Pat Nixon dies of cancer
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.PAT NIXON, wife of Richard Nixon and retiring, unassuming bulwark to one of America's most turbulent political careers, died early yesterday of lung cancer, in the privacy of the couple's home in New Jersey. She was 81, a year older than her husband.
A Nixon spokesman said the former president and their two daughters, Julie and Tricia, were at her bedside. It was the day after the 53rd anniversary of a marriage which had seen triumph and then disaster without precedent, whose supreme trial was Watergate and the humiliating exit from the White House that August day of 1974.
Yesterday, however, all mention of disgrace was put aside, as tributes flowed in to a woman of universally acknowledged fortitude. 'She was an extraordinarily supportive First Lady,' said Henry Kissinger, to whom, as Secretary of State, Mr Nixon addressed his letter of resignation. On the floor of the Senate, Mark Hatfield of Oregon spoke of a 'very gallant lady' who was 'a soldier, a partner in the fullest meaning of that word'.
For all the fame thrust upon her, Pat Nixon was a remarkably private figure. The role of political wife was a duty to be endured, not enjoyed. Her habits were modest, her priority her family. In the White House she was perhaps the last of the traditional First Ladies, a self-effacing hostess who never intruded in public debate.
That Julie and her sister Tricia came through the Watergate ordeal relatively unscathed, Mr Nixon attributed to the 'strength and serenity of their mother. They couldn't have done it without her.'
But the price she paid ultimately proved fatal. After reading The Final Days, Carl Bernstein's and Bob Woodward's account of the end of the Nixon presidency, which among other things portrayed her as a heavy drinker, she had a stroke and never properly recovered. In 1983 came a second stroke, then emphysema and finally the lung cancer which killed her.
The burial is to be held on Saturday at the Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California.
Obituary, page 20
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments