Thelma Catherine (Patricia) Ryan Nixon
(1912-1993)

LINKS ON THIS PAGE
Background
Selected Achievements
Cancer and Leading Causes of Death
Tips to Reduce Your Risk for Lung Cancer
Related Links

Background

Born in Ely, Nevada on March 16, 1912 as Thelma Catherine Ryan, "Patricia" grew to be one of America’s most admired women. She had many responsibilities as a teenager. She cared for her father and brothers when her mother died in 1925. Several years later, her father died, leaving her in charge of the family at the age of 18. After graduating from high school, she attended Fullerton Junior College until she moved to New York. Two years later, she returned to California and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in merchandising from the University of Southern California.

After college, Patricia taught at Whittier High School, where she met Richard Nixon in 1937. They married on June 21, 1940 in a Quaker ceremony in Riverside, California.

Patricia Ryan Nixon served as First Lady from 1969 to 1974. She accompanied her husband to over 50 countries, visited hospitals, and was a life-long humanitarian. Mrs. Nixon died on June 22, 1993 from lung cancer.

Selected Achievements

• Organized the "Right to Read" program to promote literacy
• Arranged the first White House tours for the visually- and hearing-impaired
• Championed volunteerism
• Received the Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun (Peru’s highest honor) for flying supplies gathered by volunteers to victims of an earthquake in Peru (She was the first North American woman to obtain this award.)

Cancer and Leading Causes of Death

Mrs. Nixon died of lung cancer in 1993. At that time, cancer was, and still is, the second leading cause of death in the United States. In 2001, 553,768 people died of cancer in the United States. Among women, breast cancer is the leading cancer, and lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death.

Tips to Reduce Your Risk for Cancer

• Be smoke-free.
  http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/how2quit.htm*
  To reduce your risk for lung cancer, stroke, heart disease, and reproductive health problems, don’t smoke or use other tobacco products. Tobacco smoking is thought to be responsible for 8 out of 10 cases of lung cancer.
   
• Reduce your exposure to second-hand smoke.
  http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/ETS_Toolkit/index.htm*
  Nonsmokers suffer many of the diseases of active smoking when they breathe second-hand smoke, which contains at least 250 chemicals known to be toxic or cause cancer. Reducing second-hand smoke exposure will reduce second-hand smoke-related illnesses and deaths among nonsmokers.
   
• See your health care provider.
  Talk with your health care provider if you have a family history of or risk factors for cancer. If you smoke, discuss different options to help you quit. Seek medical attention if you experience any of the following symptoms: a cough that does not go away; shortness of breath; weight loss; and/or loss of appetite.

Related Links

Can Lung Cancer Be Found Early?*
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_3X_Can_lung_cancer_
be_found_early_26.asp?sitearea= (Non-CDC site)

Deaths: Leading Causes for 2001*
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr52/nvsr52_03.pdf

Guide to Community Preventive Services: Tobacco*
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/research_data/environmental/
MMWR_rr4912_factsheet.htm

New Report on Declining Cancer Incidence and Death Rates: Report Shows Progress in Controlling Cancer*
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/98news/cancer.htm

Patricia Nixon, Wife of Former President, Dies at 81*
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V113/N29/nixon.29w.html (Non-CDC site)

Patricia Ryan Nixon*
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/pn37.html (Non-CDC site)

U.S. Cancer Statistics- 2000 Incidence Report: Report Facts and Major Findings*
http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/npcr/uscs/2000/users_guide/facts.htm

Women and Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr/sgr_forwomen/ataglance.htm

*Used as a source for this Web page.