Pat Nixon

== Later life ==
[[Image:Pat nixon.jpg|thumb|right|Pat Nixon's official White House portrait, painted in 1978 by [[Henriette Wyeth|Henriette Wyeth Hurd]]]]
After returning to [[San Clemente, California]], in 1974 and settling into the Nixons' home, ''[[La Casa Pacifica]]'', Pat Nixon rarely appeared in public and only granted occasional interviews to the press. In late May 1975, Pat went to her girlhood hometown of Artesia to dedicate the [[Patricia Nixon Elementary School]].<ref name="Eisenhower, Julie Nixon (1986), p. 441">{{harvp|Eisenhower|1986|p=441}}</ref> In her remarks, she said, "I'm proud to have the school carry my name. I always thought that only those who have gone had schools named after them. I am happy to tell you that I'm not gone—I mean, not really gone."<ref name="Eisenhower, Julie Nixon (1986), p. 441" /> It was Pat's only solo public appearance in five and a half years in California.<ref name="Eisenhower, Julie Nixon (1986), p. 441" />

On July 7, 1976, at ''La Casa Pacifica'', Nixon suffered a [[stroke]], which resulted in the paralysis of her entire left side. [[Physical therapy]] enabled her to eventually regain all movement.<ref name="First Lady Pat Nixon"/> She said that her recovery was "the hardest thing I have ever done physically".<ref>Eisenhower, Julie (1986), p. 451</ref> In 1979, she and her husband moved to a townhouse on East 65th Street in [[Manhattan, New York]].<ref name="houses">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/06colnj.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/N/Nixon,%20Richard%20Milhous|title=Final Days for a Moldy Nixon Retreat|access-date=August 2, 2008|date=May 6, 2007|author=Coyne, Kevin|work=The New York Times|archive-date=April 17, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090417101446/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/06colnj.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/N/Nixon,%20Richard%20Milhous|url-status=live}}</ref> They lived there only briefly and in 1981 moved to a {{convert|6000|sqft|m2|0}} house in [[Saddle River, New Jersey]].<ref name="houses"/> This gave the couple additional space, and enabled them to be near their children and grandchildren.<ref name="houses"/> Pat, however, sustained another stroke in 1983{{sfnp|Eisenhower|1986|p=458}} and two lung infections the following year.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01E5DC1039F935A35752C1A962948260&scp=6&sq=pat%20nixon&st=cse|title=Pat Nixon Is Hospitalized|agency=Associated Press|work=The New York Times|access-date=August 17, 2008|date=November 6, 1984|archive-date=September 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230921130104/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/06/us/pat-nixon-is-hospitalized.html?scp=6&sq=pat+nixon&st=cse|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Image:First Ladies at Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.jpg|thumb|left|Nixon (seated second from left) attends the opening of the Ronald Reagan Library, November 1991]]
Appearing "frail and slightly bent",<ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE0D61631F933A15754C0A966958260|author=Apple, R. W. Jr.|title=Another Nixon Summit, At His Library|work=The New York Times|date=July 20, 1990|access-date=November 9, 2007|archive-date=September 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230921120102/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/20/us/another-nixon-summit-at-his-library.html|url-status=live}}</ref> she appeared in public for the opening of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace (now [[Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum]]) in [[Yorba Linda, California|Yorba Linda]], California, on July 19, 1990. The dedication ceremony included 50,000 friends and well-wishers, as well as former Presidents Ford, Reagan, and Bush and their wives.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nixonlibraryfoundation.org/index.php?link=MuseumTour&src=gendocs&submenu=museum |publisher=Richard Nixon Library Foundation |access-date=July 23, 2008 |title=Museum Tour: The Museum |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720114321/http://www.nixonlibraryfoundation.org/index.php?submenu=museum&src=gendocs&link=MuseumTour |archive-date=July 20, 2008 }}</ref> The library includes a Pat Nixon room, a Pat Nixon amphitheater, and rose gardens planted with the red-black [[Rosa 'Pat Nixon'|Pat Nixon Rose]] developed by a French company in 1972, when she was first lady.<ref name="lat-obit">{{cite news|date=June 23, 1993|title=Pat Nixon Dies; Model Political Wife Was 81|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|url=http://articles.latimes.com/1993-06-23/news/mn-6290_1_pat-nixon|url-status=live|url-access=subscription|access-date=December 16, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111162657/http://articles.latimes.com/1993-06-23/news/mn-6290_1_pat-nixon|archive-date=January 11, 2012}}</ref> Pat also attended the opening of the [[Ronald Reagan Presidential Library]] in [[Simi Valley, California|Simi Valley]], California, in November 1991. Former First Lady [[Barbara Bush]] reflected, "I loved Pat Nixon, who was a sensational, gracious, and thoughtful First Lady",{{sfnp|Bush|1994|p=97}} and at the dedication of the Reagan Library, Bush remembered, "There was one sad thing. Pat Nixon did not look well at all. Through her smile you could see that she was in great pain and having a terrible time getting air into her lungs."{{sfnp|Bush|1994|p=441}}

The Nixons moved to a gated complex in [[Park Ridge, New Jersey]], in 1991. Pat's health was failing, and the house was smaller and contained an elevator.<ref name="houses"/> A heavy smoker most of her adult life who nevertheless never allowed herself to be seen with a cigarette in public,<ref name="lat-obit"/> she eventually endured bouts of [[oral cancer]],<ref>{{cite news|title=Pat Nixon Released From Hospital|work=The New York Times|date=February 13, 1987|access-date=November 9, 2007|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE2DC103FF930A25751C0A961948260|archive-date=September 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230921120104/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/13/nyregion/metro-datelines-pat-nixon-released-from-hospital.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[emphysema]], and ultimately [[lung cancer]], with which she was diagnosed in December 1992 while hospitalized with respiratory problems.<ref name="nyt-obit" />