Continuing the celebration of First Lady Pat Nixon’s 100th birthday, Edward Nixon, the youngest brother of President Nixon and Mrs. Nixon’s brother-in-law, made a special visit to Yorba Linda to tour the widely-praised Pat Nixon Centennial Exhibit.
He recalls meeting Pat Ryan when he was just a young boy:
“When my family and I met her, she was so full of energy and enthusiasm that all of us were immediately drawn to her… She won me over by saying, ‘Eddie, let’s go to the beach.’ I loved that because my family seldom had time to take me. She would drive me down to Huntington Beach and race me to the sand… I gave Dick my approval, telling him, ‘You can marry her if you want.”
Ed Nixon joins a long line of visitors from across the country who have come to learn more about Mrs. Nixon’s extraordinary life since the exhibit was opened on March 16, 2012. The largest exhibit of any of the presidential libraries to focus on a First Lady, the birthday party on March 16 included remarks and a ribbon-cutting by President and Mrs. Nixon’s daughters Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, in addition to David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, and noted entertainment icon Ben Stein.
Ed Nixon is a member of the Board of Directors of the Richard Nixon Foundation and enjoys coming to the Library often to meet visitors and sign books. His memoir of his family, The Nixons: A Family Portrait, is available in the Nixon Library Museum Store.
Jimmy Byron is a Marketing and Communications Assistant at the Nixon Foundation and a second-year student at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.