Orange County Gives Nixon Big Welcome Home

(Note: The following story was published with one picture taken by the author on the front page of the daily newspaper "The Orange County Evening News" on Friday, Jan. 3, 1969, under the headline "Sentimental Journey for Nixon" with a jump to page A-2. The story also was published on full-page spreads with five additional pictures taken by the author the next week in editions of the twice-weekly "Buena Park News," "La Mirada Lamplighter" and "Huntington Beach Independent" and the weekly "Anaheim-Fullerton Independent" under the headline "Orange County Gives Nixon Big Welcome Home.")

by Jim Drummond

Richard Nixon “came home” Thursday night to a two-hour evening of sentimental reminiscences about his early life in Orange County before more than 10,000 “friends and neighbors” crowded into Anaheim Convention Center.

The President-elect was greeted by former neighbors, teachers and friends, including the 92-year-old woman who acted as midwife at his birth 56 years ago in a small frame Yorba Linda home.

Nixon called the evening “one of the greatest moments in my life--and I’ve had many great moments to remember.” He said the program reminded him of his early roots, and, after hailing the importance of “small town America,” promised to work for peace in the world.

"I will not let my former neighbors and friends down as president,” he said.

Listening along with Nixon and his wife, Pat, to the stream of anecdotes about his early life were about 9,000 people in the convention center proper and several thousand others seated on the floor of the exhibition hall viewing on closed-circuit television.

Hundreds of others, seeing the long line circling the center to get in, left before the program began. Evidently, the various Orange County chambers of commerce sponsoring the event printed many more free tickets than they had seats.

First introduced by master of ceremonies Art Linkletter was Mrs. Ella Fernas, 92, who was the first to hold Nixon after his birth. She could only recall that “he cried a lot.”

Also introduced was the first person to give him a spanking and his first and second grade teacher.

Mrs. Cecil Pickering said she administered the licking on the future President’s bottom because “he was such a nuisance.”

Mrs. Ellen Cochran, who taught Nixon in both the first and second grades in a Yorba Linda schoolhouse, revealed she sat the President-elect “in the back of the class because I didn’t have to keep an eye on him.” She also related he was such a good student, “He skipped the second half of the year in the second grade.”

An early classmate of Nixon’s, Mrs. Yanika Iwatsuru, asked by Linkletter if Nixon had changed any, replied, “His nose is still the same.”

Providing the most laughter of the evening was Howard Sutherlin, a young 4-H member who presented the future first lady with a 4-H recognition plaque because she used to raise pigs, and the President-elect with an oil painting of his birthplace.

Sutherlin, at a loss for words, could only wave the Nixons forward so he could make the presentations.

Dr. H. Lynn Sheller, currently president of Fullerton Junior College, Nixon’s first speech teacher at Fullerton High School, recalled the President-elect’s early speech contests.

Sheller said that Nixon did not place during his first year, but then worked hard on his delivery and gestures, and took a first place the next year with a 10-minute oration on the Constitution.

Later, Nixon singled out Sheller as one of his “finest teachers.”

Many presentations were made to Nixon during the evening. Wallace (Chief) Newman, retired Whittier College football coach, presented his former third-string tackle with a varsity letter--something he never earned in college--and former teammates gave him the bench he sat on during the games.

Another presentation “for his use in the White House” was a desk Nixon made himself for his first law office in La Habra. The desk was brought out by Thomas Bewley, the man who hired Nixon for his first job out of college.

Bewley also noted that since Nixon had “never resigned, and the city council has never fired him, he still is an assistant city attorney of Whittier.” The future President, Bewley said, handled all the barking dog complaints.

Concluding the reminiscences was Dr. Paul Smith, president of Whittier College, who was Nixon’s history and political science teacher. Smith recalled he gave Nixon mostly A’s and that he told him he would be President some day, adding, however, that he told all his students that.

Nixon, in commenting on the nostalgia, said, “My grades improve every year I’m out of school,” and admitted to bad handwriting, even recalling that Mrs. Cochran had given him an “unsatisfactory” mark in the subject.

A large birthday cake was brought out after Nixon’s remarks and the audience joined in singing “Happy Birthday.” He was born Jan. 9, 1913.

Security for the Nixon appearance was tight, although photographers and others were allowed to approach within eight feet of the future President while he was speaking. Secret Service men, wearing green and yellow lapel pins, watched from positions 10 and 20 feet from him.

Secret Service, augmented by local police officers, searched the center completely before Nixon’s arrival and roped off about 300 seats directly above the platform on which he sat.

A novel life for best-selling Placentia romance writer

(Note: Slightly edited versions of this story were published in the June 17, 2004, editions of the Yorba Linda Star and the Placentia News-Times, weekly community newspapers published by the Orange County Register.)

by Jim Drummond

Best-selling romance writer Suzanne Enoch is settling into her new Placentia home on East Belfi Lane—thanks to advance payments from her publisher for her next two books.

Enoch says she’s “ended up about three miles from Valencia, my old high school, though back then the lot was squarely in the middle of a bunch of oil rigs. It looks much better now.”

“My mom set a rule that the kids aren’t allowed to move more than 10 miles from home base,” Enoch notes. “I get more home-cooked meals that way. My own specialty is frozen pizza.”

Enoch graduated from the Tiger campus in 1982 after an active four years as an honors student and editor of the award-winning school newspaper her senior year. She is the author of 12 historical romance novels and contributor to two anthologies.

Many of Enoch’s works have appeared on best-seller lists compiled by the New York Times, USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Waldenbooks.

Enoch’s first contemporary novel, “Flirting with Danger,” is due out in March 2005. “Everything I’ve published previously has been of the historical romance genre, but I’ve been wanting to try something different … kind of a romance/suspense/comedy/caper story,” she says.

Currently, during Placentia’s warm Spring days, Enoch is working on the sequel to “Flirting with Danger” as well as the second book in a new historical romance series, a follow-up to her next volume to hit the bookstores, in January 2005, “Sin and Sensibility.”

“I love being able to work in both genres, and so far Avon Books, my publisher, has been ultra supportive of my decision. Hopefully, I’ll be able to continue this way, doing one contemporary and one historical novel a year,” Enoch adds.

Avon is Enoch’s longtime publisher, dating back to her first two traditional Regencies, “The Black Duke’s Prize” and “Angel’s Devil” in the mid-1990s. She also wrote two Regency historicals, “Lady Rogue” and “Stolen Kisses,” before embarking on three sets of series novels.

Enoch’s first two romances to use continuing characters were “By Love Undone” and “Taming Rafe” in “The Bancroft Brothers” series. She followed that pair with “Reforming a Rake,” “Meet Me at Midnight” and “A Matter of Scandal in the “With This Ring” series.

Her latest series, “Lessons in Love,” contains her three most popular books, “The Rake,” “London’s Perfect Scoundrel” and “London’s Perfect Hero.” Enoch thinks “Hero,” released in March, might soon overtake “Scoundrel” as her best-selling title to date.

“I always hope that the sales numbers and print runs will increase with each subsequent book,” Enoch says. “If it ever starts going in the other direction, I’ll be in trouble.”

Enoch says she just learned that “Scoundrel” is a finalist in a prestigious Romance Writers of America competition. She’ll travel to Dallas in July for the conference and awards ceremony.

Enoch has worked with three other respected romance writers on two anthologies, “The Further Observations of Lady Whistledown” and the new “Lady Whistledown Strikes Back.” Her co-authors are romance doyenne Julia Quinn, Karen Hawkins and Mia Ryan.

“Both of these anthologies have gotten a lot of attention because they’re different than anything that’s been done before,” according to Enoch. “Most anthologies contain stories with similar themes, but these feature four stories that take place concurrently.”

“The various characters make appearances in all of the stories and attend the same balls and dinners and events,” Enoch says, adding, “It wouldn’t have been possible to do without the Internet and a lot of e-mails.”

While many of Enoch’s earlier efforts are now out-of-print, the volumes often enjoy spirited bidding on various auction sites, including E-bay. A single paperback copy of her first book—rarely available—has been priced at close to $200 on a site specializing in used books.

Also sometimes seen on the Internet are foreign language editions of her works. So far, Enoch has been translated into Russian, Korean, Swedish, Polish, Norwegian and German.

Some of Enoch’s foreign language covers are pictured on her fun and colorful Web site at www.suzanneenoch.com. The site was created and is maintained by Enoch’s brother-in-law, Mark Byrne, a sergeant and 27-year veteran with the Garden Grove Police Department.

The site also contains the first chapter of each Enoch book, reviews from professional critics and comments from readers. A Romantic Times Magazine reviewer compares Enoch’s witty dialogue with that in “Emma,” written by one of Enoch’s favorite authors, Jane Austen.

Enoch’s two sisters and parents are very supportive of her now full-time writing career.

Sister Cheryl Byrne, who lives in Yorba Linda, takes photographs for Enoch’s book covers and Web site. Youngest sister Nancy Enoch, who lives in Anaheim, teaches the author’s future readers at the Farm School on the University of California, Irvine, campus.

“Both of my sisters are my unofficial editors, always willing to read chapters and give their opinions,” Enoch says. “And they don’t hold back, which is exactly what I need.”

Enoch’s father Lee retired as a contract administrator at Rockwell after 35 years. Her mother Joan was a librarian at Orchard, Tynes and Travis Ranch schools.

Enoch’s mother remembers her daughter’s years at McFadden Elementary and Kraemer Junior High: “She always had a lively imagination. She, her sisters and any of the neighborhood children they could drag in put together plays, which they performed for anyone who was willing to watch.”

“As soon as Suzie was able to write and compose sentences, she started writing stories … and she continued right through high school,” Joan Enoch says. “Suzie’s first love as a young adult was writing fantasy and science fiction. She also tried her hand at writing TV and movie scripts.”

“She didn’t do anything with these stories but still has them filed away for a ‘maybe someday’ revision,” her mother says. Enoch sent her first romance manuscript unsolicited to New York literary agent Nancy Yost, who liked her work and helped her get it published.

Enoch notes, “I’ve been saying I wanted to grow up and be a writer since I was six. My parents never laughed at me, never encouraged me to go after a different career and always supported everything that I attempted.”

Enoch says her parents paid her tuition at UC Irvine, where she majored in English, and “they allowed me to live at home for longer than most offspring do, rent free, so I could save money and afford to write and to eventually move into my own place.”

"While my writing career is definitely beginning to become profitable, it’s always been a family effort. I can truly say that I couldn’t have done it without them,” Enoch adds.

The only other published writer in Enoch’s family was her great-grandfather Vivian Whitlock, a cowboy who worked ranches in New Mexico and west Texas. He wrote a weekly column for the Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise newspaper, and the University of Oklahoma published his book, “Cowboy Life on the Llano Estacado.”

Although Enoch enjoys corresponding with her fans through her Web site, she usually holds only one signing for each of her books. Fortunately for her local readers, the sessions are at Waldenbooks in the Brea Mall, where readers can greet the author and meet her entire family.

The latest addition to the family is Enoch’s nephew Jackson Byrne. He’s attended every Enoch signing since his birth and delights in a special playroom in his aunt’s new Placentia home.