Standing Pat Nixon on Her Head

When Kate Ryan died in Ely, Nev., in 1928, her only daughter, Thelma, was just 14. Thelma—who would change her name to Pat after high school—was devastated. But when she met a group of her friends after the funeral, she said simply: "Wasn't she beautiful?" The incident is related by Julie Nixon Eisenhower in her biography of her mother, "Pat Nixon: The Untold Story."