With a statue of Pat Nixon, hands clasped behind her back, seemingly watching over the proceedings, a freeway sign that will mark a stretch of the 91 Freeway in her honor was unveiled Thursday, March 16.
The morning ceremony was hosted at Pat Nixon Park in Cerritos, where the former first lady’s childhood home once stood. The new stretch of “First Lady Pat Nixon Memorial Highway” includes the exit off the freeway to her park. It goes from Carmenita Road to Pioneer Boulevard.
A stretch of Route 90, also known as Imperial Highway, was previously named for President Richard Nixon in Yorba Linda near his presidential library.
“We’ve been working on this for more than a year now to make this happen,” Joe Lopez, spokesman for the Nixon Foundation, said. The state legislature has to approve highway designations and Lopez said Bob Archuleta, D-Pico Rivera, played a key role in the process.
The timing of the unveiling coincided with what would have been Nixon’s 111th birthday. The Nixon Presidential Library & Museum also held its annual Pat Nixon Day of Service on Thursday, featuring representatives from charities and volunteer organizations she was involved with, which community members could learn more about helping.
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