Buried: Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace, Yorba Linda, California
Thirty-seventh President - 1969-1974
Born: January 9, 1913, in Yorba Linda, California
Died: 9:08 p.m. on April 22, 1994, in New York, New York
Age at death: 81
Cause of death: Stroke
Final words: Unknown
Admission to Richard Nixon Library and
Birthplace: $9.95
Richard Nixon is the only U.S. president to resign his office. He won the presidency in 1968 on his second try, after narrowly losing the opportunity to succeed Dwight Eisenhower to John F. Kennedy in 1960.
The first Nixon administration focused much of its attention on world affairs, particularly the reduction of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Nixon visited China, the first U.S. president to do so, in an attempt to restore diplomatic relations with the Communist regime.
However, Nixon’s presidency is remembered for the aftermath of events in 1972 connected to his reelection campaign. Several members of his campaign staff were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate complex in Washington. When it was revealed that aides to the president had engaged in a series of illegal schemes, including burglary and wiretapping, a Senate committee was established to investigate. Several of the officials were later convicted for their roles in the Watergate affair.
Nixon’s monument reads, “The greatest title history can bestow is the title of peacemaker”
Tapes from the president’s own White House recording system confirmed that he was aware of the crimes and tried to hinder the investigation. In July 1974, the House Judiciary Committee issued three articles of impeachment against the president. He was charged with obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and failure to comply with congressional subpoenas. Rather than risk impeachment, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974.
Richard and Pat Nixon returned to their home in San Clemente, California, hoping to escape the glare of publicity. In September 1974, a month after his resignation, Nixon was granted a full pardon by his successor, Gerald Ford. In 1980, the Nixons moved back to the east coast to be closer to their daughters and grandchildren. The former president wrote several bestselling books on foreign policy. As an elder statesman, he continued to travel abroad and to advise successive administrations on foreign policy.
On the afternoon of Monday, April 18, 1994, Richard Nixon, then eighty-one, was relaxing at his Park Ridge, New Jersey home. He’d spent the day crafting a speech to rally the Republican faithful. Around 5:45 p.m., Nixon suffered a massive stroke. His housekeeper, Heidi Retter, helped him to a sofa before calling an ambulance.
Doctors found his right side was paralyzed and his speech and vision impaired. The next morning, he took a turn for the worse.
By Thursday, Richard Nixon had fallen into a deep coma. His “living will” forbade the use of any extraordinary measures to prolong his life. With his two daughters and their families at his bedside, Richard Nixon died at 9:08 p.m. on Friday, April 22, 1994. Arrangements were made for a funeral service at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California. At the dedication of the complex just four years earlier, Nixon had spoken to friends of his plan to be “planted” there under an oak tree. Respecting Nixon’s wishes, his family declined to mark his death with an elaborate state affair in Washington.
Nixon’s plain wooden casket was flown to California on the same Boeing 707 that had carried him into political exile in 1974. Amidst violent thunderstorms, the former president’s body was taken by a military honor guard to lie in repose at the library. A military band played “Hail to the Chief,” nearly drowned out by the news helicopters circling overhead. Over the next twenty hours, an estimated forty-two thousand people, largely working class, filed past the closed casket, which was surrounded by hundreds of floral tributes, including those sent by Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Poland’s Lech Walesa.
On Wednesday, April 27, three thousand guests gathered on the library grounds for the funeral. The four remaining former presidents—Ford, Carter, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush—and their wives joined President and Mrs. Clinton in the first row. More than one hundred members of the U.S. House and Senate attended, along with many foreign dignitaries. Reverend Billy Graham conducted the service, telling of Nixon’s final thumbs up to doctors as he entered the hospital. President Clinton read a eulogy, as did California Governor Pete Wilson, Nixon’s Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole, who broke down as he gave his final tribute.
After the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” was played and taps was sounded, the two flags covering the coffin were given to Nixon’s daughters. Planes flew overhead and a fifty-gun salute was fired. Richard Nixon was laid to rest alongside his wife Pat, who had died of lung cancer the previous year. His black granite tombstone is inscribed with a quote from his first inaugural address: “The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker.”
Touring the Tomb at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace
The Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace is open daily, except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day. Hours are from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is $9.95 for adults, $5.95 for students, $6.95 for senior citizens, and $3.75 for children ages seven to eleven.
From downtown Los Angeles: Go south on Interstate 5 to Highway 91. Take Highway 91 East to Highway 57. Take Highway 57 North and exit at Yorba Linda Boulevard. Turn right on Yorba Linda to reach the library and birthplace.
From LAX: Take Sepulveda to 105 Freeway East. From 105, take 605 Freeway South to 91 Freeway East to 57 Freeway North. Exit at Yorba Linda Boulevard. Turn right on Yorba Linda Boulevard to reach the library and birthplace.
To reach the gravesite, exit the lobby and walk alongside the reflecting pool. The memorial is located at the end of the reflecting pool, directly across from Nixon’s birthplace.
For additional information
Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace
18001 Yorba Linda Boulevard
Yorba Linda, CA 92886
Phone: (714) 993-5075
Fax: (714) 528-0544
www.nixonlibraryfoundation.org
Patricia Nixon’s inscription reads, “Even when people can’t speak your language, they can tell if you have love in your heart”
“The theme was one of reconciliation…”
—Richard Norton Smith
In June 1993, I was privileged to join the congregation of mourners who attended Pat Nixon’s funeral, held in the rose garden of the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California. Afterwards, we were invited inside the library for an impromptu tribute from a grieving husband. Richard Nixon spoke that day of the joys of grandparenting. He remembered how his first grandchild, young Melanie Eisenhower, had been uncertain what to call Pat. Not surprisingly, Mrs. Nixon thought Grandmother overly formal and Grandma a bit too ancient for her liking.
“Why don’t you just call me Ma?” Pat told the little girl. Melanie next approached her grandfather with the same question.
“Oh, that’s all right, Melanie,” the former president replied. “You can call me anything, because I’ve been called everything.”
“Checkers,” Nixon’s famous dog, is immortalized on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Library
Richard Nixon was born in this Yorba Linda, California home
Looking around, I saw Senator Bob Dole biting his lip, struggling to contain his emotions. A few feet away stood former Senator George McGovern, Nixon’s 1972 opponent, dabbing at his eyes with a handkerchief. Later on, McGovern was approached by a reporter crass enough to ask what he was doing at the funeral services. McGovern expressed his longstanding admiration for Mrs. Nixon, only to be reminded of the alleged dirty tricks conducted by the Nixon campaign a generation earlier. The implication was clear: how could he in good conscience honor the wife of such an opponent?
“You can’t keep campaigning forever,” said McGovern.
The exchange came back to me just ten months later when attending the late president’s funeral service at the Nixon Library. Again, the theme was one of reconciliation, unforgettably illustrated by the presence of America’s five living presidents and their wives, as well as President Clinton’s generous invitation to stop judging America’s most controversial president on anything less than his entire record.
—RNS