{"id":1109,"date":"2019-03-17T07:39:19","date_gmt":"2019-03-17T11:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rufusyoungblood.com\/blog\/?p=1109"},"modified":"2019-03-26T12:12:52","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T16:12:52","slug":"thinking-of-pat-nixon-on-st-patricks-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rufusyoungblood.com\/blog\/thinking-of-pat-nixon-on-st-patricks-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Nixon & St. Patrick\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thelma Catherine Ryan Nixon was born in 1912 on the eve of St. Patrick\u2019s Day which pleased her Irish father. Thus, she was fondly nicknamed \u201cPat.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I had the honor of meeting First Lady Pat Nixon when I was a child. My mother took my sister Candy and me to a White House reception for staff families shortly after President Nixon\u2019s first inauguration in 1969. Although it was a brief encounter, I thought the first lady was a very nice person. My parents later validated this impression, relaying to me their high regard for Mrs. Nixon. A further testament of her gracious nature, my father cited a story about Pat Nixon in his memoir describing how she had given him the rose bouquet she had carried during a parade in Atlanta to pass on to my mother (detailed in my blog, \u201cNixon and My Father’s Full Circle,” Jan. 2019.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I have gained further appreciation for this remarkable first lady after reading several biographies about her. A pioneer, she was the \u201cfirst First\u201d Lady to travel solo as a designated US representative and to visit China, the Soviet Union, and a combat zone. On the home front, she encouraged volunteerism for those in need, oversaw the acquisition of a sizable historical collection for the White House, and instigated changes in \u201cthe people\u2019s house\u201d to make it more accessible to its people – including the overlooked disabled population. Well before there were laws to do so, she saw to the addition of handicap accommodations in the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I have recently enjoyed reading the book, Pat Nixon: The Untold Story<\/em>, written by her daughter Julie Nixon Eisenhower and am intrigued by young Pat\u2019s strong character. She was intelligent, hardworking, and determined. Despite hardship as a youth, she worked her way through school, graduated from the University of Southern California with honors, and as an educator, she went on to inspire many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\"\"\n

First Lady Pat Nixon with Mamie Eisenhower and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, 1973, WHPO, NARA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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As a former resident of Savannah, Georgia, where St. Patrick\u2019s Day is celebrated with great enthusiasm, I celebrate my inner-Irish annually on this day. After reading about our country’s dynamic former First Lady Pat Nixon, henceforth, I will also think of “Pat” on this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Happy St. Patrick\u2019s Day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

__________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bob Bostock, “Patricia Nixon’s Visitor Friendly White House,” White House Historical Association <\/em>website, March 9, 2019. https:\/\/www.whitehousehistory.org\/patricia-nixons-visitor-friendly-white-house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Pat Nixon: The Untold Story, <\/em>(New York: Simon & Schuster), 1986.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thelma Catherine Ryan Nixon was born in 1912 on the eve of St. Patrick\u2019s Day which pleased her Irish father. Thus, she was fondly nicknamed \u201cPat.\u201d I had the honor of meeting First Lady Pat Nixon when I was a child. My mother took my sister Candy and me to a White House reception for … Continue reading Pat Nixon & St. Patrick\u2019s Day<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[132,253,63,229,109,67,203,46,257],"class_list":["post-1109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flotus","tag-20-years-in-the-secret-service","tag-julie-eisenhower-nixon","tag-mamie-eisenhower","tag-pat-nixon","tag-president-nixon","tag-rebecca-youngblood","tag-richard-nixon","tag-rufus-w-youngblood","tag-st-patricks-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rufusyoungblood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rufusyoungblood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rufusyoungblood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rufusyoungblood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rufusyoungblood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1109"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.rufusyoungblood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1144,"href":"https:\/\/www.rufusyoungblood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109\/revisions\/1144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rufusyoungblood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rufusyoungblood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rufusyoungblood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rufusyoungblood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}