- ^ "Nixon's resignation changed American politics forever". CNN. August 9, 1999. Archived from the original on August 29, 2007. Retrieved August 18, 2008.
- ^ Eisenhower (1986), p. 453.
- ^ a b Newport, Frank; David W. Moore & Lydia Saad (December 13, 1999). "Most Admired Men and Women: 1948–1998". Gallup Organization. Retrieved October 12, 2008.
- ^ Anthony (1991), p. 167.
- ^ Burns (2008), pp. 107–108.
- ^ a b Burns (2008), pp. 110–111
- ^ Angelo, Bonnie (July 5, 1993). "The Woman in the Cloth Coat". Time. Retrieved August 22, 2008.
- ^ "Thelma Nixon". Miller Center of Public Affairs. 2008. Archived from the original on February 12, 2012. Retrieved July 25, 2008.
- ^ Schmitz, Justin (March 12, 2008). "Secrets will be shared in one-woman show, Lady Bird, Pat & Betty: Tea for Three at Toland theatre". University of Wisconsin. Archived from the original on August 3, 2016. Retrieved July 25, 2008.
- ^ Wallace, Mike (2005). "Between You and Me". WNYC Radio. Archived from the original on June 18, 2008. Retrieved August 22, 2008.
- ^ Toner, Robin (February 2, 1997). "Running Mates". The New York Times.
- ^ Anthony (1991), p. 182.
- ^ "The one big interview Mike Wallace never landed". USA Today. Associated Press. March 22, 2006. Retrieved November 12, 2009.
- ^ a b c Eisenhower (1986), p. 441
- ^ Eisenhower, Julie (1986), p. 451
- ^ a b c d Coyne, Kevin (May 6, 2007). "Final Days for a Moldy Nixon Retreat". The New York Times. Retrieved August 2, 2008.
- ^ Eisenhower (1986), p. 458.
- ^ "Pat Nixon Is Hospitalized". The New York Times. Associated Press. November 6, 1984. Retrieved August 17, 2008.
- ^ Apple, R. W. Jr. (July 20, 1990). "Another Nixon Summit, At His Library". The New York Times. Retrieved November 9, 2007.
- ^ "Museum Tour: The Museum". Richard Nixon Library Foundation. Archived from the original on July 20, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
- ^ a b "Pat Nixon Dies; Model Political Wife Was 81". Los Angeles Times. June 23, 1993. Retrieved December 16, 2010.
- ^ Bush (1994), p. 97.
- ^ Bush (1994), p. 441.
- ^ "Pat Nixon Released From Hospital". The New York Times. February 13, 1987. Retrieved November 9, 2007.
- ^ a b "Funeral Services of Mrs. Nixon". Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation. 2005. Retrieved October 2, 2007.
- ^ Thomas (1999), p. 258.
- ^ Weil, Martin; Randolph, Eleanor (April 23, 1994). "Richard M. Nixon, 37th President, Dies". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 2, 2008.
- ^ "Pat Nixon Statue at the Cerritos Senior Center". City of Cerritos. 2000. Retrieved August 2, 2008.
- ^ Henahan, Donal (October 24, 1987). "Opera: Nixon in China". The New York Times.
- ^ Bernheimer, Martin (October 24, 1987). "Gala Opera Premiere: John Adams' Nixon in China in Houston". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Tommasini, Anthony (February 4, 2011). "President and Opera, on Unexpected Stages". The New York Times. p. C1.
Referencias
- Anthony, Carl Sferrazza (1991). First Ladies: The Saga of the Presidents' Wives and Their Power; 1961–1990 (Volume II). New York: William Morrow and Co.
- Brower, Kate Andersen (2015). The Residence: Inside the Private World of The White House. New York: Harper. ISBN 978-0-06-230519-0.
- Burns, Lisa M. (2008). First Ladies and the Fourth Estate: Press Framing of Presidential Wives. DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-87580-391-3.
- Bush, Barbara (1994). A Memoir. New York: Scribner.
- David, Lester (1978). The Lonely Lady of San Clemente: The Story of Pat Nixon. Crowell. ISBN 0-690-01688-3.
- Eisenhower, Julie Nixon (1986). Pat Nixon: The Untold Story. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-24424-8.
- Marton, Kati (2001). Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our History. New York: Pantheon. ISBN 0-375-40106-7.
- O'Brien, Cormac; Suteski, Monika (2005). Secret Lives of the First Ladies: What Your Teachers Never Told You About the Women of the White House. Quirk Books. ISBN 1-59474-014-3.
- Swift, Will (2014). Pat and Dick: The Nixons, An Intimate Portrait of a Marriage. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4516-7694-5.
- Thomas, Helen (1999). Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times. New York: Scribner. ISBN 0-684-86809-1.
Otras lecturas
- Anthony, Carl Sferrazza (2001). "Thelma Catherine (Patricia) Ryan Nixon". In Gould, Lewis L. (ed.). American First Ladies: Their Lives and Their Legacy (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
- Truman, Margaret (1999). First Ladies. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-43439-9.
enlaces externos
- Richard Nixon Foundation biography of Pat Nixon
- White House biography on Pat Nixon
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Video of funeral services for Pat Nixon, 1993
- Pat Nixon at C-SPAN's First Ladies: Influence & Image
Honorary titles | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by Jane Barkley | Second Lady of the United States 1953–1961 | Succeeded by Lady Bird Johnson |
Preceded by Lady Bird Johnson | First Lady of the United States 1969–1974 | Succeeded by Betty Ford |