RICHARD NIXON: 1913-1994 : ORANGE COUNTY REMEMBERS : Where Richard Nixon Left His Mark

Former President Richard Nixon was Yorba Linda’s native son. He spent time in many Orange County cities before, during and after his White House years. A look at “Nixon Country” and what he and others said about his Orange County years:

YORBA LINDA

Quotable: “In the daytime I could see the smoke from the steam engines. Sometimes at night I was awakened by the whistle of a train, and then I dreamed of the far-off places I wanted to visit someday.”

--Nixon, from “The Memoirs of Richard Nixon”

Quotable: “We will always call him Richard because one day his mother, Mrs. Hannah Nixon, came to school for something ... and said, ‘By the way, Miss George, please call my son Richard and never Dick.’ ”

--Mary George Skidmore, Nixon’s first-grade teacher at Yorba Linda Elementary School

* Nixon presidential library opened July, 1990.

Quotable: “Today, the battle I started to wage in 1946 when I first ran for Congress is not over. I still have a few rounds to go.”

--Nixon, from “In the Arena”

SEAL BEACH

* He played in the ocean during childhood years. On one occasion, the family took Nixon’s Uncle Lyle, who had visited them, by bus from Ohio, to swim here.

Quotable: “He did not have a swimsuit, and so we had to rent one from a concession stand at Seal Beach. The only one we could get that fit him was an old-fashioned, grotesque-looking knee-length model. . . . I was somewhat embarrassed when other people on the beach laughed at him.”

--Nixon, from “In the Arena”

FULLERTON

* Attended Fullerton High School as a freshman and sophomore, 1926 to 1928.

Quotable: “I vividly recall ... when Miss Ernsberger gave our geometry class a difficult problem and told us that anyone who solved it would get an A in the course. I started to work on it at 9 o’clock at night at the table in the kitchen. It was a bitterly cold night, and I kept warm by lighting the fire in the gas oven and leaving the door open. Right after my mother came down to bake pies for the store at four in the morning, I got the answer. After that I never thought there was a problem I couldn’t solve, if I worked hard and long enough.”

--Nixon, from “In the Arena”

LA HABRA

* Practiced law, 1939-1942. By 1941, Nixon was president of the Orange County Assn. of Cities.

DANA POINT

* Proposed to Thelma Catherine (Pat) Ryan, 1940.

Quotable: “When Pat Ryan finally said yes at the edge of Dana Point, sitting in an open car in the starlight with the sound of waves breaking below, she knew she was in love. She loved Dick’s romantic nature, which had brought them to Dana Point, and his visions of a great future.”

--Julie Nixon Eisenhower, from “Pat Nixon: The Untold Story”

CORONA DEL MAR

* Dined at the city’s Five Crowns Restaurant in 1969.

Quotable: “We had 20 minutes’ warning. A White House staffer called and ordered a little alcove for five people, and I said, ‘You’re kidding.’ I didn’t really believe it until the police pulled up out front.”

--Manager John Ondyke, in 1969

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

* Dined at the El Adobe de Capistrano in Old San Juan.

TRABUCO CANYON

* Nixon dined and even had his necktie snipped off at the Trabuco Oaks Steak House.

Quotable: “He came out to the restaurant two or three times for dinner. He not only liked the food, but he and the Secret Service loved the back room because it had no windows and was private.”

--Steve Nordeck, who bought the restaurant in 1987

ORANGE

* In 1984, Nixon addressed more than 3,000 people at the Hutton Sports Center at Chapman College in Orange, speaking on foreign policy.

Quotable: “Students here are 20, 21, 18 and 19, and Nixon was before our time. Now we’re getting a taste of what we missed--the opportunity to be directly involved with a former President. We think it’s a big deal to have him come here. We feel it sort of sets a mark as far as where Chapman stands in the community, even though Nixon isn’t exactly everyone’s favorite fellow.”

--Student Dan Bowen, then 19

ANAHEIM

* In 1959, Vice President Nixon and family opened the monorail with Walt Disney in Disneyland.

* Nixon was a baseball fan and friend of Angels owner Gene Autry.

Quotable: “Gene was good friends with Richard Nixon who was an American League fan from his days in Washington when he followed the Senators. Anaheim Stadium was reasonably close to Nixon’s home in San Clemente, so he would come to our games and sit up in Gene Autry’s private box. On occasion Nixon would come down to the clubhouse and visit and talk baseball.”

--From “Throwing Heat: The Autobiography of Nolan Ryan”

* A $100-a-plate fund-raising dinner preceded a major campaign rally at the Anaheim Convention Center in September, 1968. Then Nixon returned to the stadium directly after his election for a homecoming celebration Jan. 2, 1969. Two years later, he came back to campaign for Republicans in the mid-term elections.

MONARCH BAY

* In 1977, David Frost interviewed Nixon from the home of Harold and Martha Smith. In discussing Watergate, Nixon said that it might be correct for a President to break the law if he did so in the national interest.

Quotable: “I let down my friends. I let down the country. I let down our system of government and the dreams of all these young people that ought to get into government but think it’s too corrupt. . . . I let the American people down, and I have to carry that burden with me for the rest of my life.”

--Nixon, in Frost interview

NEWPORT BEACH

* After his resignation, he made his first public appearance at the Newport Beach Marriott on July 4, 1976.

EL TORO AIR STATION

* Flew to El Toro after resigning as President on Aug. 9, 1974.

Quotable: “As our plane circled the El Toro Marine Base on the afternoon of Aug. 9, I could see hundreds of cars lined up, trying to get into the already overflowing parking area. I had not thought I could find the energy to make another speech that day, but I managed to thank them for welcoming us home, and I vowed to continue to fight for the great causes of peace, freedom and opportunity.”

--Nixon, from “In the Arena”

SAN CLEMENTE

* While President, Nixon established the Western White House at La Casa Pacifica. He sometimes walked the beach below wearing a coat, tie and wingtips, and often entertained world leaders inside.

* When the Watergate scandal drove him from office, Nixon and his wife, Pat, retreated to La Casa Pacifica, and lived there for more than a decade before moving to the New York City area.

* While John Wayne was going through his final battle with cancer, he visited Nixon in San Clemente for lunch.

Quotable: “When I went to mix a martini for him, I could not find the vermouth. So I just put a good slug of gin on the rocks, added a twist of lemon, and served it to him myself. I can still remember the delight in his eyes after he took a sip and said in his gravelly voice, ‘My, that’s good.’ ”

--Nixon, from “In the Arena”

Researched by LEE ROMNEY and JODI WILGOREN / Los Angeles Times