Pat Nixon

== Second Lady of the United States, 1953–1961 ==
[[Image:Nixons in Ghana 1957.jpg|thumb|right|Vice President and Pat Nixon during a visit to [[Ghana]], 1957]]
At the time of her husband coming under consideration for the vice presidential nomination, Pat Nixon was against her husband accepting the selection, as she despised campaigns and had been relieved that as a newly elected senator he would not have another one for six years.<ref name=Ambrose13/>  She thought she had prevailed in convincing him, until she heard the announcement of the pick from a news bulletin while at the [[1952 Republican National Convention]].<ref name=Ambrose13>{{cite book|title=Nixon Volume I: The Education of a Politician 1913–1962|first=Stephen E.|last=Ambrose|page=264|year=1988|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=978-0671657222}}</ref> During the [[1952 United States presidential election|Presidential campaign of 1952]], Pat Nixon's attitude toward politics changed when her husband was accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions. Pat encouraged him to fight the charges, and he did so by delivering the famed "[[Checkers speech]]", so-called for the family's dog, a [[cocker spaniel]] given to them by a political supporter. This was Pat's first national television appearance, and she, her daughters, and the dog were featured prominently. Defending himself as a man of the people, Nixon stressed his wife's abilities as a stenographer,<ref name="steinem"/> then said, "I should say this, that Pat doesn't have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat, and I always tell her she would look good in anything."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/34_eisenhower/psources/ps_checkers.html|title=Richard Nixon's Checkers Speech|access-date=November 5, 2007|year=2002–2003|publisher=PBS|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109115002/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/34_eisenhower/psources/ps_checkers.html|archive-date=November 9, 2007}}</ref><ref>In 1968, however, a fashion writer of ''The New York Times'' noted that Pat Nixon had purchased a coat made of blonde mink and one of brown-and-black [[Persian lamb]] by the furrier Sidney Fink of Blum & Fink. {{cite news|author=Curtis, Charlotte|author-link=Charlotte Curtis |title=Fashion Spotlight Turns to New First Family|work=The New York Times|date=December 21, 1968}}</ref>

Pat Nixon accompanied her husband abroad during his vice presidential years. She traveled to 53 nations, often bypassing luncheons and teas and instead visiting hospitals, orphanages, and even a [[leper colony]] in [[Panama]].<ref name="First Lady Pat Nixon"/> On a trip to [[Venezuela]], crowds [[Nixon motorcade attack|pelted the Nixons' limousine with rocks]] and spit on the couple for being representatives of the U.S. government.<ref name="silentpartner"/>

A November 1, 1958, article in ''[[The Seattle Times]]'' was typical of the media's favorable coverage of the future First Lady, stating that "Mrs. Nixon is always reported to be gracious and friendly. And she sure is friendly. She greets a stranger as a friend. She doesn't just shake hands but clasps a visitor's hand in both her hands. Her manner is direct&nbsp;... Mrs. Nixon also upheld her reputation of always looking neat, no matter how long her day has been." A year and a half later, during her husband's campaign for the presidency, ''[[The New York Times]]'' called her "a paragon of wifely virtues" whose "efficiency makes other women feel slothful and untalented".<ref>{{cite news|author=Bender, Marylin|title=Pat Nixon: A Diplomat in High Heels|work=The New York Times|date=July 28, 1960|page=31}}</ref>

Pat Nixon was named Outstanding Homemaker of the Year (1953), Mother of the Year (1955), and the Nation's Ideal Housewife (1957). She once said that, on a rare evening to herself, she pressed all of her husband's suits, adding, "Of course, I didn't have to. But when I don't have work to do, I just think up some new project."<ref name="PN is the Ultimate Good Sport"/>