By some accounts “Tricia” Nixon was the most beautiful of all White House brides. She was featured alone as the cover story for Life magazine, not once, but twice. By January, 1971 the public was fascinated by her romance with Edward Finch Cox, a young Harvard law student who had once worked with consumer activist, Ralph Nader, and had written for the liberal New Republic.
Tricia Nixon and Ed Cox seemed to come from opposite social and political polls. The young Mr. Cox could trace his lineage back to a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His parents were “society pedigrees” who spent their summers at a Long Island estate that had been in the family for six generations. Richard Nixon was already a lightning rod of the media. He had once defended himself from charges of using a private fund for personal reasons by showcasing his modest, politician’s lifestyle, and saying that his wife could not boast a mink coat, but owned a “respectable Republican cloth coat.”
Tricia and Ed had been seen together for years. Ed had been one of her escorts at the International Debutant Ball in 1964. And even after Nixon had won the presidency, Tricia would occasionally visit him on campus, the ubiquitous secret service painfully stirring up a cloud of dust and attention wherever she went. Actually, the two young people had much in common. Ed was described as “aloof and private.” Tricia, who often avoided White House events, was described by her popular younger sister, Julie, as “the Howard Hughes of the White House.”
A twenty-year-old Julie Nixon had married Dwight David Eisenhower II, grandson of the president, in a small, private ceremony in New York at the Marble Collegiate Presbyterian Church, the ceremony conducted by America’s preacher, bestselling author Rev. Norman Vincent Peale. The event had taken place on December 22, 1968, only weeks after Nixon had won the presidency. The alliance of two political dynasties, Nixon and Eisenhower, fascinated the nation. It was assumed that should older sister Tricia marry, the event would reflect her more understated tastes, as well.
Surprisingly, the very private Tricia chose a large White House wedding with a guest list of four hundred. First Lady Pat Nixon suggested having the event in the Rose Garden, but the date had been set for June 12, 1971. Almost immediately there were internal objections and concerns. Tricia and the First Lady were told that there were very good reasons why no wedding had ever taken place in the beautiful and spacious Rose Garden. The summer weather in Washington was unpredictable, with rain one day out of three. White House servants and some staffers, aware of the history of such events, were convinced that the strain of such odds would be unbearable. It would require the planning of two weddings, not one, for the backup event could not be any less glorious than the Rose Garden ceremony Tricia desired.
Priscilla Kidder of Boston, “the doyenne of bridal outfitting,” designed and made the dress as she had done for Luci Johnson and Julie Nixon. White House pastry chef Heinz Bender produced a three hundred fifty pound, cantilevered cake that was dismissed by some pompous food critics as a “lemony, sweetish nonentity.”
There was intermittent rain the morning of the wedding. The president asked for the latest Air Force weather report, learning that there would be a break in the clouds around four thirty. Tricia was asked to give the go ahead or steer the guests to the East Room. She held to Plan A and the Rose Garden. Right on schedule, the sun obediently broke through the clouds, plastic coverings were removed from the chairs and Tricia Nixon’s Rose Garden wedding ceremony went forward as an unqualified triumph.
There was dancing in the East Room afterward, with the Marine Band breaking into “Lara’s Theme” from Dr. Zhivago. The ongoing Vietnam War left a number of ladies without husbands. Tricia’s sister, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, was without her husband, David. Lynda Bird Johnson was seen standing alone.
Eighty-seven-year-old Alice Roosevelt was on hand, complaining that her seat had still been wet. In some respects her wedding continued to hover over all that had followed. Most subsequent White House weddings now called for a sword to cut the cake, as if reaching back to recapture what had been a spontaneous and magic moment of history. Nellie Wilson was contacted by a silk manufacturing company sending her samples, promising to name a color after her, but Alice Roosevelt had long ago “pre-empted my beloved blue, so I chose a lovely flame-color.” It was called “Nell Rose,” but it did not catch on like “Alice Blue.” Talking about the Nixon girls Alice would later offer one of her more biting comments. She said she liked “Julie better than Tricia. I’ve never been able to get on with Tricia. She seems rather pathetic, doesn’t she? I wonder what’s wrong with her?” The past chairman of the White House Conference on Presidential Children has pointed out that there were often deep reasons and issues behind the famous quips of Alice Roosevelt. Sitting in her damp seat in the Rose Garden, her glorious moment largely forgotten and her famous father now covered over by so many layers of important personalities and issues, Alice Roosevelt may have only been lashing out at the one White House bride whose beauty had transcended her own.
The day after the wedding, with Ed Cox and Tricia Nixon off to Camp David for their honeymoon, The New York Times broke a story on the Pentagon Papers. It would be the beginning of a long ordeal for the family and the Nixon White House, with the president resigning his office three years later. The marriages of the two Nixon daughters have both endured and both women lived to see their father win back some measure of renewed respect as an author and retired American statesman before his death in 1994.
President Nixon and Tricia. It was the only Rose Garden Wedding.
(Photo courtesy: Library of Congress; Text excepts from Doug Wead's New York Times best seller, All The President's Children.)
Doug Wead is a respected presidential historian and New York Times bestselling author. He has been an advisor to two presidents and served on senior staff at the White House of George Herbert Walker Bush. Recent titles include The Raising of a President: the Mothers and Fathers of Our Nation’s Leaders.
