By Lindy Cummings, Tryon Palace
April 19, 1972, dawned on the slightly chilly side, but daytime temperatures promised to be in the mid-80s, with no threat of precipitation. It was a perfect spring day in New Bern, North Carolina, to open the newest part of the Tryon Palace Complex: The John Wright Stanly House. And none other than the First Lady of the United States, Patricia R. Nixon, was there to cut the ribbon.
Pat Nixon was fresh off a significant foreign policy moment: her husband Richard’s February 1972 presidential visit to the People’s Republic of China. Pat had accompanied him. Just days before arriving in New Bern, she welcomed at Washington’s National Zoo two panda bears, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, personal gifts to her from PRC Premier Zhou Enlai.
But for May and John Kellenberger, no foreign policy triumph could top Pat’s task at hand. They met the First Lady and her entourage when they landed at Cherry Point. Together they traveled to New Bern, where at 11 o’clock a.m. North Carolina state dignitaries, the public, and reporters gathered around the rear porch as the crisp notes of the Second Marine Aircraft Wing Band floated on the spring breeze.
Mrs. Kellenberger introduced the First Lady. Pat spoke warmly and extemporaneously. The ribbon was snipped. Ushered into the center hall with its striking transverse arch and delicately carved stair brackets, Pat declared, “Oh, this is just magnificent!” After viewing the Stanly House, Pat toured the Palace.
But how had the wife of a sitting U.S. president come to grace the Palace with her presence? The Stanly Garden, designed by Richard K. Weber, had been entered into a Nurserymen’s Association contest and won the Judges’ Award. The October 1971 ceremony took place on the White House grounds and Pat Nixon attended. May Gordon Kellenberger remarked afterward, “Mrs. Nixon is definitely interested in the Stanly House and Gardens.” It probably also helped that interior designer Edward V. Jones was working on both Stanly and the White House.
And what did Pat think of her visit to the Palace? Unfortunately for us, we’ll have to wait a bit longer. Pat Nixon’s personal papers are still being processed by the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.
Endnotes
1 Climatological Data for New Bern Area, NC (ThreadEx) – April 1972 Climate (weather.gov); accessed April 6, 2022.
2 50th Anniversary of Richard and Pat Nixon’s Historic Visit to China | Richard Nixon Museum and Library (nixonlibrary.gov); accessed April 6, 2022.
3 Blackwell P. Robinson, Three Decades of Devotion. The Tryon Palace Commission 1945-1975 (New Bern, North Carolina: The Tryon Palace Commission, 1978), 297.
4 Robinson, Three Decades, 298-299.
5 Tryon Palace Commission Meeting Minutes, October 28, 1971, Volume 9, 252.