Nixon Pat

American First Lady, wife of the 36th U.S. President, Richard M. Nixon. She was the first lady from 1969 to August 1974 when Nixon resigned from office in disgrace. As First Lady, she was the most widely travelled in history with trips to 80 nations. In 1972 a French firm developed a red-black rose which they named the Pat Nixon Rose. Homemakers Forum selected her as the "Nations Ideal Housewife" in 1957. Her goodwill and disposition earned so much admiration that the Gallup poll named her among the nations most admired women in 1957, 1968, 1969, 1970 and 1971. Born in a miners shack, she had an impoverished childhood. Because she was born on the eve of St. Patricks Day her Irish prospector dad, William Ryan, called her Pat. The nickname stuck so well that, disliking her birth name, Thelma, she later had her name changed to Patricia. A year after her birth, the family, including two older brothers and her half sister, Neva, moved to the small town of Artesia, California, where they scratched out a living on a truck farm without electricity or running water. Her dad taught himself farming from books on crop raising and learned to raise "the best cabbages for miles." The kids learned early not to expect much and to be stoical in hiding their feelings. Their father in particular did not encourage open demonstrations of emotion. Perhaps because he held himself so tightly in check, there were periodic explosions, probably brought on by too many whiskies with friends. When that happened, Will would pick fights with his wife Kate. During the summer of 1925 her mom, Kate, was ill and hospitalized with both a kidney affliction, Brights disease as well as cancer of the liver. Kate died on 18 June 1925 and at the age of 13, Pat took over the cooking and cleaning along with farm chores. One important outcome of Kates death was her disciplined refusal to look back. She graduated from high school on 7 June 1929 and took a job at Artesias First National Bank to help pay for her fathers hospitalization from tuberculosis. He died in May 1930. When she was 18, Pat drove an elderly couple across country to New York City where she worked as a secretary, an X-ray technician, and store clerk all the while saving money to return to California. She returned in August 1934 and that fall enrolled at the University of Southern California where she specialized in merchandising. Although she received a scholarship, she supplemented her income by working in the cafeteria and library and as a model and movie extra. She graduated cum laude in 1937 but because of the Depression, abandoned plans to become a department store buyer and settled for a job teaching commercial subjects at Whittier High School for $190 a month. While trying out for a part in a play with a little theatre group in Whittier, she met a young lawyer named Richard Nixon, who had also just auditioned. Nixon fell in love with her the moment they met and told her he was going to marry her some day. After his persistent two-year courtship, he won her over and they married on 21 June 1940. In October 1940 he was offered a job in the Office of Price Administration in Washington, DC and arrived there on 9 January 1941. During WW II her husband got a Navy commission and she followed him from post to post around the country working as a bank teller in Ottumwa, Iowa and finally taking a government job in San Francisco in 1943. Returning with political ambitions, the future Pr Read less