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Tricia Nixon Cox

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Tricia Nixon Cox
Tricia Nixon Cox in 1972
Born
Patricia Nixon

(1946-02-21) February 21, 1946 (age 78)
Other namesSugarfoot (Secret Service codename)[1]
EducationBoston College (BA)
Spouse
(m. 1971)
ChildrenChristopher Nixon Cox
Parents

Patricia Nixon Cox (born February 21, 1946) is the elder daughter of the 37th United States president Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon, and the sister of Julie Nixon Eisenhower.

She is married to Edward F. Cox and is the mother of Christopher Nixon Cox.

In her father's public career, Cox performed a ceremonial role, in contrast to Julie's more political involvement. She accompanied him on many campaign stops and, after his inauguration, on state trips around the world.

Early life

Nixon was born on February 21, 1946, at Murphy Memorial Hospital in Whittier, California.[2] She grew up in Washington, D.C., attending Horace Mann Elementary and the Sidwell Friends School. Later she attended the Chapin School in Manhattan.[3]

In 1964, she was presented as a debutante to high society at the International Debutante Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Edward Cox was her civilian escort at the ball.[4]

She briefly attended the now-defunct women's college Finch College, then Boston College in Boston, Massachusetts, graduating in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. At her graduation on June 14, 1968, her father served as a special guest speaker.[citation needed] In 1968, future president George W. Bush took Nixon on a date arranged by his father. After Bush spilled wine and tried to smoke a cigarette, Nixon requested to be taken back to the White House.[5]

In 1969, she hosted a Halloween party for 250 children at the White House. Actor Jonathan Frid who played Barnabas Collins in the Dark Shadows show was in attendance.[6]

Marriage and professional activities

Tricia Nixon, escorted by her father down the aisle at her wedding to Edward Cox in 1971

Tricia Nixon married Harvard Law student Edward F. Cox in a White House Rose Garden ceremony on June 12, 1971.[7]

In a 2015 interview with Max Foster for CNN regarding an upcoming visit to the United States, Charles, then Prince of Wales, recalled his first visit to the U.S. in 1970 as "the time when they were trying to marry me off to Tricia Nixon" who was nearly three years his senior and American.[8] Nixon had represented the U.S. government along with former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey at Charles' investiture in Caernarvon Wales one year earlier in July 1969.[9]

She has lived a very private life in the suburbs of New York, and was a stay-at-home mother to her son,[citation needed] Christopher Nixon Cox, born in March 1979.[3] Her husband is now a corporate attorney and a chairman of the New York Republican State Committee. She serves on the boards of many medical research institutions,[10] as well as the Richard Nixon Foundation at the Nixon Library in California.[11]

Notes

  1. ^ Dean, John (1976). Blind Ambition The White House Years. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 161. ISBN 0671224387.
  2. ^ Ambrose, Stephen E. (1988). Nixon: Volume One, The Education of a Politician, 1913–1962 (2 ed.). Simon and Schuster. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-671-65722-2. On the twenty-first, she went into Murphy Memorial Hospital and gave birth to a girl. Pat called her Patricia, quickly shortened to "Tricia"
  3. ^ a b Doug Wead (2003). All the Presidents' Children. Atria Books. p. 260. ISBN 0743446313.
  4. ^ Editors, Rolling Stone (24 June 1971). "The Making of the President's Daughter". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  5. ^ Kedmey, Dan (2014-11-11). "George W. Bush Once Dated Nixon's Daughter, And It Did Not Go Well". TIME. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  6. ^ "Spotlight: Tricia Nixon's 1969 Halloween Party". unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov. 2021-10-26. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  7. ^ "Top News, Latest headlines, Latest News, World News & U.S News - UPI.com". UPI. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
  8. ^ "Prince Charles & Tricia Nixon: The match that almost was | CNN". CNN. 11 March 2015.
  9. ^ "Crowds fall for Tricia". Western Mail. (Wales). 2 July 1969. p. 4. "Pretty Tricia Nixon, the 23-year-old daughter of President Richard Nixon, won the hearts of Welsh people yesterday when she arrived for the investiture. Although many people outside Caernarvon station did not recognise the small blonde in the white hat and white-and-green coat she stole the limelight on the station platform..."
  10. ^ "Nixon Daughters Bury the Hatchet". Time Magazine. May 6, 2002.
  11. ^ "Who Owns Richard Nixon?". The New Yorker. May 20, 2014.