June 22, 1993(1993-06-22) (aged 81) Park Ridge, New Jersey, U.S.
Resting place
Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
Political party
Republican
Spouse
Richard Nixon
(m. 1940)
Children
Tricia
Julie
Education
Fullerton College
University of Southern California (BS)
Signature
Thelma Catherine "Pat" Nixon (née Ryan; March 16, 1912 – June 22, 1993) was the first lady of the United States from 1969 to 1974 as the wife of President Richard Nixon. She also served as the second lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961 when her husband was vice president.
Born in Ely, Nevada, she grew up with her two brothers in what is now Cerritos, California, graduating from Excelsior Union High School in Norwalk, California in 1929. She attended Fullerton Junior College and later the University of Southern California. She paid for her schooling by working multiple jobs, including pharmacy manager, typist, radiographer, and retail clerk. In 1940, she married lawyer Richard Nixon and they had two daughters, Tricia and Julie. Dubbed the "Nixon team", Richard and Pat Nixon campaigned together in his successful congressional campaigns of 1946 and 1948. Richard Nixon was elected vice president in 1952 alongside General Dwight D. Eisenhower, whereupon Pat became Second Lady. Pat Nixon did much to add substance to the role of Second Lady, insisting on visiting schools, orphanages, hospitals, and village markets as she undertook many missions of goodwill across the world.
As First Lady, Pat Nixon promoted a number of charitable causes, including volunteerism. She oversaw the collection of more than 600 pieces of historic art and furnishings for the White House, an acquisition larger than that of any other administration. She was the most traveled First Lady in U.S. history, a record unsurpassed until twenty-five years later. She accompanied the President as the first First Lady to visit China and the Soviet Union, and was the first president's wife to be officially designated a representative of the United States on her solo trips to Africa and South America, which gained her recognition as "Madame Ambassador"; she was also the first First Lady to enter a combat zone. Though her husband was re-elected in a landslide victory in 1972, her tenure as First Lady ended two years later, when President Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal.
Her public appearances became increasingly rare later in life. She and her husband settled in San Clemente, California, and later moved to New Jersey. She suffered two strokes, one in 1976 and another in 1983, and was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1992. She died in 1993, aged 81.
Thelma Catherine "Pat" Nixon (née Ryan; March 16, 1912 – June 22, 1993) was the first lady of the United States from 1969 to 1974 as the wife of President...
Nixon Eisenhower (born July 5, 1948) is an American author who is the younger daughter of former U.S. president Richard Nixon and his wife, PatNixon...
Patricia Nixon Cox (née Nixon; born February 21, 1946) is the elder daughter of the 37th United States president Richard Nixon and First Lady PatNixon, and...
named Thelma "Pat" Ryan. In his memoirs, Nixon described it as "a case of love at first sight", but apparently for Nixon only, since Pat Ryan turned down...
Richard Nixon and First Lady PatNixon. Cox is the CEO of Lightswitch Capital, a private equity fund investing in biotech companies. Christopher Nixon Cox...
(August 5, 2014). "Remembering Nixon's Catholic Coup: An Interview with Pat Buchanan". Retrieved June 28, 2020. Buchanan, Pat (July 10, 2007). "A Triumph...
PatNixon toured schools, factories and hospitals in the cities of Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai with the large American press corps in tow. Nixon dubbed...
United States (1969–1974), and his wife PatNixon. Located in Yorba Linda, California, on land that President Nixon's family once owned, the library is one...
tends to find her characters in her self, so I can tell you ... that Nixon, Pat, Mme. Mao, Kissinger and the chorus were all 'me.' And the inner lives...
with three other former first ladies—Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter, and PatNixon—at the "Women and the Constitution" conference at The Carter Center to...
Reporter, Hersh wrote that he had heard in 1974 that PatNixon, wife of former president Richard Nixon, had been treated in an emergency room in California...
PatNixon Park is a neighborhood park in Cerritos, California, named for the late First Lady PatNixon (1912-1993). The 4-acre (1.6 ha) park occupies the...
Tambor's wife Anne Brookes on the ABC sitcom The Ropers, and as PatNixon in Frost/Nixon (2008). She also appeared in the November 11, 1982, season 3 episode...
admiration and friendship toward First Lady PatNixon. On August 9, 1974, after the resignation of Richard Nixon (who was facing the prospect of likely impeachment...
Lady Mamie Eisenhower, and a son-in-law of President Richard Nixon and First Lady PatNixon. Dwight David Eisenhower II, better known as David, was named...
Johnson replaced Kennedy on more than 50 occasions. PatNixon, wife of Vice President Richard Nixon, was the first second spouse to add a great deal of...
Richard Nixon's tenure as the 37th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1969, and ended when he resigned on...
interviewed every sitting U.S. president and first lady from Richard and PatNixon to Barack and Michelle Obama. She also interviewed both Donald Trump and...
family's proposals for altering the house. During the Nixon Administration (1969–1974), First Lady PatNixon refurbished the Green Room, Blue Room, and Red Room...
people in public life. As Nixon discussed their finances, the telecast again showed PatNixon, fixedly watching her husband. PatNixon later stated that her...
portrayed Former First Lady PatNixon acting opposite Anthony Hopkins playing the title role in the Oliver Stone biographical drama Nixon (1995). Critic Roger...
Democratic incumbent, Pat Brown, ran for re-election against former U.S. vice president and 1960 Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon. In his concession...
Eisenhower. Her maternal grandparents were U.S. President Richard Nixon and First Lady PatNixon, while her paternal great-grandparents were U.S. President Dwight...
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