[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 32 (Wednesday, February 29, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H1020]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING FIRST LADY PATRICIA NIXON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Lance) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LANCE. I rise today to celebrate the centennial of the birth of 
First Lady Patricia Nixon. The Nixon library in southern California 
will present a major exhibit about Mrs. Nixon's life opening March 16, 
and the National Archives here in Washington will host a forum on Mrs. 
Nixon's work in the international arena in April.
  Thelma Catherine Ryan was born on the eve of St. Patrick's Day on 
March 16, 1912, in Ely, Nevada, a mining town. Her father, William 
Ryan, called her his St. Patrick's babe in the morn, so she was called 
Pat within hours of her birth. The Ryans moved to southern California 
for a better life and settled on a small truck farm in Artesia near Los 
Angeles. Orphaned early, her mother, Kate Halberstadt Bender Ryan, died 
in 1924, and her father in 1929, the year she was graduated from high 
school.
  A young person of tremendous courage and determination, Mrs. Nixon 
had her heart set on higher education and worked continually to secure 
the necessary funds. She drove an elderly couple to the east coast and 
worked as an X-ray technician in New York. Returning west, she was 
graduated cum laude from the University of Southern California in 1937.
  While attending USC, she held part-time jobs on campus and was a 
department store sales clerk and a Hollywood extra, appearing in 
several motion pictures, including the 1935 film, ``Becky Sharp.''
  Mrs. Nixon taught at Whittier High School in the late 1930s, where 
she met her husband, who had returned to his hometown to practice law 
after graduating from Duke Law School. Patricia Ryan and Richard Nixon 
were married in 1940 and, as was true of so many couples their age, she 
worked here at home while her husband served in the military in World 
War II as a naval officer in the Pacific.
  Mrs. Nixon campaigned with her husband as he was elected to the House 
of Representatives in 1946 and 1948 and to the United States Senate in 
1950. There's a charming photograph of the Nixons with their infant 
daughter, Tricia, taken at the Tidal Basin with the cherry blossoms in 
bloom in the spring of 1947. Julie, their younger daughter, was born 
the following year.
  With her husband's election as Vice President on Dwight Eisenhower's 
ticket in 1952, Mrs. Nixon became the Second Lady of the land. The 
Nixons traveled extensively, including for more than 2 months in Asia 
and the Pacific in 1953, and to South America in 1958, where the couple 
demonstrated tremendous courage in Caracas while being attacked by a 
Communist mob, and to the Soviet Union in 1959.
  Mrs. Nixon campaigned gallantly in 1960, returning to private life in 
California and then New York and proudly held the Nixon family Bible 
when Richard Nixon was inaugurated the 37th President in 1969.
  During the Presidential years, the First Lady was truly our 
Ambassador of Goodwill, visiting South Vietnam, an active combat zone, 
in 1969; an earthquake-ravaged Peru in 1970; and China, in the 
groundbreaking trip of 1972. Mrs. Nixon was responsible for the gift 
from the Chinese of the two giant pandas to the American people. She 
traveled to more than 80 countries and five continents during her life.
  As First Lady, Mrs. Nixon encouraged volunteer service, the spirit of 
people helping people. She added 600 paintings and antiques to the 
White House collection, illuminated the White House at night, and 
opened the White House gardens to the public.
  Mrs. Nixon's service to the Nation extended over many years. Only 
Dolly Madison, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Hillary Clinton, among our First 
Ladies, have served the country as long as Patricia Nixon.
  Laid to rest in 1993 on the grounds of the Nixon library at Yorba 
Linda, California, Mrs. Nixon's grave marker reads: ``Even when people 
can't speak your language, they can tell if you have love in your 
heart.'' Patricia Ryan Nixon had love in her heart and now, at her 
100th birthday, we remember her for her devotion to family, her grace 
and perseverance, and her patriotism to the United States of America.

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