Statue of Pat Nixon to Be Unveiled Today
A bronze statue of Pat Nixon is to be unveiled today at the Cerritos site where the late first lady spent her childhood.
The figure depicting her at age 55 is to be positioned amid a rose garden at the Cerritos Senior Center at Pat Nixon Park.
The City Council commissioned the $85,000 statue in April to have it in place by March 15, which would have been her 85th birthday.
Born Thelma Catherine Ryan, she spent 19 years on an 11-acre plot of rural Artesia that would become part of Cerritos. She died in 1993 from lung cancer at 81 in Park Ridge, N.J.
The statue was sculpted by New York artist Ivan Schwartz, whose likenesses of world leaders are displayed at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
