Pat Nixon

Thelma Catherine Patricia Ryan Nixon (March 16, 1912 – June 22, 1993) was the wife of Richard Nixon and First Lady of the United States from 1969-1974.

Early life

Born Thelma Catherine Ryan in Ely, Nevada shortly before St. Patrick's Day of Irish and German extraction, Pat Nixon acquired her nickname within hours, and eventually changed her name legally. Her father, William Ryan, called her his "St. Patrick's babe in the morn" when he came home from the mines before dawn.

Related Topics:
Ely, Nevada - St. Patrick's Day - Irish - German - St. Patrick

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Her family soon moved to California and settled on a small truck farm in the city of Dairy Valley near Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Kate Halberstadt Bender Ryan, died in 1925; at 13, Pat assumed all the household duties for her father and two older brothers. At 18, in 1930, she lost her father after nursing him through months of illness.

Related Topics:
California - Los Angeles, California

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Left on her own and determined to continue her education, she worked her way through the University of Southern California. She held part-time jobs on campus, as a sales clerk in a fashionable department store, and as an extra in the movies—and she graduated cum laude in 1937. She was quoted once as saying: "I do or I die, but I never cancel out."

Related Topics:
University of Southern California - Cum laude - 1937

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