Speakers Praise a Beaming Pat Nixon

It might have been billed as Richard Nixon’s day, but the accolades were piled just as high on his wife Pat during a morning of speechmaking at the dedication of her husband’s library.

The 78-year-old former First Lady was making one of her rare public appearances since a helicopter lifted the Nixons from the White House lawn on that anguished day in August, 1974.

Time and various illnesses have rendered her fragile, but she beamed with pleasure Thursday as one speaker after another lauded her and the crowd delivered standing ovations.

“She is a true, unsung hero of the Nixon Administration and our country owes her a great debt of gratitude,” said former President Ronald Reagan.

President Bush called her “a gracious First Lady who ranks among the most admired women of postwar America. The woman we know, and love, as Pat.”

“Mrs. Nixon, the Secret Service called you ‘Starlight.’ Your husband has said it best: you ‘fit that name to a T,”’ Bush said.

And William E. Simon, former Treasury secretary and president of the library’s foundation, referred to Nixon’s “First Lady Pat, then and now one of the most popular ever to serve in that difficult capacity.”

Dressed in an off-white, long-sleeved jacket and skirt, Pat Nixon was helped to her seat next to the podium on the large stage in front of the new Richard M. Nixon Library and Birthplace.

She suffered a stroke in 1976 and has since been hospitalized for several other problems. Nixon said the first stroke came shortly after his wife had read Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward’s book “The Final Days.”

“She’s frail . . . but she has more energy than a team of horses,” said Helene Drown of Rolling Hills Estates, who has known Pat Nixon since both were teachers at a Whittier high school more than 40 years ago.

Drown said a few days ago that Pat Nixon, who has steadfastly stood by her husband, had been looking forward to the dedication.

“I don’t think she ever felt her husband was guilty of great crimes,” she said. “I don’t feel she’s ever lost faith in her husband.”

Said Athalie Clark, a Newport Beach resident who lent her Virginia farmhouse to the Nixons after he resigned the presidency, “I’m sure she’s happy to come back to all this, and to hear the laurels and the accolades.”

Herb Klein, former director of communications for Nixon, now with Copley Newspapers in San Diego, said that many people went to the dedication especially to see Pat. The tributes paid to her husband and his record, he said, seemed to have a visible effect on her.

“It’s been great seeing her get stronger before your very eyes,” he said.

“I think today was probably the best tribute paid to her in public,” Klein said. “Americans have been paying tribute to her individually for a lot of years, but this was certainly a deserving public tribute, and to me, it was the most sentimental part of all, how everyone gave her her due. I’ve known her since they first ran, (when) she was carrying Tricia. I’ve seen her through a lot of crises and I’ve never seen her when she wasn’t a strong and brave lady. Today was the climax of being given credit.”

Times staff writer Ralph Frammolino contributed to this report.