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"I worked my way through college and to a great extent through law school. And then, in 1940, probably the best thing that ever happened to me happened. I married Pat, who is sitting over here." The TV camera followed Nixon's cue, turned for the first time to Pat, sitting in profile with her eyes on her husband. "I practiced law," said Nixon as the camera picked him up again, "and she continued to teach school."
Package from Texas. Then, while he served with the Navy in the South Pacific, his wife worked as a stenographer, he said. Their joint savings at the end of the war were "just a little less than $10,000." Since then, he and Pat have inherited about $4,500; he has drawn $1,600 from cases which were in his law firm before he went into politics (but not a cent from subsequent legal business). He has made an average of $1,500 a year "from non-political speaking engagements and lectures." And he has had his salary as a Representative and Senator ($12,500).
"What do we have today to show for it? This will surprise you because it is so little . . . We've got a house in Washington which cost $41,000 and on which we owe $20,000. We have a house in Whittier, Calif, which cost $13,000, and on which we owe $10,000. My folks are living there at the present time. I have just $4,000 in life insurance, plus my G.I. policy, which I've never been able to convert and which will run out in two years ... I own a 1950 Oldsmobile car. We have our furniture. We have no stocks and bonds of any type. We have no interest of any kind, direct or indirect in any business. I owe $4,500 to the Riggs Bank in Washington ... I owe $3,500 to my parents . . . and then I have a $500 loan ... on my life insurance."
Nixon had one postscript to his accounting. "One other thing I probably should tell you, because if I don't they'll probably be saying this about me too—we did get something, a gift, after the election. A man down in Texas heard Pat on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog, and believe it or not, the day before we left on this campaign trip, we got a message from the Union Station, in Baltimore, saying they had a package for us ... It was a little cocker spaniel dog . . . and our little girl Tricia, the six-year-old, named it Checkers. And you know the kids . . . love the dog, and . . . regardless of what they say about it, we're going to keep it."