Richard Nixon

             Nixon journey to the White House began in a small, musty corner in Southern California called Yorba Linda. He was born there on January 9th, 1913, the second of five sons of Frank Anthony Nixon and Hannah Milhous Nixon. The Nixon's were Scot-Irish and the Milhous's of Irish English decent were members of the Quakers. His parents named him Richard after the Richard the Lionhearted. The family name Nixon means "he faileth not" in Gaelic, and Richard Nixon would spend a good portion of his life trying to live up to that name.
             Richard childhood was not an easy one by any means. He was born 1 year after his father had purchased his lemon grove, which did not turn out to be a great investment. Consequently Richard spent his childhood in poverty. His parents were very frugal with their money, they had to be raising 5 children. All total, there were five children: Harold was born on June 1st, 1909, and died on March 7th, 1933, when Richard was twenty years old. Richard was the second Nixon brother, born on January 9th, 1913. His brother Donald was born on November 23rd, 1914, and died on June 27th, 1987. Arthur Nixon was born on May 26th, 1918, and died on August 19th, 1925, when Richard was a mere twelve years old. His youngest brother, Edward, was born on May 3rd, 1930. All the Nixon's were known as extremely hard workers, they never went to a restaurant or took vacations. This early training became the foundation of Richard Nixon's personal discipline, a characteristic that would later enable him to push himself beyond ordinary limits during political campaigns.
             Richard Nixon attended public school in Whittier, California, and went to the a Whittier College, a Quaker institution, where he majored in history. He had won a scholarship to Duke University Law School which he attended and received his law degree in 1937. Nixon then joined a well-known law firm in Whittier where he then met his future wife, Thelma Ryan, they married on June 21, 1940.