Video: 'The Marriage of Patricia Nixon and Edward Finch Cox'

(Saturday, June 12, 1971, 4:48 p.m. EDT) — After a tension-filled delay because of rain, Tricia Nixon was married today in the Rose Garden of the White House to attorney Edward Finch Cox, 24, the man she has described as “my first and last love.”

When the rain let up, the President’s diminutive, ethereal blond daughter, who turned 25 years old last February, finally walked down the curving staircase of the columned South Portico on her father’s arm for the first outdoor wedding in the 171-year history of the mansion.

Less than half an hour later, the processional, 10-minute religious service and recessional were over. The Rev. Edward G. Latch, chaplain of the House of Representatives, performed the ceremony in a dainty white garden pavilion covered with flowers and greens just outside the President’s West Wing office suite.

The marriage followed one of the longest and most secretive courtships in White House annals, spanning seven years.

The bridegroom, tall, fine-boned and handsome, is the scion of Easterners whose ancestors go back to the leaders of the American Revolution.