Pat Nixon

== Education and career ==
After graduating from [[Excelsior High School (Norwalk, California)|Excelsior High School]] in 1929, she attended [[Fullerton College]]. She paid for her education by working odd jobs, including as a driver, a pharmacy manager, a telephone operator, and a typist.<ref name="First Lady Pat Nixon" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Pat Nixon Biography |url=https://www.nixonfoundation.org/resources/pat-nixon-biography/ |access-date=2023-07-06 |language=en-US |archive-date=July 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230706030402/https://www.nixonfoundation.org/resources/pat-nixon-biography/ |url-status=live }}</ref> She also earned money sweeping the floors of a local bank,<ref name="First Lady Pat Nixon" /> and from 1930 until 1931, she lived in New York City, working as a secretary and also as a [[radiographer]].<ref name="nyt-obit" />

Determined "to make something out of myself",<ref name="PN is the Ultimate Good Sport">{{cite news|author=Viorst, Judith|title=Pat Nixon Is the Ultimate Good Sport|work=The New York Times|date=September 13, 1970|page=SM13|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/pat-nixon-is-the-ultimate-good-sport-there-are-indications-that-she.html?_r=0|access-date=September 7, 2017|archive-date=March 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301230159/https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/pat-nixon-is-the-ultimate-good-sport-there-are-indications-that-she.html?_r=0|url-status=live}}</ref> she enrolled in 1931 at the [[University of Southern California]] (USC), where she majored in merchandising. A former professor noted that she "stood out from the empty-headed, overdressed little sorority girls of that era like a good piece of literature on a shelf of cheap paperbacks".<ref name="silentpartner">{{cite magazine|title=The Silent Partner|magazine=Time|date=February 29, 1960|access-date=November 9, 2007|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873226-1,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612222539/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873226-1,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 12, 2010}}</ref> She held part-time jobs on campus, worked as a sales clerk in [[Bullocks Wilshire|Bullock's-Wilshire]] department store,<ref name="Roderick75">{{cite book|title=Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles|last1=Roderick|first1=Kevin|last2=Lynxwiler|first2=J. Eric|year=2005|publisher=Angel City Press|isbn=1-883318-55-6|page=75}}</ref> and taught [[touch typing]] and [[shorthand]] at a high school.<ref name="nyt-obit" /> She also supplemented her income by working as an [[Extra (acting)|extra]] and [[bit player]] in the film industry,<ref name="wh" /><ref name="nykr-eh">{{cite news|url=http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/pat-and-edith-a-fashion-footnote|title=Pat and Edith: A Fashionable Footnote|last=Thurman|first=Judith|date=November 7, 2011|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=May 11, 2017|archive-date=November 6, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106030055/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/pat-and-edith-a-fashion-footnote|url-status=live}}</ref> for which she took several [[screen test]]s.<ref name="swift-15">{{harvp|Swift|2014|p=15}}</ref> In this capacity, she made brief appearances in films such as ''[[Becky Sharp (film)|Becky Sharp]]'' (1935), ''[[The Great Ziegfeld]]'' (1936), and ''[[Small Town Girl (1936 film)|Small Town Girl]]'' (1936).<ref name="swift-15" />{{sfn|David|1978|p=41}} In some cases she ended up on the [[cutting room floor]], such as with her spoken lines in ''Becky Sharp''.<ref name="swift-15" /><ref name="erskine" /> She told Hollywood columnist [[Erskine Johnson]] in 1959 that her time in films was "too fleeting even for recollections embellished by the years" and that "my choice of a career was teaching school and the many jobs I pursued were merely to help with college expenses."<ref name="erskine">{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1697&dat=19591006&id=uPoeAAAAIBAJ&pg=3202,2447750 | title=Hollywood Today | first=Erskine | last=Johnson | newspaper=Park City Daily News | location=Bowling Green, Kentucky | date=October 6, 1959 | page=4 | access-date=January 8, 2021 | archive-date=June 29, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220629122933/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1697&dat=19591006&id=uPoeAAAAIBAJ&pg=3202%2C2447750 | url-status=live }}</ref> During the 1968 presidential campaign, she explained to the writer [[Gloria Steinem]], "I never had time to think about things like... who I wanted to be, or who I admired, or to have ideas. I never had time to dream about being anyone else. I had to work."<ref name="steinem">{{cite news |author=Steinem, Gloria |date=October 28, 1968 |title=In Your Heart You Know He's Nixon |magazine=New York |url=http://nymag.com/news/politics/45934/index11.html |access-date=May 16, 2009 |archive-date=October 18, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018111555/http://nymag.com/news/politics/45934/index11.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1937, Pat Ryan graduated ''[[cum laude]]'' from USC with a [[Bachelor of Science]] degree in merchandising,<ref name="First Lady Pat Nixon"/> together with a certificate to teach at the [[high school]] level, which USC deemed equivalent to a [[master's degree]].{{sfnp|Eisenhower|1986|p=48}} Pat accepted a position as a high school teacher at [[Whittier Union High School]] in [[Whittier, California]].<ref name="wh">{{cite web|url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/first-families/patricia-ryan-nixon/|title=Patricia Ryan Nixon|access-date=August 1, 2008|publisher=The White House|archive-date=January 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123203237/https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/first-families/patricia-ryan-nixon/|url-status=live}}</ref>