Following hughs remarks and a brief video presentation, our panelists will join us here for tonights program. Those of you on this side of the room, no worries. This podium is going to be removed, so you will have a clear shot of our panelists. And i cant end without a little bit of selfpromotion. Our shop is open until 8 30 tonight. Its right at the top of the ramp from the door where you came in. And everybody here will get a 10 discount on anything that you would like to take home with you tonight. You could finish your Christmas Shopping right here tonight. So, thank you very much. Hugh, welcome. [ applause ] thank you, stewart, and welcome to all of you on behalf of the nixon foundation, which i became the president of only in july. And what a great first event celebrating mrs. Nixon to be a part of. I want to get out of the way of the experts and get them up here in a hurry. We all know the definitive biography of mrs. Nixon was written by julie nixon eisenhower. I am pleased to let you know that as of this friday, it will be available on audio book, read by her daughter and mrs. Nixons granddaughter, jenny nixon eisenhower. And i think you will enjoy listening to, if you did not already enjoy reading or want to read again the definitive book about mrs. Nixon. I was very, very lucky 41 years ago to be asked by David Eisenhower to graduate from college and drive across the country to san clemente and go to work for him. And after three or four months, i went over to work at Casa Pacifica for president nixon at the old western white house, which dr. Cavanaugh and Barbara Franklin will know so well from their days serving the president. And in their retirement, there were not a lot of people around, but i got to know mrs. Nixon in her retirement. And in a very unusual way. 22 years old. Dont know anyone in california. Thanksgiving rolls around, and mrs. Nixon invites me to dinner at thanksgiving at the Casa Pacifica. That was the first of many invitations at their three homes post presidency, in new york city, saddle river, but it was that first dinner when im 22 years old and i really dont know what i am doing, and im surrounded by the president of the United States, former president and former first lady, and their children, and she was the most incredibly gracious person to me, a youngster who really had no idea what they were doing, clueless as to manners, with the absolute expert in protocol. It was only five years later when my wife and i moved back to washington, d. C. , to go to work for president reagan, and my wifes grandmother was living in the dresden, which many of you will know up on connecticut avenue. And helen smith lived in the dresden. And so i got to know helen very well because we took over grandmothers apartment during the summers when she, as all rightthinking people did, left town. Helen would explain to me that my graciousness that i had experienced from mrs. Nixon was not unique to me. She was, in fact, gracious to every Single Person that she ever met, in every capacity, young and small. She traveled the world relentlessly, beginning in 1953, as the second lady, setting a pattern for the second lady, which was unique. And when she became first lady, she was the first first lady to visit not only africa, not only south america, as first lady, but as the first lady, first time to go to china and to the ussr. And at every step, she always insisted on seeing people, children, schools, orphanages, because she wanted to get out of the diplomatic protocol and to talk to people. And it was there that she again exhibited on behalf of america the same kind of kindness that i experienced firsthand. [ applause ] well, wasnt she an amazing first lady in so many ways . And i want to start with patti matson, whom i covered when i arrived at the white house at the beginning of the ford administration. Patti, you had already been hired as a speechwriter and a Deputy Press Secretary for pat nixon, and you told me once that she had a keen eye for what was appropriate. And she was very much shaped by her growing up, how hard she worked, that work ethic. Its one of the things that i think is so important about her. Ive been in television, ive been in politics, ive known a lot of people who work hard, but this one takes the cake. She really was she was in full bore. And the first thing i noticed, really my first day on the job can you all hear me back there . Was when you sent something up to her that needed her input overnight, literally, it was on your desk the next morning before you got in. It didnt matter if there had been a state dinner the night before. She had a job, and she treated it as such. And the daytoday, really handling of constituents was so important to her. It was one of the first things that she said to me in our job interview, that she considered people to be her project. She didnt want a pet cause . Yes. And that just wasnt her. She wanted to on a day inday out basis make life better for people who came to visit the white house, people who really wanted to connect with their government. I used to watch her stand in some of these receiving lines, and she was never one of these people who shakes hands and kind of pushes the people through. You know what i mean . You see her looking directly at the person in front of her and meeting of minds and taking time to shake our hand and sometimes say a few words. And she had all the energy in the world to do that because she understood how much it meant to people to have someone that cared about them in government in washington. And she felt it very strongly. And it also went and spoke to how she, like all of us, to make sure that requests got filled very quickly, to make sure that mail was returned very quickly. She had a real feeling for being able to connect with people. And it was quite a gift, and she used it for the presidency. It was a very rare gift, and i was fortunate enough to see it, which was marvelous to me. She had been in the public eye for so long before she actually arrived at the white house. Why do you think that reputation of being kind of timid even in the video, she assumed amused that people thought she was shy. She didnt seem that way to you. You know, she had a reserve, and i found that very attractive. She was a very elegant woman. And she was of an era, the best part of an era, and we dont see so much of that anymore. She was not one that was going to, i guess the going thing now is to unload yourself and to confide with america on whatever is going through your mind. And a little bit of that goes a long way, if you dont mind me saying so. She was appropriate always, and she just had an innate ability to be that way. It was wonderful to behold. Betty, let me ask you, because you were present for all of this period of time. And first of all, thank you for all youve done. Thank you. For the white house, as curator, and the Lasting Legacy that you have helped create there. We think about first ladies, the more traditional role of worrying about the house and home. But she felt strongly about doing more with the white house, including opening some of those doors. Very much. In fact, i think the film mentioned her tours for the blind and the deaf, which julie was very instrumental in participating in as well. But she was the first first lady to open the grounds for garden tours in the spring and the fall, and those have continued to the present time. And the christmas candlelight tours in the evening. So, the public could come in and see the house during the holidays, all lighted up and beautifully decorated. And another legacy i think that endures today is the lighting of the exterior of the house. Right. She had gotten a lot of inquiries from people talking about how the house was so dark when they brought tourists by the house in the evenings. And too, when she and the president would come in on the helicopter, they couldnt even see the house, it was so dark. So, very early using inaugural funds from the first inauguration, she worked very closely with the National Park service in having the engineers design and plan and implement the lighting of the house. And that is a legacy that endures today. Yes. And the idea that she brought in more works of art than any other first lady has ever. How did that moment in history happen . Well, i think it happened when she and president nixon had gone to the state department, to the diplomatic reception rooms there in 1969, and had seen how beautiful those rooms were. And a year later, in the early 1970, she called the curator at the state department and asked if he would be willing to come over and be the curator of the white house. And he had a job at the state department. He worked in the Protocol Office as well as in the diplomatic reception rooms. But mrs. Nixon invited him to the white house. And they walked through all of the rooms, from the third floor down to the ground floor, through the private quarters and the state rooms. And he thought about it for a few days and decided to accept it. And she was a very strong supporter of this program. The rooms had been last refurbished in the early 60s, in the kennedy administration, but there had been tremendous visitation, tremendous receptions and a lot of crowds in the 60s. And things really needed to take shape. And klemm conger was a very energet energetic, ambitious person who knew how to raise funds and appeal to donors and mrs. Nixon would often write letters to donors and have receptions and teas for people that were potential donors or museums that might lend objects, such as the Dolley Madison portrait by Gilbert Stewart that belonged to the Pennsylvania Academy of the fine arts, which was hung in 1971. And then it was finally purchased by the association here for the collection. But she was a big supporter. She, in fact, did go up to philadelphia to the Pennsylvania Academy to thank them for lending that painting. And she put herself out a great deal and worked very closely. She became very attached to a consulting architect, Edward Mason Jones who worked with mr. Conger on many of the projects, and became very good friends with him and his family. And i, too, second what patti says about her graciousness. We were not directly a part of her white house staff, but i do remember once she invited her staff to go out on the yacht, the sequoia, and she included our staff, which was very generous. Another time we had gotten a gift of a gilded french tear that belonged to the blue room suite, and it was mrs. Nixons birthday. And we invited her to our office to show her the chair and had a little Birthday Celebration with her friend, mrs. Drown was there, and dr. Takosh and some of the butlers and the household staff came in. And theres a wonderful photograph of her looking at its something that youre not quite 49 or Something Like that on the placard. But she was a very strong supporter. She, as patti said, had a lot of energy and was extremely gracious to people visiting the white house and to people who would contribute in some way to the collections. Anita, you have worked over a period of several president s, and youve got to see threads today that were begun by pat nixon. Oh, sure, absolutely. First of all, i have to say, you know, its just an honor to be here with two of these wonderful women who had the opportunity, one, i wish i had always had. I always say to one first lady, i would have loved to have sat to have dinner with was pat nixon. Because of her impact, her love of the house, her incredible privilege that she felt to be a steward of the white house. And anybody that works in the white house knows the impact or sees the impact, you read about the impact, you see it on the walls of the things that theyve been able to acquire for the collection that make it, you know, part of the Beautiful Museum and gift to the people that it is. And when patti mentioned about correspondents, i sort of chuckled on that little bit, too, because ive worked for several first ladies whose correspondence was incredibly important to them. And one of the things that with mrs. Nixon and her focus on correspondence is she came from a small town, and she really understood that if somebody got an envelope from the white house or the president of the United States, what that would mean to receive in their mailbox, and thats why she was relentless about having her mail responded to and that anybody that wrote to her would get a letter from the white house and how much that means and still means to this day, of course. But the fact that, you know, she took that so personally is one of her great legacies. And there are people here in the audience who work as volunteers in correspondence right now, so they know what were talking about and how that is something that every white house really feels is important. And thanks to mrs. Roosevelt, eleanor roosevelt, who really established the first formal Correspondence Office at the white house. And she was the eyes and ears for her husband anyway, but she really understood what that connection to the American People would be through mail that they wrote to her or wrote to the president and that they would get a response. So, thats something, talk about the thread of history, is a really wonderful example. Its the connection to the constituents, and you could never forget that. What that reminded me of is that she had a mindset that was almost like a member of congress. In terms of having a constituency. And the people across america were her constituency. And she understood them because she had grown up with them. She was an incredibly hardworking person from, gosh, the time the from the time she was 13 years old and her mother died. She was up working on the farm in the morning, taking care of her older brothers, really raising her older brothers and cooking for them and then went on to start working really as a teenager. And sometimes holding two and three jobs. So, she was a professional for a very long time. But the main thing is, she understood how people felt about Something Like their white house. And it was very important to her to have them leave feeling better about themselves and about what was going on. Opening up the white house at night would also mean that people who had day jobs where they couldnt just take off and go look at the whf. Thats right, thats right. It would give them an access as well. And patti, i remember from my years, i covered seven president s, starting with gerald ford, all the way through president obama. And i remember a sign that probably all of them wanted on their desk, but i think it was Ronald Reagan who had, theres no limit to what you can accomplish if you dont care who gets the credit. Right. That was pat nixon. Yes. She lived that. Really, she was the embodiment of that. And you could see it. It was never about her. I ran into a quote, and it was a barbara bush quote. Pat nixon didnt seek credit she was not shy. Barbara bush was definitely not shot. Pat nixon didnt seek credit, which may be why shes not as fully appreciated as she should be. She never sought recognition for herself. But those of us who knew and admired her always wish she had received the appreciation she earned over a lifetime of service. Mrs. Nixon always wanted the work to speak for itself. She didnt care about getting credit. And she genuinely did not. Anita, you once told me that the role of first lady adapts to the woman as much as the woman adapted. How does that work . Right, right. And some day will be a man. I think that thats the white house in general, right, throughout our history, that the occupant adapts to the office and the office adapts to the occupant. But i think mrs. Nixon, like all first ladies through our history, the thread that binds all of them together is theres no person who cares more about the success of the president and the presidency than the president s spouse. That is their single focus. And that is something really that does bind all of them together in what they share, as the Single Person that has experienced the ups and the downs and who at the end of the day is not like any other adviser. They are a different confidante. And i think, you know, mrs. Nixon doesnt get the credit for just what an incredible political mastermind that she was. I mean, this was the hardest working person on the president s campaigns. And think about it and Richard Nixons campaigns. In six years, she saw him go from congressman to senator to Vice President of the United States, in six years. And all of these campaigns, some of them which were very, very difficult 1952, of course, running for the vice presidency when the scandal on finances erupted and how that personally wounded her so much because it was a challenge to their integrity, not so much challenge to policy and to projects, but to their integrity. So, this famously shy person or quiet person she didnt have to be the loudest voice in the room was wounded by that, and you can understand why. You know, i was watching again this wonderful tape that was done and really encapsulates everything she was about. I was watching it and thinking, oh, i wish she could have seen that. And then i thought, get a grip she never would have let you do Something Like that never in a million years. She was much too modest to ever, ever think about letting you do Something Like that. Well, one thing she has not gotten adequate credit for is the pandas. Who can tell the panda story . Its a great story. She is, obviously she is going with her husband right. To the breakthrough opening to china, a remarkable i mean, really, a seminole moment for american relations. And they add her to the trip, and a hairdresser, so at the request of choen li. So, pick up the story. Shes at the state dinner. At the state banquet. At the state banquet. And there is a package of cigarettes sitting there. Right. Somebody tell the story. I dont know the story. I dont know that either. But i do remember oh, its panda they were panda cigarettes. Right. Oh. And mrs. Nixon mrs. Nixon said, i like that. Said, we should have or we, you know, these are so wonderful, we should have . Right. And he said, oh, cigarettes . And she said, no, pandas and he said, ill send you two that definitely is something and i heard it a wonderful story. Tonight i dont know if i could share that. You told me that the actual cartridge of cigarettes is an artifact that you will now have at the library, that the cartridge of, or the little pack of cigarettes actually was found. Its a metal packet. And i thought, isnt that terrific . Because thats a great way to tell the story, too, about this incredible diplomatic skill of mrs. Nixon and her gracious and very quiet and lovely way of saying, oh, i like those. And then here we have, you know, here we have this National Treasure at the national zoo of the pandas. And again, you could imagine at the state banquet so much pressure and tension and preparation that went into that visit. No president ial lathe could have scripted that that would have been the outcome of that visit, but look at the legacy its left behind. And i remember excuse me Lucy Winchester who was mrs. Nixons social secretary, told me a wonderful story one time about the logistics of getting those pandas here to washington. I hope theyve done an oral history with Lucy Winchester about that incident. You know, one thing that i know pertained to mrs. Nixon and is in the same subject of how hard she worked. I think people dont realize that whether its a state dinner or whether youre doing a foreign trip, for one thing, for years, there were no jet airliners. So, you can imagine what it was like going to some of these places. But the other thing is, the amount of time and work that goes into making sure youre appropriately briefed. And you know, you read the guidance, because if youre sitting next to a head of state, youre talking to that person on their own level. And you have to know what youre talking about or what youre not supposed to be talking about. So, it requires a lot you cannot phone it in. You have to, you know, very conscientiously know those briefing books and make sure that you can handle something along those lines. She was someone who worked very hard on that, too, and understood the nuance of why you had to do that. It was there were so many things to admire this woman for. And she just took it in stride. It was a part of her job. Her job. Her unpaid job. And she excelled. She was comfortable talking with heads of state. She was very comfortable. For example, the trip that was mentioned earlier, when there was that terrible, terrible. The earthquake. Yeah, the earthquake. In peru. In peru. She landed in a mountain and met the wife of the president there. And they walked for five hours through the muck and everything that had been involved in that. It was something. And it all happened because she read the stories to begin with, and the government sent our planes with some things. And three weeks later, she was noticing that she, you know, all the coverage of it really had stopped. And she went to the president and said, id really like to be helpful here. Id really like to do something. And within a week, she was on a plane headed for peru. And she was in fact, she had to sit in a makeshift chair in the front because it was obviously a plane that was taking as many things as they could load up transport on the plane, cargo. Yes, exactly. And the wife of the president met her and then they, as i say, walked for five hours through all of this muck. And then the rest of the day she spent there were 50,000 people that died in this earthquake, and Something Like 800,000 people who were without a home. It was wrenching. And she spent the day talking to everyone that she could, you know, see, and hugging them. And it had the diplomats it had this consequence. The diplomats were very nervous about it because the president of the country had gotten had made some overt overtures to the soviets, so that it was one of those moments that you didnt know what way it was going to go. And by the end of the day, he had heard everything that had happened with mrs. Nixon and how everyone adored her and what she had gone through to actually initiate this and go over there with all of this. And by the way, the ps to it was not only a week later, the soviets sent 60 planes of materials to help these people. So, it was not only her own government support, but the irony was that it also ended up in getting them more support from another country. The times in which she was in the public eye were such dramatic ones. And by the time they got to the white house with the civil rights movement, with the war in vietnam, with the womens rights movement, pat nixon walked that kind of careful line without getting overtly political into her husbands decisions. Yet, she would stand up, she and her successor, betty ford, would stand up and say, yes, you should pass the equal rights amendment. My daughter and my kids dont even know what the equal rights amendment is but she would talk about that and she would talk about women running for office, women getting involved in politics. Remember, when they were in the white house, the ivy leagues were still all male universities. Right. Thats right. Women did not have Sandra Day Oconnor couldnt get a job right out of law school, except a secretarial one. So, how did she find the strength, any of you, think how she im going to point to Barbara Franklin, because barbara was running the office of womens issues. So, im going to tell your story. And bobbie kill borne and susan porter rose, these women who worked in the white house then knew mrs. Nixon, knew how she worked within the White House Office and the departments that were there, thanks to leadership with you, ann armstrong, others, that were very conscious of this burgeoning womens movement. And mrs. Nixon, because shes politically astute, realized that the republicans were losing some ground on this. It was the democrats that were proposing legislation and bills to support women, and she worked very closely with the office of womens issues in the white house to help get more appointments, right she did. Appointments of women in the federal government. And as you said, spoke publicly about women, a woman for the supreme court. She was disappointed that that was not the president s decision, of course, and may have expressed that privately to him. But publicly, of course, she supported the president. And that was an appropriate again, i think that was her character and the appropriate way to do it. But she was responding to what was going on in the country. Can we also get Marlene Malek . Marlene, can you come up and join us . Yeah, theres a seat here for you. Come on. Weve get a chair up front for you. Im sorry. Go ahead, patti. I was just going to say, make no mistake about it, she was what i would call quietly politically astute. She wasnt about to brag about what she could do or not do. She was very quiet about her sophistication in terms of doing things that were appropriate politically. Mmhmm. Thats well said. The times that she lived in were dramatic ones. Very. But there are some things that dont change. There is always in the years that i covered the white house over an arc of 40 years, there has always been for every administration ive covered a bit of tension between east and west, east wing and west wing. Thats natural. And anita, does it come with the territory . Its just sort of its just natural. I mean, it is constantly evolving. I mean, my experience with working in the white house, working in both west wing and east wing, is that a lot of the way this is handled, it comes from the leadership at the top. And i think the way, from mrs. Nixon, the way she com ported herself was she was there to support the president of the United States. She was going to take her personal interests and her own character and her integrity and do what she could to be a representative of the president and a representative of the American People. And i think people respected that in the white house. And its just constantly an evolving relationship between east and west wing. And sometimes, in some cases its better than others. But i think that i tones think its any secret that mrs. Nixon was frustrated at times. Maybe whether her position would be heated or not. But it didnt stop her from doing what came natural to her and what she felt she can do to make a contribution. So, i would say my experience with this, too and mrs. Bush was the same way i remember when i interviewed with her to be her chief of staff, and first thing she said to me was im not here for myself. Im here for george and because of george. And with that, that message that helped me as a chief of staff get access to the assets and the things that i needed to help her help him. And people knew that. And for that reason, too, we had a successful run i think for her first lady. You and maybe susan rose and maybe others became, actually took the title assistant to the president , which was the highest ranking position within the white house. Right. Top staff level. So, there was some recognition that the east wing had a voice and had has a role to play thats invaluable. The president completely depends on the first lady. During the early nixon days, Kate Anderson brower, who wrote the book called first women, three years ago, writes that no first lady had a more fraught relationship with the west wing than pat. Basically because bob haldman wanted to run everything. And i think a lot of people now, patti, you came to the white house after mr. Haldeman, mr. Ehrlichman were gone. I missed them. Yeah. Im so sorry. I think but there were those in the administration who clearly saw how important she was. Chuck colson, who had an interesting career path of his own, actually wrote to the president at some point, saying that pat nixon on a foreign trip had broken through where we failed to project a more human side of the administration. Parade magazine wrote just five years ago, saying that despite his reputation for being a neglectful husband, dick was a sentimental partner, and they write, in march, 1969, he summoned pats social secretary, Lucy Winchester, to a private meeting in the white house to help plan a Surprise Party for his wife. He was so excited during the meeting, he sang the entirety of happy birthday to you and he described his details for the event in minute detail. Sweet. Pat once told reporter frad lewen of the associated press, who we remember fran. Pat told reporter fran lewen, hes very dear personally. I dont think i would have stayed with him otherwise. But, and there were others. There are other interesting voices that come up about that need to have a first lady seen as a partner. And youll recognize the name roger ailes, who was a nixon media adviser, who says in a memo to mr. Haldeman on may 4th, 1970, pat nixon, the he wrote to haldeman saying, please tell the president to talk to her and smile at her. And haldeman wrote back, you tell him. But she had backbone, patti. She definitely had backbone. And just to back up for a minute. There had to be a genesis for the word mansplaining. And i think it may have originated in the west wing. Im not sure. Mansplaining . Okay. Get it . Okay. No, she just continued on with what was on her agenda. She didnt let bob haldeman deter her or even slow her down. She was gracious, as always, and then went ahead and did what she thought she should do. But i think in the early 70s its hard to imagine now, but there was a white house east wing press corps of women that covered the first lady. Yes, true. It was a very different time. And they looked at it much more in a traditional manner than since, i think. So, it was i mean, a press secretary the first press secretary used to do briefings for the press for a few years. So, patti, you can speak to that, perhaps. That stopped, i think, later, but it was very gradual. Yeah. Almost that you couldnt even give it a date. But in the beginning, yes, it was just a corps of maybe four or five women that also followed around to various things. And then she started doing international trips. Right. Well, remember, in the Vice President ial days, she had already done 53 foreign trips. I mean, thats unbelievable. It is unbelievable. She may have been the most the bestprepared woman to be first lady that theres ever been in history. She had so much experience and so much experience at a young age. She was very, very confident of the things that she needed to do and could enhance the position and also enhance the the stature of the role, too. Yeah. I was going to say, the acceptance of her constituents in the presidency. Knew pat nixon or worked for pat or president nixon, either bobbie, so many of you who are involved with the reagan the nixon foundation. Were going to open this up to questions in just a moment, and i want to ask all three of you, did pat nixon come back to the white house . Did she come to visit, or did she, once they left and went back to Casa Pacifica, did she kind of leave that behind . I dont recall that she ever came back to the white house. I dont either. But another first lady did, and i would give a lot of credence to mrs. Nixon for her graciousness tour. Mrs. Kennedy, mrs. Onassis talk, tell us about that. It was a very poignant. This is a sweet story. I think it was 71, the early 70s when the two portraits of president and mrs. Kennedy were completed. And mrs. Nixon wrote to mrs. Onassis, asking what she would like to do about a ceremony to present them. And mrs. Onassis wrote back and said she really wasnt up to a ceremony. So, mrs. Nixon then invited mrs. Kennedy and her children to come back for a private viewing. And i remember they locked down the house was locked down that day when mrs. Kennedy was mrs. Onassis was coming back. Nobody could enter through the east or west wings into the residence area. And they invited mrs. Kennedy and the children to look at the portraits, that we had hung them on the locations they were going to be and then invited them up to the private quarters. And julie and tricia showed the children the rooms that they had been in when the kennedy children were young. And then the president and mrs. Nixon invited them for a lovely, private dinner. And i thought that was just one of the most gracious things that they could have done at that time to preserve mrs. Onassis privacy and give her the time, her one time that she ever came back to the white house. And mrs. Onassis wrote the most beautiful letter. Touching and beautiful letter you can imagine, saying that the nixons had made the day she most dreaded a wonderful experience for her and her kids. And it just, i mean, would bring a tear to your eye to see this letter. She was also very complementary to mrs. Nixon about how the white house had been improved. And she said there were no dark corners anymore in the white house, that she had done a beautiful job. And she also complimented their ability raising the two lovely daughters that you have and that she was so she said, to raise young women like that who are in the public eye their entire lives is a very difficult thing to do, and you did a beautiful job. And she was so happy that her children got to meet the nixons children. Theres a portrait of pat nixon. Right. Tell us about that. Well, its a very poignant, extremely beautiful portrait, i think, painted by wyattherd. It was painted in san clemente in 1978. And amriat wyathe went out there to paint her in the house, the nern nixons home there. And it came to the white house, but i have a quote from a note that amriat wyattherd sent to julie about her impression of her mother while she was painting this portrait, and id like to read a little bit of it, because its so, i think so beautifully evocative about who mrs. Nixon was. So, this is amriat wyattherd. She said, above the bridge of a nose that its almost greek, your mother has eyes that are like no one elses. The eyes reveal an unusual spirit. They are the eyes of a 16yearold girl, an expression of great sweetness. And in that expression, occasionally the doors close and the lights go out, for there is a wistfulness in your mothers beauty, which is what one finds in all great beauties. Always the feeling of something beyond, a desire for the unattainable. She has maintained a kind of fragile beauty about her life. When she looked out the window at the hummingbirds and there is a hummingbird in the painting i like the expression then in her eyes best. She still believes, despite injustices. I just thought that was a beautiful tribute. Its very pretty. Ladies and gentlemen, lets hear from you. We have a microphone. Julian, over here. And i think another microphone over here. Could we bring a microphone down to Bobbie Kilberg . Im going to try to stand, but i broke my hip, so its a little difficult. Ooh ow. You talked about mrs. Nixons support of womens rights, and its just one story that all of a sudden flooded back to me, and that was in 1972 at the Republican National convention, they had a Platform Committee, obviously, to decide public policy. For the first time, it had to be 50 men and 50 women. And the majority of women on that Platform Committee wanted to do something about child care and supporting it financially. The majority of men im sorry did not want to. And it got very, very feisty and fairly tense. And then all of a sudden, all of the funding went away and they supported funding for child care. And i asked why, and people just looked at me and said, the east wing just said it was time. Do we have hands over here . Excellent. Come on. This is a lively crowd. Over here in the third row, please . Thank you. Thank you all. Ms. Monkman, your stories about the collection are just amazing to hear tonight. Is there another one youd care to share with us please . About an acquisition, perhaps mrs. Nixons favorite or even your favorite . I dont know if there was a favorite. I think mrs. Nixon was very interested in portraits of first ladies particularly, and president s. I mentioned the Dolley Madison portrait, but she also hosted a very large reception at the time that tthe addams familythe ada portraits that had been there over 150 years, since they were first painted in the 19th century. She gave a wonderful reception and invited many adams descendants to that reception at the time. So, i think and i remember, too, mrs. Johnson had worked on trying to acquire a portrait of james madison, but it didnt come into the white house until the nixon administration. And she invited mrs. Johnson back for the ceremony when that was unveiled in 1969 1970, i think it was. I do remember when the blue room was unveiled in 1972, and that was a major, major project. And mrs. Nixon had gone with mr. Conger and edward masonjones to a Historic House here in georgetown to look at plaster work, which was then copied and replicated for the blue room. And so, they were having this enormous reception that was going to be held. And it happened to be the evening that George Wallace was shot in maryland here, out in the maryland suburbs, but they went on with the reception. And i remember president and mrs. Nixon speaking at that reception that night. Thank you. Good question. Right here. I can speak loud. Oh, no they need it for the camera. Not loud enough for cspan. Mrs. Trump recently went to an active combat zone, and i dont think she got very much coverage, but what really surprised me was how few commentators mentioned mrs. Nixon going to one and mrs. Bush. And it seems to be a very rare occasion, and i was hoping you all could tell us a little bit what its like for a first lady to do that, and did mrs. Nixon get much press coverage at the time . Because i couldnt find out much about it. And it was amazing ive even heard stories about being in an open helicopter. Mmhmm. Its interesting. Actually, thats one of the first things that i really learned about and admired about mrs. Nixon was the fact that she was the first first lady to go to an active combat zone. And ill tell you where i really learned this, and it was while i was working for mrs. Bush, and we went to the National Constitution center in philadelphia, and there was an exhibit about first ladies. And what struck me was, i didnt know until that time that she and still to this day is the mosttraveled first lady in history, to 81 countries. And no one has eclipsed that. And then really studying more and peeling back the layers of the bravery to go to an she is the only first lady that was given the title of personal representative of the president. So, as a global diplomat, no one comes close. And i traveled to 77 countries with laura bush. Its remarkable achievements that she had, too, in afghanistan, the middle east, all over. And we had difficult time getting coverage. We didnt have a press corps that traveled with us. We really had to beg people to come and come on our trips. And i dont know what it was like for mrs. Nixon. Thenixon. The other thing to note is that it isnt as if she had never been in frightening situations. She and president nixon, i believe when he was Vice President , had gone to south america, and they were in the middle of a riot protests. That was so close she didnt know for a number of years because they werent told how close they were to death. So she had had, you know, close calls before this, and she was going. You know, she was undeterred. We have a question right over here. Theres a microphone coming right from behind you. Thank you. This is television. You work the microphone i think im going to get that one. Its interesting to me, ive read a few quotes, and i would like to hear from each one of your panels telling me exactly because she was quoted as saying she gave up everything that was precious and dear to her to support the president. But listening to you ladies and watching the video, that doesnt seem to be the case, but she was quoted as saying that. The thing that was most dear to her was her privacy. And she did certainly give that up for her husband. Right. Right. And, in fact, theres a wonderful and i highly encourage everybody to watch this, you can find it on youtube, an interview she gave over a period of days in california, san clemente, with Virginia Sherwood of abc. Of abc. Of abc. It was a wonderful interview. And she was asked that question about what bothered her the most all these years of public service, all the contributions shes made, the places she travelled, what bothered her the most. And she said to have to be so guarded all the time and surrounded all the time. Again, giving up her privacy. I think anybody in public life would say thats a pretty hard thing to do. I think thats why she made the house such a home, particularly in the private quarters they could have the private time, family time. The sanctuary there. The other thing that came out in that particular interview, Virginia Sherwood asked her, why arent you talking about everything that youre doing to redo the white house . You know, youre totally doing it a whole scale project. And we dont see anything around about it. And mrs. Nixon just explained that she didnt think compari n comparisons on that were relevant. That she was very grateful to mrs. Kennedy for really bringing the nations attention to the white house and lifting it up and having people understand how important it was, but she didnt want to get into making comparisons with other first ladies. Gracious. And remember, too, that when Jacqueline Kennedy did so much to improve the white house, then we went through the period of intense, really kind of i remember i was in college, a time when kind of the fabric of america was fraying under the pressures of the war in vietnam, political opposition kent state. Civil rights strains. And it wasnt the time when decorating the white house was considered an important priority to promote. During those years, when it wasnt as much of a priority, did mrs. Nixon come in and find a white house where i think the story is was it Lucy Winchester would go around with manicure scissors in her handbag and snip threads i think that was part of it, it needed to be refurbished and so forth. It did. She worked hard at that project, as ive said before. And gave it her full support to do that. But i do recall that there were press and when a room was refurbished or a painting would be donated and there would be a ceremony, there was press coverage but it didnt seem to get out much out of the white house. Those were the days there were three televisions, a bunch of newspapers, and no internet or twitter. I dont think that pat nixon would have gone on twitter. We have time for we have two questions over here. Lets go to the way back gentleman here. And then ill get to you next, sir. I had the privilege of interviewing bess able, she was mrs. Johnsons social secretary and she told me a story how its protocol for an outgoing secretary to leave a gift and note for the incoming secretary, which in this case was Lucy Winchester. She said she was very surprised that mrs. Winchester never responded to her note. She said she only found out several years later that she had been informed not to respond to the note under threat of termination. You can pretty much guess what mrs. Ables reaction to that was. I wont tell you, but you can use your own imaginations. My question is, what do you think pat nixon would have thought that she had found out this had occurred. I find that very surprising. Because i have to say one club of people who are close are the social secretaries. And really they are they still. Those still that are around get together very regularly. So i find that puzzling. Sad or hard to believe. Question way in the back, please. Yes, sir . Good evening. Thank you for the presentation. Its most enjoyable. Im a history buff and i want your input, if you know the answer to this, in one of his books, president nixon wrote that in 1940 he was a trustee at Whittier College in california and at the same time he was the trustee, lou henry hoover, herbert hoovers wife was also a trustee. Im wondering if any of you know if the two first ladies ever met . Does anyone know . I dont. But id like to find that out. Well google. We have to do research on that. I dont want to ignore this side of the room. We have time for two more questions. Way in the back. With the lights its tough for me to see, but there is a hand there. Thank you. You were speaking about mrs. Nixons jealously guarding her privacy. Im surprised you havent brought up how she had to give that up for one of the biggest events of their family life, trishas wedding at the white house. How did she handle all of those preparations and opening that event to the world. Thats a great question. Good question. Yeah. She it was trishas desire to have it in the garden. And she went with it. And i can only say that im certain that she handled it very graciously. And certainly with all the photos that i saw subsequent to that she looked radiant and she made it look easy. What can i say . White house weddings are big events, as you know, and i remember when president George Herbert walker bush and Barbara Bushs daughter dora was going to get married at camp david and i saw mrs. Bush and i said, so what can you tell me . She said, absolutely nothing. There are some things that first ladies and family time. Lets end on this point. It is. Every president who serves, brings a family that also finds itself in the line of fire, in the very, very public glare of public life. And how the nixon daughters and soninlaws and their children have flourished so, despite what they went through, especially the last couple years of his administration. Betty . Well, i do remember working a lot with julie when she was living. David must have been somewhere else because she was i think he was overseas or something he was. He was in the navy. Yeah, she was living in the house at that time. But she became very involved with the projects that mrs. Nixon had encouraged to become, with tours for the blind and so forth. I remember her trying to review her scripts and things like that that she was writing. So she was very active in the house and interesting in people like her mother, very outgoing. Trisha was much more reserved, but she did tutor a student while she lived there. She wasnt there for too long. And it would be good to note that at their first possible moment, they all got out of town. You know, they all chose a place to live where they had the privacy and had no one around them in terms of standing there when theyre eating dinner or going out to a movie or that kind of thing. So you do what you need to do to get through a period and they did it graciously in the white house but it wasnt what they chose to do for the long haul. Thats right. Well said. Anita, some families, there have been families that have become kind of political dynasties but that wasnt the mold for the nixon family. No. And no, of course not. I think for any family, though, whether there are multiple generations that are in politics, its still very hard to see any of them hurt or wounded or challenged and i do remember president bush 41 saying after all he had been through, all his campaigns and the very difficult way that he left in 1993 still would hurt him the most were the attacks on his son. And george w. Bush would say, everything he went through, what hurt him most were the challenges and the attacks on his dad. So i just think thats, you know, ultimately, at the end of the day, family is if family. Thats the sanctuary, thats what you depend on. Thats your backbone, thats your strength. That no matter what your political life is, its your personal life that lives on. Not your politics. Well, we hope that this has shown some new illumination on a very fascinating time in american history. Hard to believe its been 50 years. Please thank this remarkable panel. Thank you. Thank you very much. [ applause ] the house and senate are expected to return for legislative business after the easter and passover holidays on monday, april 20th, but thats subject to change due to the coronavirus pandemic. Watch live coverage of the house on cspan and the senate on cspan2. Up next we take you to the white house garden to learn how president s and first ladies developed and used their gardens during their time at the white house. This program is part of a day long symposium hosted by the White House Historical association. Television for historical times on cspan3. Our final panel, the white house gardens today features speakers with lived experiences working in and around the gardens of the white house. We will hear from dr. Susan pell, science and Public Programs manager for the u. S. Botanic garden. Jim adams, manager from the United States botanic garden. And jim mcdaniels, board of directors. Like our Previous Panel we will hear three short presentations and then our panelists will return to the stage for a conversation moderated by dr. Pell. Well leave time for an open q a at the end with the audience. Please join me in welcomin