Today in American history…Richard and Pat Nixon were married on June 21, 1940 at the Mission Inn in Riverside, California.

In 1942, Richard Nixon received a commission in the U.S. Navy and was assigned to duty in the Pacific during World War II.

In later years when writing his personal memoirs, The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, he recalled the time spent serving overseas:

“Letters from home were the only thing we really had to look forward to, and I wrote to Pat every day during the fourteen months I was away.”

Thanksgiving Day, 1943

Dearest

On this day when I think of what I am most thankful for I have no difficulty whatever in finding the answer.

It is all wrapped up in you. Your letters which are so full of life and spirit that they never fail to lift me in every way.

Your thoughtfulness-doing things for me which I do not deserve-giving up things which would mean much to you.

Your intelligence-about which I never cease to marvel. Your creative ability which has contributed so much to our happiness. Your beauty-which is the result of all the other traits and which always makes me so proud.

Most of all dear one I am thankful that you still love me and that we have so much to look forward to-together. That we ever met at all was the first break for me-after that I loved you so much that we just had to belong to each other.

There can never be another like you.

Dick

The Nixon’s were married until Pat Nixon’s death on June 22, 1993. President Nixon passed away a few months later on April 22, 1994.

“I’ve been blessed with a wonderful husband, two caring daughters and sons-in-law, and four really special grandchildren. They have each enhanced my life.” – Pat Nixon