Richard and Patricia Nixon in 1953

He’s one of the most reviled men in United States history, a deeply unpopular president, and the national butt of jokes for the majority of his life (first after his defeat by Kennedy, and later by Watergate).  Still, Richard Nixon had a softer side, and there was no one he was closer to than his wife of 53 years, Patricia.  This year would have been Pat Nixon’s 100th birthday, and to pay tribute to her life, a selection of Richard Nixon’s love letters will go on display at the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California.

“Somehow on Tuesday there was something electric in the usually almost stifling air in Whittier,” wrote future President Nixon to Patricia Ryan (the future Pat Nixon) in one of the letters shared in the exhibit.  “And now I know.  An Irish gypsy who radiates all that is happy and beautiful was there.”

The letters reveal interesting aspects of the couple’s personality.  Nixon’s letters are flowery, romantic, and passionate; Ryan’s letters are funny and light, with a bit more of a practical edge.  Nixon met his future wife in 1938 when the two were cast in a community theater production of “The Dark Tower” in a classic Hollywood meet cute.  Two years later, Nixon proposed.

Tags: Richard Nixon, Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon love letters, Richard Nixon’s love letters to Pat, Patricia Ryan, Patricia Nixon, Whittier, California, Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Yorba Linda, California, The Dark Tower, meet cute, romance, Nixon love letters, unusual museum displays

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