by Frank Gannon, Former Special Assistant to President Nixon
Anne Walker usually had a twinkle in her always observant eye. She was alert to the beauty and wonder of the world while on the alert for anything that was foolish or pompous or fraudulent.
Circa 2007, after an eventful and accomplished life spent in the public and private sectors, she and Ron were looking forward to dividing their time between Tucson and Jackson Hole. That’s when she began writing a blog with the intention of “recording the wisdom” of her grandsons Hugh and Jake. Her handle was GramAnne, and her motto was “GramAnne stitches it straight.”
Her plan was, at last, to relax and unwind. She wanted to explore the desert surrounding their home on the High Mesa near Tucson, and to get an advanced degree –a Doctorate in Teton Viewing, as she dubbed it– by quietly sitting and staring at the beauty of those mountains.
But in 2009, as he jokingly –and she mordantly– put it, Ron failed retirement. He was recruited and persuaded to become President of the Richard Nixon Foundation. Because it was a debt of honor and a labor of love didn’t make the upheaval of moving to Yorba Linda any less unsettling or the sacrifice any less significant.
All of a sudden, Ron was once again working around the clock, and Anne was having to set up a new house. And what a house it was.
It’s huge, in a chopped up, cavernous way, with two staircases, six bedrooms, six bathrooms and a swimming pool that looks Grecian/Las Vegas gaudy, with three waterfalls and four spitting lions. You know I couldn’t make that up. My favorite spot is a little prayer garden in the side yard that has a statue of the Virgin Mary and a little bench for solitude and meditation.
It was a blessing that Marja’s graphics business was portable, so she was able to come along and help manage the house and the dogs. As usual, Anne was Ron’s de facto “administrative assistant, bookkeeper, secretary, travel agent, chief cook and bottle washer wherever World Headquarters is located.” Before long, Coyote Base was seating fifty and more for dinners.
Anne volunteered at the Museum Store. She and was a pioneer in harvesting the garden’s kumquats. She knew the docents were “the heart and soul of the Library,” and was the Docent Guild’s ardent defender and biggest fan.
Amidst all the activity, and away from the wisdom of the grandkids, GramAnne’s blog was languishing. So Marja, Lisa, and Lynne urged her to expand its remit to cover the history –and, perhaps more important, the backstory— of the memorable and eventful Walker Years in Yorba Linda. She described the transition:
[GramAnne] was born as a fun way for me to talk about our long-awaited amazing grandsons, Hugh and Jake. Writing about the Richard Nixon Foundation and all the struggles we faced made it take on another mission. I have come to think of the “gram” part as a telegram, or aerogram, to keep people informed. It isn’t a Grandma thing anymore, although it will morph back into that at some point, I hope.
Today, thanks to GramAnne, along with charming reveries about cookies and thoughtful detours dealing with answering machines, readers will find a rigorous and passionate account of a pivotal time in the Nixon Foundation’s history, as well as some unique stories and memories about the Nixon Family and the Nixon White House.
Anne understood the importance of writing it down and getting the facts right: “Like most things ‘Nixon,’ if we don’t document it, someone else will invariably distort it.” She was an honest writer and a superb stylist. She said that Commerce Secretary Malcom Baldrige –with whom she worked to save and preserve the National Aquarium—instructed staffers to write “in a style halfway between Ernest Hemingway and Zane Grey.” She mastered that admirable combination without forsaking her own inimitable ways with words. She summed it up with typical perception: “I learned a great deal from my Baldrige experience, but in the long run I think we write like we write and we talk like we talk. It makes us, well, us.”
In 2010, having righted the ship and set the course, Ron and Anne were ready to depart Coyote Base. She admitted that the task was harder than they thought it would be; but she was satisfied that they had accomplished much more than they dared to hope for. Summing up, she wrote:
The true bonus from the past year was the opportunity to re-connect with so many wonderful Nixon era pals, and to get to know the outstanding docents who provide so much to the day to day operation of the Richard Nixon Foundation, Library and Birthplace. They are truly a unique group of professionals.
Retirement resumed at Rattlenake Base on the Paseo Monte de Oro and at the Director’s Cabin at the foot of the Tetons. She collaborated with Ron on an engaging and colorful account of their early lives and their many years together. She spent her time “writing, walking, blogging, quilting, knitting, reading and wondering why the days go by so fast and how I got to be so old. Life is good and we are blessed.” Right up until last week, she devoted herself to her family, her friends, and her faith.
China Calls: Paving the Way for Nixon’s Historic Journey to China is Anne’s definitive and authoritative account of the groundbreaking 1971-2 advance work led by Ron.
And anyone who visits –and revisits—GramAnne will be rewarded by spending quality time with a witty, curious, and compassionate observer who watched some history being made while making some history of her own.
https://gramanne.blogspot.com/
Although GramAnne never morphed back to being a chronicle of Hugh’s and Jake’s wisdom, it will be a unique and loving legacy for those wise and lucky grandsons.