In 1968, Richard Nixon was poised to become the 37th American president. There was a great deal of public interest his family. Capitalizing on that demand, Washington news correspondent Vera Glaser authored a newspaper series on Nixon’s wife, Pat.
Glaser’s reporting highlighted Nixon’s modest upbringing as the daughter of a California farmer. Orphaned at seventeen, Nixon worked her way through college clerking at a department store and acting as an extra in Hollywood films. She was teaching school when she married Richard, a rising young attorney.
Although Pat Nixon said politics was not the kind of life she would have chosen, she worked long hours in her husband’s Congressional office and on the campaign trail. Nixon was known for her unflinching loyalty to her husband and her ability to shield her two daughters from the pressures of politics.
See the Vera Glaser papers at UW’s American Heritage Center to learn more about Pat Nixon’s life in the years leading up to her role as First Lady.
For more information, visit the American Heritage Center site.