Nixon Sisters Discussing Dispute

The chilly relationship between former President Richard M. Nixon’s estranged daughters appears to be thawing.

Two months after their dispute over a $19-million bequest to Nixon’s presidential library became public, Julie Nixon Eisenhower and Tricia Nixon Cox talked by telephone Friday and over the weekend in hopes of reconciling their differences, a library spokeswoman said.

Family friend and library board member Robert Abplanalp has been working behind the scenes to broker a deal that would settle the dispute. The bequest was made by the former president’s longtime friend Charles “Bebe” Rebozo.

“We’re delighted that conversations are going on between Mrs. Eisenhower and Mrs. Cox and [are] hopeful of an outcome that will take both Mr. Rebozo’s wishes and the Nixon Foundation’s interests into account,” said Arianna Barrios, a spokeswoman for the Richard M. Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda.

Rebozo’s bequest was announced shortly after his death four years ago. But the money has been bottled up in Probate Court because of a dispute between the president’s daughters over how the money should be spent.

Eisenhower wants the funds to be controlled by the library’s board of directors, saying that that’s the most professional way to manage the money. Cox wants a three-person committee comprising the sisters and Abplanalp to oversee the foundation’s gift, as she says Rebozo’s will instructs.

With Eisenhower’s blessing, the Nixon Library filed a lawsuit this year against Cox, demanding that the bequest be handed over to the foundation immediately. In April, the Orange County judge handling the case urged the women to work out their differences and settle the dispute without a trial.

The nature of the conversations between Cox and Eisenhower wasn’t revealed, but library officials expressed optimism that the battle might be nearing an end.

“We know they’re talking, so we’re hopeful,” Barrios said.

Inseparable as youngsters and close-knit during their father’s political triumphs and ultimate downfall in the White House, Eisenhower and Cox became estranged shortly after their father’s death when differences over how to preserve Nixon’s legacy surfaced. For some time, they were not on speaking terms, friends said.

Shortly before May 1996, the sisters disagreed over how the library should be managed and whether library director John Taylor exerted too much control over the institution.

Cox and her husband, New York attorney Edward Cox, wanted the Nixon family to control the library’s major decisions, including budget matters.

Eisenhower and her husband, David, however, favored having a professional staff and independent board of directors. The Eisenhowers split with the Coxes and worked with Taylor to adopt such a structure.

Relations between the sisters worsened when it came time to decide how Rebozo’s bequest should be managed. Under the terms of Rebozo’s will, expenditures were to be approved by Nixon’s daughters and Abplanalp.

Nixon Foundation attorney Robert Landon said that Abplanalp, a New York industrialist, is trying to help the sisters settle the dispute.

“I understand he is trying to promote some consensus among the three,” Landon said Wednesday. “He’s trying to work directly with the daughters.”

Landon said he didn’t know the details of Abplanalp’s proposal or how close the parties are to an agreement.