Nixons Mark 50th Wedding Anniversary

Richard M. Nixon and the “vivacious young woman with titian hair” he met at a theater audition in Whittier celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary today surrounded by their children and grandchildren.

Nixon and his wife, Pat, allowed a photographer and a reporter a rare glimpse into their home life in a woodsy setting an hour’s drive from New York City.

The Nixons’ two grandsons and two granddaughters cavorted while an Associated Press photographer took the grandparents’ anniversary picture. A few minutes later two of the children were in bathing suits and splashing in the pool.

The Nixons seldom go out in public, and they allowed this visit only on ground rules that their remarks not be published.

They usually celebrate special occasions with only their immediate family, which includes Edward and Tricia Cox and David and Julie Eisenhower. The Eisenhowers have three children; the Coxes one.

Pat Nixon, who has stayed out of public view since the former President left the White House in disgrace in 1974, wore a pink and white Adele Simpson suit for the anniversary portrait. Her daughters said the suit was a favorite from the White House years.

Despite a major stroke in 1976 and another stroke in 1983, Mrs. Nixon looked well.

The former President and his wife live in a home surrounded by tall trees that obscure the house from the road. The four-acre grounds include a swimming pool and tennis court. But they will move soon to a townhouse in Park Ridge, about a mile away.

The Nixons met in 1938 at the casting tryouts for “The Dark Tower,” a play by George S. Kaufman and Alexander Wollcott.

“For me it was a case of love at first sight,” Nixon wrote in his memoirs.

“I got a friend to introduce us and then offered them both a ride home. On the way I asked Pat if she would like a date with me. She said, ‘I’m very busy.’ I said, ‘You shouldn’t say that because someday I’m going to marry you.’ ”

“I thought I knew everyone in Whittier, but that night a beautiful and vivacious young woman with titian hair appeared whom I had never seen before,” Nixon describes their meeting. “I found I could not take my eyes away from her.”

Nixon, then a young partner in the law firm of Wingert, Bewley and Nixon, married Pat Ryan on June 21, 1940, at the Mission Inn in Riverside. At the time she met Nixon, the future First Lady was teaching business courses at Whittier High School for $190 a month.