Hannah Milhous Nixon

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Hannah Milhous Nixon
Born
Hannah Elizabeth Milhous

(1885-03-07)March 7, 1885
DiedSeptember 30, 1967(1967-09-30) (aged 82)
Spouse
(m. 1908; died 1956)
Children
Relatives

Hannah Elizabeth Milhous Nixon (March 7, 1885 – September 30, 1967) was the mother of U.S. president Richard Nixon.

Richard described his mother as "a Quaker saint".[2] On May 9, 1970 (Richard Nixon's visit to the Lincoln Memorial), he insisted on stopping at the United States Capitol, where he took his former seat in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives and instructed his valet Manolo Sanchez to make a speech.[3][4] Sanchez spoke of his pride in being a citizen of the United States and Richard and some female cleaners who were present applauded. One of the women present, Carrie Moore, asked Richard to sign her bible, which he did, and holding her hand told her that his mother "was a saint" and "you be a saint too".[5]

Hannah Nixon is acknowledged to have exerted a tremendous effect on her son's outlook throughout his life.[6] In Richard's final remarks at the White House on August 9, 1974, he said, "Nobody will ever write a book, probably, about my mother. Well, I guess all of you would say this about your mother – my mother was a saint. And I think of her, two boys dying of tuberculosis, nursing four others in order that she could take care of my older brother for three years in Arizona, and seeing each of them die, and when they died, it was like one of her own. Yes, she will have no books written about her. But she was a saint."[7]

Early life[edit]

She was born Hannah Elizabeth Milhous near Butlerville, Indiana, the daughter of Almira Park (née Burdg; 1849–1943), who was from Columbiana County, Ohio, and Franklin Milhous (1848–1919), a native of Colerain Township, Belmont County, Ohio.[8]

Family[edit]

She was married to Francis A. Nixon and had five sons:[2]

In popular culture[edit]

Mary Steenburgen portrayed Hannah Nixon in the 1995 Oliver Stone film Nixon.[9]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "The Nixon Family". Nixon Library and Museum. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013. Retrieved May 31, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c Nixon Fun Facts via Nixon Foundation.
  3. ^ Appy, Christian (2016). American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity. Penguin Publishing Group. p. 199. ISBN 978-0-14-312834-2.
  4. ^ "Nixon's Weirdest Day". WETA. April 23, 2015. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
  5. ^ Evan Thomas (June 16, 2015). Being Nixon: A Man Divided. Random House Publishing Group. p. 279. ISBN 978-0-8129-9537-4.
  6. ^ "Richard M. Nixon". Encyclopædia Britannica
  7. ^ "AllPolitics – President Richard Nixon's Final Remarks At The White House". CNN. August 9, 1974. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
  8. ^ [1] Archived April 16, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Linville, Susan E. (June 1, 2004). History Films, Women, and Freud's Uncanny. University of Texas Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-292-70269-1.
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Rebekah Baines
Mother of the President of the United States
Posthumous

January 20, 1969 – August 9, 1974
Succeeded by