Born in Nevada, Pat Ryan grew up inLos
Angeles,California.
She graduated from high school in 1929, then attendedFullerton
Junior Collegeand later theUniversity
of Southern California. She paid for her schooling by working multiple
jobs, including pharmacy manager, typist,X-ray
technician, and retail store clerk. In 1940, she married lawyer Richard
Nixon; they had two daughters. Pat campaigned for her husband in his
successfulcongressionalcampaigns
of 1946 and 1948. Richard Nixon was electedVice
Presidentin theEisenhoweradministration,
whereupon Pat undertook many missions of goodwill with her husband and gained
favorable media coverage. She assisted her husband in both his unsuccessful1960
presidential campaign, and later in his successfulpresidential
campaign of 1968.
As First Lady, Pat Nixon promoted a number of charitable causes, includingvolunteerism.
She oversaw the collection of more than 600 pieces of historic art and
furnishings for theWhite
House, an acquisition larger than that of any other administration. Pat
became the most traveled First Lady in U.S. history up to that time, visiting
about 80 nations; she was the first First Lady to enter a combat zone. These
trips gained her favorable reception in the media and the host countries. Her
tenure ended when, after being re-elected in alandslide
victory in 1972, President Nixon resigned two years later amid theWatergate
scandal.
Her public appearances became less frequent in her later life. She and her
husband returned toCalifornia,
and later moved toNew
Jersey. Pat suffered twostrokes—one
in 1976 and another in 1983—and was later diagnosed withlung
cancerin the early 1990s. She
died in 1993 aged 81.
Thelma Catherine Ryan was born in the small mining town ofEly,
Nevada, the day beforeSt.
Patrick's Day. Her father, William M. Ryan, Sr., was a sailor, gold miner,
andtruck
farmerof Irish descent. Her
mother, Katherine Halberstadt, was a German immigrant.[1]
Pat was a nickname given to her by her father, referring to her birthdate and
Irish ancestry.[1]Upon
enrolling in college in 1931 she dropped her first name of Thelma, replacing
it with Pat and occasionally rendering it as Patricia; the name change,
however, was not a legal action, merely one of preference.[2][3][4]
After her birth, the Ryan family moved nearLos
Angeles, California, and in 1914 settled on a small truck farm inArtesia(present-dayCerritos).[5]During
this time she worked on the family farm, and also at a local bank as a janitor
and bookkeeper. Her mother died of cancer in 1924.[6]Pat,
who was 12 at the time, assumed all the household duties for her father, who
died in 1929 ofsilicosis,
and two older brothers, William Jr. (1910–1997) and Thomas (1911–1992). She
also had a half-sister, Neva Bender (born 1909), and a half-brother, Matthew
Bender (born 1907), from her mother's first marriage;[1]her
mother's first husband had died during aflash
floodin South Dakota.[1]
Education
and career
It has been said that few, if any, First Ladies worked as consistently before
their marriage as did Pat Nixon.[1]As
she told the writerGloria
Steinemduring the 1968
presidential campaign, "I never had time to think about things like that—who I
wanted to be, or who I admired, or to have ideas. I never had time to dream
about being anyone else. I had to work."[7]
After graduating fromExcelsior
High Schoolin 1929, Pat Ryan
attendedFullerton
Junior College. She paid for her education by working odd jobs, including
as a driver, a pharmacy manager, a telephone operator, and a typist.[1]She
also earned money sweeping the floors of a local bank,[1]and
from 1930 until 1932, she lived in New York City, working as a secretary and
anX-ray
technician.[6]
Determined "to make something out of myself",[8]she
enrolled in 1931 at theUniversity
of Southern California(USC),
where she majored in merchandising. As a former professor noted, "She stood
out from the empty-headed, overdressed little sorority girls of that era like
a good piece of literature on a shelf of cheap paperbacks."[9]The
young Ryan held part-time jobs on campus, worked as a sales clerk inBullock's-Wilshiredepartment
store,[10]taught
typing andshorthandat
a high school,[6]and
supplemented her income by working as an extra in the film industry.[11]She
appeared as part of a brief walk-on in the 1935 filmBecky
Sharp, as well as the 1936 filmThe
Great Ziegfeld.[12]
While in Whittier, Pat Ryan met a young lawyer fresh out ofDuke
Universitylaw school,Richard
Milhous Nixon. The two became acquainted at a Little Theater group when
they were cast together inThe
Dark Tower.[6]Known
as Dick, he asked Pat Ryan to marry him the first night they went out. "I
thought he was nuts or something!" she recalled.[14]He
courted the redhead he called his "wild Irish Gypsy" for two years,[15]even
driving her to and from her dates with other men. Eventually they married at
theMission
InninRiverside,
California
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