In a bitter showdown over their father’s legacy, the two daughters of the late President Richard Nixon are battling in court over a $12 million bequest from Nixon’s longtime friend Bebe Rebozo.
The dispute grows out of the sisters’ sharply divergent views on whether the Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation should be operated by the family or by an independent board of directors.
Until now, Julie Nixon Eisenhower’s vision has prevailed, with the Yorba Linda, Calif., library–and its assets–overseen by a 22-member board that includes the sisters and such former Nixon White House figures as Henry Kissinger.
But terms of Rebozo’s $12 million bequest have given Tricia Nixon Cox an opening to try to wrest control of the money from the board.
In lawsuits filed in Orange County, Calif., and in Miami earlier this year, the Nixon Foundation seeks to head off Cox and oust her from a three-person board that Rebozo’s will established to oversee the bequest.
The dispute dates from a struggle between the sisters after Nixon’s death over how much control the family should have over the foundation.
“In 1997, Mrs. Eisenhower went down one road and Mrs. Cox went down the other,” said John H. Taylor, executive director of the Nixon library.
Another director–and Eisenhower ally–was more blunt: “There’s a complete estrangement between the sisters.”
The sisters could not be reached for comment.
The court filings are an attempt by the foundation to break the deadlock between the sisters by pushing Cox aside.
“We’re essentially asking the Rebozo trust in Miami to go ahead and send us the money, and asking an Orange County court to … give us instructions on how to spend the money,” Taylor said.
At the time of Nixon’s death in 1994, the foundation was loosely overseen by a group of six Nixon friends. The group decided after Nixon’s death that the foundation needed a more formalized board structure.
Cox and her husband, lawyer Edward Cox, lobbied for a board that would be controlled by the Nixon family; Eisenhower aligned herself with those who sought a more independent board. Eisenhower prevailed.
When Rebozo died four years ago, he left $12 million to the Nixon Library under the caveat that all expenditures be approved by Nixon’s daughters and another longtime Nixon friend, Robert Abplanalp. But the sisters have been unable to agree on how the money should be controlled.
