2 Famous First Ladies Take a Bow at Library

Politics took a theatrical turn Thursday at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace.

In her first Orange County performance, actress Kay Kuhlmann gave a one-woman show in which she portrayed former first ladies Mamie Eisenhower and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

The show, part entertainment and part education, was meant to give insight into the private lives of two modern first ladies.

Dressed in a pink chiffon dress, high heels, a pillbox hat and gloves as Mamie Eisenhower, Kuhlmann reflected on the life of a military wife and later a first lady.

As Jacqueline Kennedy, Kuhlmann reduced her voice to a whisper as she recounted the tragedies that befell her husband’s family.

Though very different personas, the two women had one thing in common, the actress said: a fondness for Richard Nixon.

Mamie Eisenhower, who described herself as apolitical, gave her husband very little advice during his tenure as president, according to Kuhlmann’s dramatization. One exception was to implore him not to drop Richard Nixon as his running mate in his second bid for president.

As Kennedy, Kuhlmann recalled the unusual friendship that developed between John F. Kennedy and Nixon despite sharp political differences and a bitter campaign for the presidency in 1960.

Kuhlmann gave up a job as an investigator for the U.S. Department of Labor seven years ago when she began acting. As a member of a theater company that specializes in dramatizations of historic American personalities, Kuhlmann has performed across the nation.

“First ladies are perennially popular,” she said.