Yorba Linda Readies Final Resting Place

Steve Shaw pretty much summed it up for residents here who suddenly find their tiny city being thrust into the national spotlight with the death and impending funeral of former President Richard M. Nixon.

“I’m bummed he died. . . . It’s pretty sad,” said Shaw, 27, who manages a Mimi’s Cafe several blocks away from where Nixon will be buried this week. “But it’s kind of electrified the city. It’s usually just a one-horse town.”

On the bustling streets of Yorba Linda on Saturday, you could see and feel the impact of the former President’s death as arrangements gained momentum for Wednesday’s state funeral at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace.

Police grappled with security and traffic concerns, city officials prepared to host scores of dignitaries, flower shop owners hired more delivery drivers and restaurant managers ordered more food.

“Something like this doesn’t happen every day in Yorba Linda,” said Shaw, who had customers lining up outside his cafe door. “This is definitely a busy time.”

Perhaps the busiest people were the florists, whose phones rang repeatedly with orders from throughout the country.

“It’s like a holiday,” said Linda Johnson, 28, who works at Yorba Linda Flowers. “We’ve had to order a lot more flowers.” She said this week would have been extremely busy without the funeral because it is National Secretary’s Week. “Now, it’s overwhelming.”

Thelma Darwicki, who manages the Accent on Flowers shop on Yorba Linda Boulevard, said she has received orders from as far away as Kansas, Oklahoma and Florida.

“We’re getting swamped,” said Darwicki, 45. When Nixon first became ill, she started to prepare for an onslaught of orders. “We were very busy when Pat (Nixon) died last year. We’re expecting it to be even busier now.”

Throughout the day, people stopped by the store to pick up ready-made arrangements to place at the steps of the Nixon library.

“Something like this really impacts a small town,” Darwicki said. “It makes you feel good to see the outpouring of concern. I’m just glad to be helping out.”

Several residents said the street closures, parking and traffic problems that are sure to occur throughout the week are a small price to pay for having such a prestigious institution as the library in the city.

“The traffic is no big deal,” said Radka Eagan, 71, who lives in an adult condominium complex across the street from the library. “We’re used to that sort of thing. It’s no problem at all. I’m happy it’s here. It’s such a beautiful place.”

While the city geared up for the dramatic funeral and burial services, hundreds of county residents made pilgrimages to the Nixon library to drop off flowers, sign a massive condolence card to the Nixon family and pay their final respects to a man who, for good and bad, made his mark in American history.

They gathered throughout the day outside the building, standing in small groups on the library’s concrete steps and approaching its closed front doors, where roses, burning candles, children’s drawings and handwritten notes formed an ever-growing tribute.

Councilman Henry W. Wedaa said he drove by the library Saturday morning just to see what was going on and was surprised at the large number of people there.

“I think that basically Nixon has been a controversial figure and I really think that deep down, a lot of people have a great deal of respect for Nixon,” Wedaa said.

Donald Schmidt, a retired aerospace worker who lives a couple blocks from the library, agreed. Sitting in his garage and chatting with friends, Schmidt said he was “proud” that Yorba Linda is the birthplace of Nixon.

He said he often takes out-of-town visitors to the library.

“It’s a very nice place,” said Schmidt, 62.

“Now we’re the final resting place,” said Yorba Linda Mayor Barbara Kiley. Nixon “definitely made good. It’s hard to see a favored son come home to rest. It closes the circle.”

Kiley added that Nixon’s death has left many of her city’s 57,000 residents “saddened. They’re affected because he is our father figure here. He really is.”

Dawn Miller of Yorba Linda was talking quietly to her 5-year-old daughter, Ali, as they walked down the steps, past a bed of colorful pansies and out toward the parking lot.

“I wanted to bring her so that maybe she can remember him too,” Miller said.

Nearby, Amy and Shu Ping Yu, a Walnut couple who emigrated from China in 1979, stood side by side before the doors, gratefully remembering the man responsible for the historic opening to China in 1972.

“We care so much for this man,” said Shu Ping Yu, 52, blinking back tears as he remembered watching Nixon’s motorcade pass by on a Beijing street 22 years earlier. “Then, I never thought I could be here. He opened the door for so many people, for me. He gave us a brand-new life.”

The mood alternated between one of solemn remembrance and almost carnival-like chaos. Onlookers, dressed in everything from running attire to dark suits, gathered to stare at television reporters using the library’s facade as a backdrop for their reports. Children skipped down the steps or rushed past adults and other children waiting patiently in long lines to sign condolence cards to the Nixon family.

Not far away, Robert Cornwell, 41, gazed through a white railing entwined with bougainvillea at the tiny clapboard farmhouse where Nixon was born. But unlike many of the other visitors, Cornwell admitted to a measure of ambivalence about the man he had come to remember.

“I disagreed with the man strongly about many things and really felt betrayed by Watergate,” Cornwell said. “But I also think he made some very tough, good decisions. And that kind of decision-making isn’t always the hallmark of today’s political landscape.”

There were Nixon family members too. Yorba Linda resident Marlyn Marshburn, whose husband’s aunt was the sister of Nixon’s mother, had come with her daughter, Lynette Ilertsen, and Ilertsen’s daughter, Megan, 8.

Ilertsen said she had attended Nixon’s first Inaugural as a seventh-grader and joined other family members for a White House dinner, where Nixon sat at the piano and entertained his relatives. “It was just thrilling to be there,” she said. “We’re going to miss him so much.”

At Yorba Linda Friends Church, where Nixon’s parents were founding members, Pastor John Werhas said the news of his death has struck a deep chord.

“We will be saddened greatly by any loss of anyone, especially a man like President Nixon.”

The church, located a stone’s throw from the Nixon Library & Birthplace, is strongly connected to the Nixon legacy, Werhas said. Nixon’s father helped build the church 85 years ago, and the church facilitated the burial of Pat and now Richard Nixon at the library through a land transfer.

“There is that connection between our church and the President. There will be a moment of silence, I’m sure, and prayers for the family,” Werhas said.

Jerry Costley, another pastor at the church said no other formal memorial services were planned for this week.

“I’m sure (the Rev.) Billy Graham will do just fine,” Costley said.

Times staff writers David Reyes and Lee Romney and correspondent Danielle A. Fouquette contributed to this report.

More Coverage

* HOME-GROWN HERO -- Friends and rivals, politicians and private citizens from Orange County and Whittier recall the local boy who made it to the White House. A14

* SPOTLIGHT ON LIBRARY -- As the funeral site, the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda will gain unprecedented national attention. A16

* ‘SAVIOR’ OF VIETNAM -- To immigrants in Westminster’s Little Saigon, he was the American President who tried the hardest to save their homeland. A17

* LA CASA PACIFICA DAYS -- A Nixon friend recalls the highs and lows the ex-President experienced while staying at the Western White House in San Clemente. A17

* CALIFORNIA CONNECTION -- Loner Nixon is described as of California, not from California. “So lonely, so insular, so isolated,” observes pollster Mervyn Field. A18

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