The woman who entered her role by saying that she simply wanted to go down in history as “the wife of a President” accomplished that and much more. Throughout her more than 25 years of public life, Americans identified with Pat Nixon and many viewed her rise from poverty to success as an embodiment of the American Dream.

Supplementing this was her acquired role — “Madame Ambassador” — the first such President’s spouse to be designated so. She was an ideal example for women in the 1970s and future First Ladies, setting precedents and proving that “women can play a vital role in world affairs,” according to noted columnist Robert Thompson. Her mercy mission to Peru as well as diplomatically productive trips to Africa, China, the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South America and elsewhere indeed proved her to be a foreign diplomat in her own right. Gwen Gibson of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune noted that Mrs. Nixon may have been “breaking more ground than any First Lady before her.”

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Thelma Catherine Ryan was born in the late hours of March 16, 1912 in a miner’s shack in the small town of Ely, Nevada to William and Kate Ryan. At her mother’s insistence, the baby was named Thelma, though her father began calling her Babe – “my St. Patrick’s Babe in the morning.” She was the youngest of five children; she had two ...

In February 1946, Pat gave birth to daughter Patricia, known as Tricia. In the following weeks she supported her husband’s congressional campaign, setting up the office headquarters and passing out campaign literature at events. Not yet comfortable with public speaking, she thanked volunteers and campaign workers with personal greetings instead....

As the wife of the Vice President, the “Second Lady” traveled globally as an Ambassador of Goodwill on behalf of the United States. Her position finally offered her the opportunity to travel and see the world, just as she had wished as a girl. Mrs. Nixon’s first such trip was in 1953, to countries in Asia and the Far East which had never ...

In 1969 the country had a new president – and a new first lady. When asked what her project as first lady would be, she replied “people are my project.” During the Nixons’ first White House Thanksgiving Mrs. Nixon invited 225 senior citizens without families to dinner; she invited wounded servicemen the following year. In addition she became...